Melting plants

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Dotrskeeper

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Messages
42
I recently acquired some type of stem plant and a lot of the leaves dropped off and several of the stems turned black and died.
I assume this is what people mean when they talk about plants melting. Could someone point me to something that describes what this is and what are the environmental factors that cause this?
Greatly appreciated.


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Your Plants

I recently acquired some type of stem plant and a lot of the leaves dropped off and several of the stems turned black and died.
I assume this is what people mean when they talk about plants melting. Could someone point me to something that describes what this is and what are the environmental factors that cause this?
Greatly appreciated.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

Hello Dot...

Stem plants grow best if they float close to the light. If you plant them in the bottom material, the lower leaves are shaded by the leaves above and the plant won't live long.

If you want to give yourself the best chance of having a nicely planted tank, then get easy to grow plants. Anubias and Mosses for the bottom and Hornwort and Anacharis floating above.

B
 
Well its tough to follow that ^^^^^
What kind of plants? What's you tank like? Certain plants require specific lighting and nutrients. Let's talk about it!

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20 gallon long tank with substrate of black fluorite sand and gravel. Ph 8.4 Amm 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20. 3 weeks ago got the plants on the left (creeping Charlie) and right (forgot to ask name the undersides of the leaves are pink). Light is an 18 watt 6400k T2. Practically all the full sized leaves of the creeping Charlie have exfoliated and the lower leaves of the pink plant plus 3 stems of it died.


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When i got the plants I started using a fertilizer called florinmulti added as directed


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Stem plants to me are some of the harder plants to grow.. Sometimes when planted they stems in the gravel rot and they never grow roots to hold themselves in place so they just float the top of the tank.. Then other times they do grow roots and they grow fine.. The hardest one to grow IMO is Combamba.. I hate this plant.. it looks great when it finally grows roots but most of the time the stems rot and they float.. So what I found best for these type of plants is to get those lead weights to sink them and that way the stems wont rot when planted and eventually they do grow roots .


As for your leaves falling off, that's normal. Most plants when you buy them or move them from one tank to another will die off like this before they come back.. The plant is shocked... Its also because your substrate has no nutrients in it.. When I moved my plants from my floramax substrate tank to my new 44g with gravel and no fish poo or any tabs in the gravel they all died off.. but now they are growing new leaves and coming back.
 
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