anubias looking ratty

[shayfish]

I got this plant from a pal's tank where it was rooted into the substrate. I thought that anubias did better anchored to driftwood or something, so that's what I did. I have more light and better water than my friend's tank, yet somehow since living here the plant has several leaves that are yellow around the edges and looking a little ratty. I have another plant of this type that I have had for the same amount of time and it looks fine and is about to sprout a new leaf. I dose with Flourish Seachem once a week during pwc's. Any suggestions? This pic ain't great but it was the best I seemed to be able to pull off!

 

[Purrbox]

Looks like this plant has sustained a fair amount of damage over time. I would recommend that you prune off the older leaves that look especially bad. This will allow the plant to focus more energy on new leaves instead of trying to repair the old leaves.

 

[shayfish]

Okay, I will do that. I was just a little concerned becuase it didn't look like this when I first got it from my friend. I was wondering if maybe its from it being used to having it's roots under the substrate and then I went and tied it onto the driftwood (?).

 

[7Enigma]

Nope that won't cause this, UNLESS his substrate was fertilized (and your water is poorly fertilized). The leaves look to have suffered from an iron deficiency (they are very yellow) at some point. Were the leaves green when you got them or did it look similar to now? Anubias leaves grow so slowly are stay for so long that deficiencies take a LONG time to manifest. It's possible right before you got them they were already heading downhill. I've seen this with other slow growers as well (java fern), where you can fix a problem or introduce a new one and it takes weeks to see the true impact.

Can you comment on your fert dosing schedule/CO2/fish load/light level? When you say better water then your friend's tank, what exactly do you mean?

 

[shayfish]

Ha ha... right. The info:
55 gal, 1.5 wpg, no c02, dosing Flourish Seachem once a week with my pwc, have been using slightly less than recommended because I have Flourish tabs in the substrate too. Fish load is fairly light: 2 sailfin mollies, 1 BN plec, 6 zebra danios, 4 rummynose tetras, 1 amano shrimo, 2 mystery snails (I'm sure the snails are not to blame for this plant too).

The plant looked fine when I got it, and in fact the guy had told me about how big it had become. His tank had been somewhat neglected for a while and he said he couldn't keep the nitrate levels down no matter how big a PWC he would do. I don't know exactly what the levels were but he said they were waaaay high. I personally think he had sort of given up on his tank because he did want to take it down (which is why he gave me his leftover stock). When I looked at his tank I could see that the gravel was pretty nasty. My water paramaters are fine and all my other plants seem to be doing well.

 

[7Enigma]

Ha ha... right. The info:
55 gal, 1.5 wpg, no c02, dosing Flourish Seachem once a week with my pwc, have been using slightly less than recommended because I have Flourish tabs in the substrate too. Fish load is fairly light: 2 sailfin mollies, 1 BN plec, 6 zebra danios, 4 rummynose tetras, 1 amano shrimo, 2 mystery snails (I'm sure the snails are not to blame for this plant too).

The plant looked fine when I got it, and in fact the guy had told me about how big it had become. His tank had been somewhat neglected for a while and he said he couldn't keep the nitrate levels down no matter how big a PWC he would do. I don't know exactly what the levels were but he said they were waaaay high. I personally think he had sort of given up on his tank because he did want to take it down (which is why he gave me his leftover stock). When I looked at his tank I could see that the gravel was pretty nasty. My water paramaters are fine and all my other plants seem to be doing well.

OK, we need to clear up some things here....

Your friends tank very well might be PERFECT for plants. High nitrAtes, probably high phosphates, lots of mulm (that nasty stuff is PERFECT for plants), and probably enough of the rest of the ferts due to his lower light level then you have. This is BAD for fish, but not necessarily bad for plants.

Now onto your tank. You have a light fish load for your tank, so your nitrAtes, phosphates, and potassium are probably low. That Flourish is a very dilute trace mix, and does not supply the macro ferts in the proper amounts. I would look into purchasing dry ferts from Greg Watson, specifically potassium sulfate, potassium phosphate, and potassium nitrAte.

When you say your water parameters are fine, what exactly do you mean? Does your friend have the same water supply as you, do you have a RO or softener on your tap water to make it taste better? Do you know your phosphate, nitrAte, GH, KH levels?

We're almost about ready to be able to help you, we just need a little more information!

 

[shayfish]

GH is 200, nitrate is just under 20, KH is 100mg/L, and I don't know the phosphate levels. Yeah, I guess when I think about water parameters I am thinking in fishey terms. This is my first attempt at a planted tank... obviously! I don't have any kind of RO or water softener for my water and it is a different water supply than my friend's.