Plants transparent with dark veins?

[missbarbie]

Ok newbie here. I am just messing around with my first attempt to keep live plants. Getting a feel of it to see if I want to dive in deeper with this project. Fast forward, I have a very low (no) tech setup with stock LED light bar that came with the tank (don't judge), seachem Eco Boost with gravel sub, API CO2 boost 1x/day, Flourish 2x/week, minimally stocked. I'm getting some growth after 2 weeks so that's encouraging, but I'm wondering what's the main cause of leaves becoming transparent with darkened veins. Just wondering what aspect I should attack first to cheer up these plants...light or ferts?

 

[Caliban07]

This doesn’t look like a deficiency. Seems to be a trait of the Amazon sword when sprouting new leaves. The transparency is due to the reduced thickness of the leaf. The plants makes different leaves when placed underwater to cope with a reduction in gas exchange.

I had swords that looked like that



before they ended up like this.



Keep doing what you are doing. Swords love ‘liquid co2’

 

[missbarbie]

This doesn’t look like a deficiency. Seems to be a trait of the Amazon sword when sprouting new leaves. The transparency is due to the reduced thickness of the leaf. The plants makes different leaves when placed underwater to cope with a reduction in gas exchange.

I had swords that looked like that

View attachment 304144

before they ended up like this.

View attachment 304143

Keep doing what you are doing. Swords love ‘liquid co2’

Your plants are gorgeous! I just worry that they are getting thinner almost melting in spots.

 

[Caliban07]

Thanks. If they are melting you may need more light. Often times the stock fixture may not be enough to support plant growth but other in most cases they are fine.

I would hang fire on the light for the time being. After all it’s only been two weeks. Also just remember that as the plants begin to grow the requirements for nutrients and your liquid co2 will too. You can try upping the fertilisers a tad to see if the melting improves.

When my swords were very transparent it was the liquid co2 that made the difference but some plants do take time to ‘graft in’ new leaves. I’ve seen the same transitional period on dwarf sag (Sagittaria Subulata) the first underwater leaves look see through and you can almost see the individual ‘strands’ of tissue in the leaf but they progressively fill in with each new leaf until they begin to look healthy.

You could also try adding more liquid co2 *but be careful it is toxic in large concentrations* and see if things improve. In the tank above I was using both ‘liquid’ and gas forms of carbon dioxide.

Lastly, have a look again at the sword plants on the left in the picture above picture. When this was first planted it looked very much like your plant with the large waxy, oval shaped leaves on long stems so you can see just how different the leaves are when grown emersed as opposed to submerged. Your amazon sword plant was grown emersed so the initial leaves may not be perfect. Just have a little more patience

 

[missbarbie]

Thanks. If they are melting you may need more light. Often times the stock fixture may not be enough to support plant growth but other in most cases they are fine.

I would hang fire on the light for the time being. After all it’s only been two weeks. Also just remember that as the plants begin to grow the requirements for nutrients and your liquid co2 will too. You can try upping the fertilisers a tad to see if the melting improves.

When my swords were very transparent it was the liquid co2 that made the difference but some plants do take time to ‘graft in’ new leaves. I’ve seen the same transitional period on dwarf sag (Sagittaria Subulata) the first underwater leaves look see through and you can almost see the individual ‘strands’ of tissue in the leaf but they progressively fill in with each new leaf until they begin to look healthy.

You could also try adding more liquid co2 *but be careful it is toxic in large concentrations* and see if things improve. In the tank above I was using both ‘liquid’ and gas forms of carbon dioxide.

Lastly, have a look again at the sword plants on the left in the picture above picture. When this was first planted it looked very much like your plant with the large waxy, oval shaped leaves on long stems so you can see just how different the leaves are when grown emersed as opposed to submerged. Your amazon sword plant was grown emersed so the initial leaves may not be perfect. Just have a little more patience

Thanks Caliban07. I realize that the old leaves were emersed on the back plant. The new growth is definitely elongated on that plant. The other plant is what I'm more concerned about and seeing the darker veins. From what I am reading its called Chlorosis. I'll be cautious with the extra CO2 though. I think I read somewhere that it might be Mg deficiency.