How Long Does It Take Heat To Damage Plants?

[mancin]

I went to feed my fish the other day and noticed the water was a bit warm. I scoop out a bit of water and soak Cichlid pellets for them, so that's how I got my finger in the water. Boy was I glad I fed those that day instead of frozen brine shrimp! I checked the tank temperature and it was up to 88 degrees and the heater was still ON! This was on my lunch hour, so I took an extended lunch and did an emergency water change to bring the temp down. Left the heater off, bought a new one after work, and now everything is back to normal.

I'm so thankful I didn't lose any fish, but I'm wondering what kind of damage this may have done to my plants? Out of the blue, a couple of the leaves on the Amazon Swords are starting to look transparent. They had been doing just fine up until this heat wave happened. I'm not sure how long the temperature was that high. At minimum it was about 10 - 12 hours, but maybe even 24 hours. I didn't notice the temperature being outrageous the day before, so I'm thinking it was at most 24 hours.

Thoughts?

 

[aaronnorth]

higher temperatures means plants photosynthesise quicker, so the demand for nutrients will rise hence the transparent leaves, just cut them off and you shouldnt experience any more problems

 

[mancin]

Thanks Aaron.

 

[mancin]

OK so I had to trim quite a few of the leaves on the Swords. The plants are not as full as they were before, but the remaining leaves do look good. The reason I'm bringing this post back up is my Crypts have started melting over the past couple of days. Could it really be from the heat spike 2 weeks ago, or something else? I haven't changed anything with my maintenance. I'm wondering if I should just cut the leaves off and start over.

 

[aaronnorth]

crypts can be funny at times, even a change in CO2 or fertiliser could cause crypt melt.
Cut them off as they rot, or some people cut them all off back to the stump

 

[mancin]

Thanks again Aaron. It seems to be 2 of the Crypts. The rest of them are fine. I'll go ahead and cut them back. They just grow soooo painfully slow in this tank. I guess better slow growth than rotten plants though!