Established HC Carpet Falling OUt

[TankMan7]

I have an established carpet of Dwarf Baby Tears and in the last 3 weeks it has been yellowing and falling out. Pieces of it are floating all around my tank. I noticed that it was getting pretty thick and the part closest to the substrate was yellowing, so I trimmed it back. I thought maybe it was too thick and the under part of the plant was not getting enough light. If that is it, will it come back now that I have trimmed it back? It is really making a mess. I haven't changed any of my fert regimen and my parameters are stable. Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

 

[flitabout]

What ferts are you dosing?

 

[TankMan7]

PPS pro

 

[flitabout]

Ok well there goes that idea...

 

[Old Scales]

What type of lighting you have? If it's florescent, what is the temperature in Kelvin are the bulbs? Also HC Cuba needs additional carbon source, i.e. DIY or pressurized CO2 or dosing glut. OS.

 

[TankMan7]

The carpet has been well established with CO2 and glut. I have LED and t5 HO at 10000 and 6500. High light, high tech, daily ferts.

 

[Old Scales]

Wow. I would think it would be going beautifully. Sounds like this is one for Rivercats or Aqua-Chem. I have a high light, glut dosed tank using PPS pro-ferts and could not get it to grow well. It was a PITA for me. Too many other good carpeting plants out there for me to fool with it. As you say, very messy. OS.

 

[TankMan7]

It was going beautifully until about 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking that the lower part of the plants was not getting enough light and maybe started to die off. Is that a possibility?

 

[aqua_chem]

I'm thinking that the lower part of the plants was not getting enough light and maybe started to die off. Is that a possibility?

That would be my bet. HC is prone to growing over on itself and blocking out light to it's older portions. I just recently had to rip out a bunch for unrelated reasons and found that the original chunks I had planted were still there, but had turned almost black and were rotting (which certainly explained a persistent protein film I was experiencing).


That being said, turning yellow in old growth can also be a sign of a nutrient issue. Unfortunately, it's not always possible to determine what exactly was the cause of this (and it could be a combination of the two). HC is a rather fast growing stem plant, so it has higher nutrient demands than many other plants and may be among the first to show signs of a deficiency, especially if it's very mild. I would increase your daily PPS-Pro dosage just a bit (maybe 25% or so), especially if you've had any yellowing in the older growth of your other plants, especially fast growing stem plants (I would check just to be sure).

 

[TankMan7]

I will give that a try. All of the other plants seem fine. Thanks for the advice.

 

[FrankAbagnale]

I would definitely just do a heavy trim. It will look bad for a week or two but will make a huge difference.

 

[TankMan7]

Did that a couple days ago. Time will tell. Thanks!

 

[TankMan7]

Well, the DBT is still falling out. It almost looks like the shrimp are pulling it up. Anyone ever have that problem?