Tiger lotus problems

[Iloveplants]

I would have never guessed I would have so many problems in such a short period of time.

Saw this. Never have had this happen before. Is it nutrient deficiency? Just fed it a few extra pumps of aquarium co-op easy green this afternoon. I've been trying to go a little easy on it due to a previous green water algae problem. Now I think that was a mistake.

Recent changes in tank:
- Big water change a few days ago. It used to be SO green in my tank. Did it get used to it and now is "burning" under brighter lighting?
- Lower fertiliser dosage: I lowered it but I also just recently gave it two root tabs so I didn't think it would hit this hard?

Noticed minimally 3 leaves look like their souls got sucked back into the plant and their bodies were left behind. This happened so suddenly they looked fine just yesterday from what I noticed.

Unrelated but is my lighting sufficient?
I'm guessing it isn't because all of my plants are treading along quite slowly. The light says 6.5 watts which seems ridiculous as that is WAY too low for a 20gal tall. If that is actually a cause for concern please do let me know as my plants overall have been growing quite slowly. The more I'm thinking about it the more I realize sticking with the light that came with the aquarium wasn't smart.

Anyway, I'm hoping this isn't some disease or anything. New little leaf starting to grow and it looks a little distorted. Is this a really bad case of nutrient deficiency? I thought I was giving enough nutrients, but this guy looks like I just shot him in the leg. Let me know if it could be something else and as always thank you in advance for any insight.

[Iloveplants]

Just impulsively bought a light so no need to convince me there lol.

It was 14W which works well for my tank I believe.

Still do let me know if it is partially the issue at hand.

[Colin_T]

I'm assuming the issue is with the leaves losing chlorophyl and becoming transparent?
If yes, that's not normally a disease but can happen if there's a sudden change in light, temperature, water chemistry or nutrients. If you had the same light on it all along (until you changed it today), then it is unlikely to be the light. The algae in the water would have reduced the light and nutrients in the tank so it would be use to lower light and nutrient levels before you got rid of the green water.

Unless your water supply changed recently, it is unlikely to be a change in water chemistry. You can check with your water company to see if they have changed water sources but they probably haven't.

If the aquarium has a heater in it and the temperature is stable, it's unlikely to be caused by a sudden change in temperature.

Root tabs can burn the roots of plants and that can kill them or cause them to lose leaves. This is a possibility if you used a couple of root tabs and they were touching new or damaged roots.

Monitor the plant and see how it goes. They usually recover when things settle down.

[Iloveplants]

Yes that would make most sense, It was covered by heavy green water for a few months so that probably lowered the lighting quite a bit.

However, I woke up this morning and I am now noticing the signs of the "melting" starting on other leaves. I was fine with loosing 3 or 4 leaves but from the looks of it its happening everywhere. In the older, smaller leaves it looks like the leaf has the same colors in the middle part of the leaf closest to the stem, whereas the outside of the leaf looks melted.

It took me quite a while to get the right parameters for this tiger lotus and I'm obviously not ecstatic about it melting like this but as long as it comes back I suppose I'll be ok.

Another concern I have is the new leaf.
One side of the leaf is a lot smaller than the other. Doesn't that mean nutrient deficiencies? Or is that just some insignificant issue I don't have to worry about?

Below is a picture of what looks like the "starting signs" of whatever happened to my older leaves happening to my healther big ones. There is also a picture of the small new leaf that looks a little off. Thanks again for all the help, it is greatly appreciated

[Iloveplants]

If all of my leaves do end up melting will the plant eventually come back or is this the end for it?

[Colin_T]

If leaves don't develop properly or develop weird shapes, it's either a disease or lack of nutrients. If you had green water, there might not have been enough nutrients for the plant to grow properly and that can cause leaves to be smaller than normal.

If leaves are small it can be lack of nutrients or lack of light.

The leaves being produced today are generally from nutrients the plant absorbed a few weeks ago. If a plant has been without nutrients for a while, it can take 3 or 4 doses of fertiliser (at weekly or fortnightly intervals), before the plant starts to produce normal full sized leaves (assuming there is sufficient light).

