rotala indica. help!

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Rlavassor86

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
642
Location
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
So I've had my rotala in my tank for about 3 months and for a while they were doing great. Now I get new growth that looks real healthy but the leaves lower down are no longer pinkish on the bottom and instead have begun turning an ugly brown.
Tank-72 gal bow

Lights-coralife 48" 4 bulb t5 ho with lunar leds- 6 hour photo period 3 pm to 9 pm

Substrate- eco complete with some blasting sand

Pps pro dry ferts. One bottle macro one bottle micro and one bottle nitrates

I use liquid carbon daily, no pressurized co2.

I add new root tabs every month or so.

The stems are planted individually not too close together to allow water flow and light to get through.

I'm at a total loss here and its frustrating. Any help would be awesome.
 
rotala indica is a relatively fragile plant and could you check and see if your fish is picking on it? also in order to have the red/pinkish color, you would need a substrate that's rich in iron and then dose iron fertilizer every now and then. Contrary to popular belief, eco-complete isn't so "complete" as i came to find out through this hobby. How's your temperature? the plant does well in upper temperature range, 80~ish.
 
rotala indica is a relatively fragile plant and could you check and see if your fish is picking on it? also in order to have the red/pinkish color, you would need a substrate that's rich in iron and then dose iron fertilizer every now and then. Contrary to popular belief, eco-complete isn't so "complete" as i came to find out through this hobby. How's your temperature? the plant does well in upper temperature range, 80~ish.

I've never witnessed any fish picking at it. I do use seachem root tabs and I believe they have iron I'm not positive I'd have to check. I always wondered about dosing the seachem liquid iron supplement but wasn't sure that I would need it. Many temp is around 80 depending if my bedroom is open it may fluctuate a degree or two in either direction. I also occasionally will intentionally drop the temp a few degrees during pwc to simulate rainy season to entice my rams to breed but thats not with every wc
 
When I had rotala before I had the same problem. The newest parts of the plants were always pink and bushy, the older part would turn brown and the leaves would be very small. I think it was due to not enough light getting down to the lower stems.
 
When I had rotala before I had the same problem. The newest parts of the plants were always pink and bushy, the older part would turn brown and the leaves would be very small. I think it was due to not enough light getting down to the lower stems.

Yea the attendant at the lfs said the same thing and also tried selling me a 300 dollar pressurized co2 system to help. But I've got each stem spaced what I thought was far enough from each other but maybe not. I'll be posting some pics later, so I'll let everybody here weigh in. I'd really like to get this plant healthy again because its starting to look kinda sad
 
It looks like you've got algae or some sediment on your lower leaves. Will it just brush off?

What your describing sounds like a light issue, but I wouldn't think that it would be such an issue with 4xT5HO. If you're concerned about getting the most color from your plants, you might look at different bulb choice.

Do you happen to know your nitrate levels?


I highly doubt that this is a iron issue. Changing colors is almost never an iron issue because iron isn't a mobile nutrient.
 
It looks like you've got algae or some sediment on your lower leaves. Will it just brush off?

What your describing sounds like a light issue, but I wouldn't think that it would be such an issue with 4xT5HO. If you're concerned about getting the most color from your plants, you might look at different bulb choice.

Do you happen to know your nitrate levels?

I highly doubt that this is a iron issue. Changing colors is almost never an iron issue because iron isn't a mobile nutrient.

When I tested my nitrates they were somewhere in that 10 to 20 range that's impossible to differentiate in. I'm using 4 6700k bulbs. No it didnt brush off either.
 
It definitely looks to me like there's something growing on your lower leaves, possibly diatoms. That's not really a color that rotala rotundifolia naturally takes on. Will it rub off between your fingers if you apply a little force? Does it feel coarse?
 
It definitely looks to me like there's something growing on your lower leaves, possibly diatoms. That's not really a color that rotala rotundifolia naturally takes on. Will it rub off between your fingers if you apply a little force? Does it feel coarse?

It didn't rub off so I pulled a leaf and its actually browning of the leaf and had a small hole through it in that brown spot.
 
I have this same problem with my Rotala Indica as well. I found that once the stems reached about halway up the tank, they started to colour up nice, yellowish orange on the top, pink undersides. They even grew more lush. It seems like it should be a light issue, but I'm not sure. The holes here and there make me think something else is wrong though.
 
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