Brown Edges on Plants

[dsilvers]

Could brown edges on plants be a sign of too much light, no enough light?

 

[Guest]

More likely a nutrient imbalance, if it's widespread on many plants. if it's just a few leaves, they could be old leaves that have had their day. Depending on the type of plant, the leaves could be naturally short-lived.

Too much light, first sign would prolly be algae, not enough light, the leaves will "melt" , meaning losing their color, becoming translucent, then just decomposing right on the plant.

 

[dsilvers]

Must be they are old plants

They aren't doing the translucent thing, I've seen that. That happened before we got properly lights. And algae is minimal, nothing the Pleco and a monthly algae scrub can't handle. Barely can see it. So my guess is just the plant dies out? Not sure. It's a delicate balance I've noticed.

 

[shawmutt]

What is the pH of the tank? Does it match the plant requirements?

 

[Guest]

So my guess is just the plant dies out? Not sure. It's a delicate balance I've noticed.

What kind of plant(s) are we talking about here? I could give you more info if I know what kind of plant it is.

 

[dsilvers]

Let's see...I know we have Pennywort, anubias and the other two I don't recall. I will have to look them up.
They all see to be green and they have LOTS of new shoots and they are lasting longer than any other plants. We are doing CO2 ampules once a month, Plant Gro once a week and we have a lovely Coralife light with two bulbs of different color at 65 watts. On a 20 gallon. The pH is usually around 7.1 ish. They plants stopped shedding a lot and floating, etc. So I think we are doing SOMETHING right. I just am not sure about he brown edges on the littler plants. I have to look up what it is. Right now we keep the light on for 10 hours. We have minimal algae and, oh, we have live substrate.

 

[Guest]

I just am not sure about he brown edges on the littler plants. I have to look up what it is.

Get back to me on the exact plants that are having the problems and I'll see what I can come up with. I've been able to grow many types of plants, but I have no anubias. If it's a plant I have exp. with, or is in one of my books, I'll be glad to give it a shot. From what you've said, there are no glaring errors in what you are doing, which is very good! However, figuring out exact problems with specific types of plants is sometimes difficult, which can be pretty frustrating.

 

[dsilvers]

Yeah, as you said long ago, and as others have said, plants are harder harder than the fish. We finally found plants the fish won't eat...the pennywort especially. The used to think everything we put in was a salad bar and they would make themselves all fat. I wouldn't feed them for days until they digested! The third plants (besides anubias and pennywort) is amazon sword. The fourth I just can't find. I will have to keep looking