Anubias turning brown

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

BlazedSaint

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
353
Location
Flanagan IL
what has two thumbs and alot of dumb questions about fish tanks..........this guy, so heres another dumb question. in my 29 gallon bio cube i plants 3 anubias barteli(spelling error im sure) and 1 anubias congress(spelling error yet again im very sure) a few hours later the tips of the leaves started turning brown and like melting away, i woke up this morning and a few of the leaves are darker but not much has gotten worse, with that said are they dying or are they getting settled in? and if they are dying how can i help them live
 
what has two thumbs and alot of dumb questions about fish tanks..........this guy, so heres another dumb question. in my 29 gallon bio cube i plants 3 anubias barteli(spelling error im sure) and 1 anubias congress(spelling error yet again im very sure) a few hours later the tips of the leaves started turning brown and like melting away, i woke up this morning and a few of the leaves are darker but not much has gotten worse, with that said are they dying or are they getting settled in? and if they are dying how can i help them live

Did you by any chance change the bulbs that came with the biocube?
 
Did you by any chance change the bulbs that came with the biocube?

i have no idea lol its one of my dads tanks, he upgraded and gave me this one, i do know he was using the lights to grow coral, it has like 2 light(not counting the "moon Light") its got like a soft white light and a blue uv light i think.to be honest this is my first tank and i have very little idea
 
i have no idea lol its one of my dads tanks, he upgraded and gave me this one, i do know he was using the lights to grow coral, it has like 2 light(not counting the "moon Light") its got like a soft white light and a blue uv light i think.to be honest this is my first tank and i have very little idea

Yes, you need to change the bulbs on it. Those are for coral growth and will melt plants. I dont know what a biocube bulb looks like but you should see about some bulbs in the 6700k range
 
36 watt 10,000K Daylight straight pin
36 watt True Actinic 03 Blue straight pin

Are the current lights in the tank im just using the daylight right now
 
36 watt 10,000K Daylight straight pin
36 watt True Actinic 03 Blue straight pin

Are the current lights in the tank im just using the daylight right now

Yeah those are no good for plants. 10k is really high. You can use 10k but you need to add co2 and ferts for proper growth. Even then I recommend lowering it to a 6700k bulb. Actinic is pointless for plants. It does nothing for them
 
Yeah those are no good for plants. 10k is really high. You can use 10k but you need to add co2 and ferts for proper growth. Even then I recommend lowering it to a 6700k bulb. Actinic is pointless for plants. It does nothing for them

Right on man, its pay day this friday, will my plants be dead if i wait till friday to change the light?
 
Yeah those are no good for plants. 10k is really high. You can use 10k but you need to add co2 and ferts for proper growth. Even then I recommend lowering it to a 6700k bulb. Actinic is pointless for plants. It does nothing for them

i can get them today its an absolute need but id rather wait till payday
 
i can get them today its an absolute need but id rather wait till payday

It is a need but can wait. Until then I would keep lights off because those lights may be doing more harm then good. You could open your blinds or curtains to let natural light in until then
 
Yeah those are no good for plants. 10k is really high. You can use 10k but you need to add co2 and ferts for proper growth. Even then I recommend lowering it to a 6700k bulb. Actinic is pointless for plants. It does nothing for them

I'm sorry, but simply none of this is true.

Actinics, and to a lesser extent 10k bulbs, are heavy in the blue spectrum of light, whereas a 6700K bulb is more balances and the <4000K bulbs are more red heavy. Plants can use pretty much all visible light plus some invisible light, although the reflect much of the green/red spectrum. This means that they prefer red/blue light. So why, I keep asking, are actinics 'pointless for plants' if they are perfectly capable of utilizing blue light? The answer is that this factoid is incorrect. Plants can and do use blue light. That being said, blue light should be avoided in FW tanks simply because it makes the tanks look surreal and fake, which is generally counterproductive to the goals of a planted tank. Many people will use a 10000K/6700K combination of bulbs to achieve a desirable appearance.

