Who Gives A Fish Forums

I've got a plant in my tank that's in a silent cycle right now and I'm not sure what it is (anyone know the species?). The lower leaves are browning - should I cut them off? I've also got some hornwort with wilting lower leaves, is this a light issue because the upper leaves are blocking them?

Before we dive into the plant issues, can you tell me what your water parameters are looking like?

oceanlover wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 9:26 pm Before we dive into the plant issues, can you tell me what your water parameters are looking like?

I'm not sure about your plant species, but browning lower leaves usually means they're dying off. Pruning them might be a good idea. For your hornwort, yeah, it's probably a light issue - those upper leaves are blocking the lower ones.

Need a clearer pic of the plant on the left, first pic is a bit blurry. 2nd pic looks like Ambulia to me, btw

coltin wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 11:10 pm Need a clearer pic of the plant on the left, first pic is a bit blurry. 2nd pic looks like Ambulia to me, btw

Thanks for the ID, coltin. Now I'm wondering, should I do something about the lower leaves on my Ambulia - they're kind of wilting.

Your water parameters look good. Do you use any fertilizers in your aquarium? What's your aquarium lighting schedule like, how many hours a day do you keep the lights on?

oceanlover wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 9:26 pm Before we dive into the plant issues, can you tell me what your water parameters are looking like?

I'm using Flourish and Flourish Excel for ferts. My white light is on for 9 hours now, I used to have it on for 10 but I've been getting some algae issues lately. I cut back on the hours. I used to keep the blue light on all night, thought it was a cool moonlight effect, but I stopped doing that today.

I was thinking of pruning the tops off my Ambulia and replanting them - would that help the lower leaves from looking so ratty?

You can definitely remove the dead leaves, it'll help the plant focus on growing new ones. Maybe it's just taking some time to adjust to being underwater, a lot of aquarium plants are actually grown above water before being submerged.

I came across this thing about Excel "melting" certain plants, but I don't really get how it works - just something I read somewhere.