Yellow Anubias???

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SlyDifference

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
22
Location
USA
Hi all!

A couple of weeks ago I picked up an Anubias plant from my LFS. It's been shaded by amazon swords, and now it's starting to yellow in a few leaves, and all of them are lighter. Is there something I'm doing wrong.


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anubia is low light plant. so unless you have it completely dark with no light at all, then I would start the investigation on how it happened other than the sword overshadowing the anubia
 
anubia is low light plant. so unless you have it completely dark with no light at all, then I would start the investigation on how it happened other than the sword overshadowing the anubia

Could it not be getting enough nutrients? It's my very first live plant in a tank that has had fish in it for about 3 weeks.
 
Are you sure the yellow leaves are old leaves? I've kept anubias for years and none have ever turned yellow (even when my light broke when I was on vacation and it was in darkness for 2 weeks). The only time I've seen yellow leaves are when new leaves grow. They are yellow when they first unfold but gradually turn darker green.
Do you have it buried in the substrate or tied onto rocks or wood? Anubias have rhizomes and need to be tied onto something, maybe that could be part of the issue.
Could you send a picture?


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I'm guessing iron deficiency. Are the stems yellow as well or just the leaves? It could also be nitrogen or phosphate, but probably not nitrogen.
 
Seems strange for an anubias though because they have such a low demand for nutrients.
OP, are you using RODI water, distilled water, do you have a water softener, or are you filtering the water in any way before it goes into your tank?
Normal tap water plus fish should provide enough minerals and nutrients for an anubias, they are very very low maintence and undemanding. But if the naturally present minerals are somehow being removed from the tap water that could cause problems.

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I have the roots buried in my gravell, but the rhizome is exposed per instructions from a thread I made asking for anubias care. The stems themselves are a darker green. I only have 3 platys in the tank, been running about 3 weeks not counting the cycling. I'm completely new to plants in general. I use tap water but we get our tap water from a well directly on our property.

EDIT: All I add to the tap water is Prime.
 
Hmm that all sounds normal. Can you post a picture of the leaves?


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Anubias doesn't melt unless something horrible has gone wrong in your tank. That's a crypt thing.

Iron deficiency usually presents as yellow growth in plants or weak leaves. It only affects leaves that grow when the plant is iron deficient, as iron is relatively immobile inside plants, so once it grows somewhere, it can't be shuttled around like phosphorus or nitrogen can.

Can you post a picture?
 
ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1407859344.814382.jpg This is the best I could do, I had to shift some stuff around to get a clearer shot.


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Yes pull it out of the substrate more so the rhizome is out. It will rot and die if the rhizome is covered up. I think that's what you're seeing here.


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