You do not need CO2. I would consider looking into Excel and another fertilizer such as the Flourish line, but if all you have is anubias, then it's really not going to be a problem until at least payday, in which case I would only recommend Flourish unless you want to get (or already have) more plants.

Bad spectrum bulbs will NOT 'melt plants'. Something's happening in the tank that needs to be addressed. Anubias is one of the most low light tolerant species out there, so it's almost certainly not related to light levels or spectrum. The fact that it started happening in a matter of hours is worrisome though.

Could the plants have gotten too dry at some point?
What's the temperature in the tank?
Can you take some pictures and upload them so we can see the damage?
It's very possible that they were just roughed up in transit or need to adjust to your tank first. Anubias are extremely hardy plants, so they'll probably bounce back soon.
 
I'm sorry, but simply none of this is true.

Actinics, and to a lesser extent 10k bulbs, are heavy in the blue spectrum of light, whereas a 6700K bulb is more balances and the <4000K bulbs are more red heavy. Plants can use pretty much all visible light plus some invisible light, although the reflect much of the green/red spectrum. This means that they prefer red/blue light. So why, I keep asking, are actinics 'pointless for plants' if they are perfectly capable of utilizing blue light? The answer is that this factoid is incorrect. Plants can and do use blue light. That being said, blue light should be avoided in FW tanks simply because it makes the tanks look surreal and fake, which is generally counterproductive to the goals of a planted tank. Many people will use a 10000K/6700K combination of bulbs to achieve a desirable appearance.

You do not need CO2. I would consider looking into Excel and another fertilizer such as the Flourish line, but if all you have is anubias, then it's really not going to be a problem until at least payday, in which case I would only recommend Flourish unless you want to get (or already have) more plants.

Bad spectrum bulbs will NOT 'melt plants'. Something's happening in the tank that needs to be addressed. Anubias is one of the most low light tolerant species out there, so it's almost certainly not related to light levels or spectrum. The fact that it started happening in a matter of hours is worrisome though.

Could the plants have gotten too dry at some point?
What's the temperature in the tank?
Can you take some pictures and upload them so we can see the damage?
It's very possible that they were just roughed up in transit or need to adjust to your tank first. Anubias are extremely hardy plants, so they'll probably bounce back soon.

First of all, you sir are awesome!
i am using florish substrate (i thought it was florite lol, im a newb) but ill stop tommorow and get some florish, its cheaper than a light lol
but here we go 1. they could have dried up a bit i ordered them from the drs. foster and smith website, they spent 2 days in transit and then an afternoon in the box on my desk at work, but as soon as i got home i took them outta the pots took of the rock wool and put them in a bucket with some tank water in the bottom. 2. my tank is between 77-79 3. im at work for bout another hour or so ill upload a picture as soon as i get home and see if they have survived
 
Plants are still alive and havent dissolved any more, my long stringy anubuis (congr-something) is actually looking decent, my short broad leafed ones(barteli i thing) still have some leaves with brown spots, getting flourish tommorow and getting my water tested at petsmart anyone have any other suggestions?
 
I believe the words you're looking for are congensis and barteri.

Anubias should be tied onto something like driftwood rather than in the substrate, so your Flourite's not going to help them much. A bottle of Flourish should run you <$10 and should last a good long time in a low tech tank.

Do you have any other plants? At this point, I would recommend watchful waiting to see if anything else goes wrong or if the plants go further south.
 
I believe the words you're looking for are congensis and barteri.

Anubias should be tied onto something like driftwood rather than in the substrate, so your Flourite's not going to help them much. A bottle of Flourish should run you <$10 and should last a good long time in a low tech tank.

Do you have any other plants? At this point, I would recommend watchful waiting to see if anything else goes wrong or if the plants go further south.

nope its just those plants and will do ill keep an eye on them thank you for your help i do feel a bit better about it
 
Back
Top Bottom