Do you ever let the leaves grow to the surface and float on top?
It takes a lot of nutrients to grow new leaves and a lot of people cut the floating leaves off so they have the colour underwater. The problem with this is you are causing the plant to use more and more reserves to produce new leaves, which are simply being cut off. Eventually the plants burn out and die.

If all the leaves melt, then the plant could die.

[Iloveplants]

Yeah I'm hoping that was the issue. I lowered the dosage of fertilizer to try and get rid of the algae which probably hurt it even more instead.

Both my nutrients and lights have been increased/fixed so hopefully the issue will be fixed soon.

Although my plant is about a year old now, it was quite small until a few months ago because I used to dose the tank very lightly with fertilizers.

Once I changed my substrate it exploded and looked great. It slowed down on the frequency of leaf growing but kept the size after a while, and finally, started growing smaller leaves just a few weeks ago. Probably due to my sudden growth of green water algae.

My tank is a 20gal tall so it simply hasn't had the chance to send anything up to the top yet. I don't trim it as I don't have the need to, and although its leaves haven't melted up until this week I only cut the dead ones off.

If I did have leaves going to the top however I would absolutely let them grow as I need some more shade in my tank (in fact, due to it not growing any lily pads I just recently bought some frogbit for some of my plants that prefer shade).

Yeah I hope that's not the case. The melted leaves didn't melt any further surprisingly, so the very inner part of the leaves and stems were still intact. I did cut the leaves off last night just because the melted parts of the leaves were quite ugly. The early stages of melting on the bigger leaves hasn't expanded which is some slight relief because my fear with the others was how fast the melting happened.

I have dosed more fertilizer and a root tab close to it last night (the other tabs were placed a bit aways from the plant, was more meant to "share" between the other plants near it) so hopefully it'll grow a new leaf and get back on track in a few weeks, thanks again for the help

[Iloveplants]

Yeah I'm hoping that was the issue. I lowered the dosage of fertilizer to try and get rid of the algae which probably hurt it even more instead.

Both my nutrients and lights have been increased/fixed so hopefully the issue will be fixed soon.

Although my plant is about a year old now, it was quite small until a few months ago because I used to dose the tank very lightly with fertilizers.

Once I changed my substrate it exploded and looked great. It slowed down on the frequency of leaf growing but kept the size after a while, and finally, started growing smaller leaves just a few weeks ago. Probably due to my sudden growth of green water algae.

My tank is a 20gal tall so it simply hasn't had the chance to send anything up to the top yet. I don't trim it as I don't have the need to, and although its leaves haven't melted up until this week I only cut the dead ones off.

If I did have leaves going to the top however I would absolutely let them grow as I need some more shade in my tank (in fact, due to it not growing any lily pads I just recently bought some frogbit for some of my plants that prefer shade).

Yeah I hope that's not the case. The melted leaves didn't melt any further surprisingly, so the very inner part of the leaves and stems were still intact. I did cut the leaves off last night just because the melted parts of the leaves were quite ugly. The early stages of melting on the bigger leaves hasn't expanded which is some slight relief because my fear with the others was how fast the melting happened.

I have dosed more fertilizer and a root tab close to it last night (the other tabs were placed a bit aways from the plant, was more meant to "share" between the other plants near it) so hopefully it'll grow a new leaf and get back on track in a few weeks, thanks again for the help

[Colin_T]

You could try growing the lotus in a pot. You could then add more nutrients to the substrate and that would help the plant.

We use to grow some plants (usually swords, crypts, Aponogetons and water lilies) in 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers. You put an inch of gravel in the bottom of the container, then spread a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser over the gravel. Put a 1/4inch (6mm) thick layer of red/ orange clay over the fertiliser. Dry the clay first and crush it into a powder. Then cover that with more gravel.

You put the plants in the gravel and as they grow, their roots hit the clay and fertiliser and they take off and go nuts. The clay stops the fertiliser leaching into the water.

You can smear silicon on the outside of the buckets and stick gravel or sand to them so it is less conspicuous. Or you can let algae grow on them and the containers turn green.