Guys -

I have a 180G with about 15 anubias in it that I just boght. Big gorgeous anubais -

But they are turning yellow. Some leaves are turning light green, some full yellow, some the tips, some browning. Plants been in there since tuesday.

My PH is high, around 8.5. I have plenty of light.( I know anubias are low light though).

I have flourish dosed, but thats it.

Do these plants need CO2 to live? I am on a sump (40G sump in a 180 tank) I have a C02 diffuser and bottle setup that came with another setup. Should I use it?

Should I dose different fertilizer? I dont want to lose my plants

Close up photos of the anubias including clear shots of bad leaves as well as the plants rhizome will help.
Anubias do NOT need co2 but they grow faster with it, however if you are having a nutrient deficiency, adding co2 may make them worse...
Where did you get the anubias from? Do you know if it was grown above or below water? Do the effected anubias have a lot of roots or non at all? Is the rhizome discolored, soft, or smell bad when out of the water? Does the cut end were you can see into it have a dark spot? Are the leaves only turning yellow or going from yellow to brown?

You say you have "plenty of light" but please celerity what exactly that is? How long are they on, how high above substrate, what watt and kelvin? How long are they on?
How much flourish are you dosing? Proper ration as given on bottle or more/less? What are your nitrate levels?

Lighting is a 6ft odysessa LED fixture from [Ebay Link Removed] (400x .20W 10000K) claims 7000 lumen. I didnt buy this fixture to grow a high tech tank. They are on maybe 6h a day? I also have an old coralife 4ft t5No I leave on most of the time, one 6000K one actinic, just for that low light look.

Plants were from an ebay seller who has just awesome stuff. He says they were from a farm grown immersed, but he had them submerged I believe.

Some of the anubias have ALOT of roots. Some not so much but all are very big with large rhizome and root systems. No soft rhizomes.

Flourish is dosed per bottle.

These plants have only been in the tank since tuesday.













ETA - yellow fish in bottom pic, not to be mistaken for plants.

Thanks for looking

Bump: Also as to nitrate - I kep this low. It reads between 0-5ppm in this 180G as of today. I have a 40B sump in it, and do 50% once weekly WC.

First off your tank looks beautiful.
Your plants will most likely melt then grow back , I too do cichlids and the harder water and high ph is hard on plants, Anubis should work in the tank as long as the cichlids don't develop a taste for them.
Do you buffer your water ? I do ro with cichlid salt and Malawi buffer.

No. My PH iis around 8.2-8.5 from the tap with a high GH and KH. Very hard, very stable, and very good for cichlids from my well.

I want to add to the point on the tank looking good! Good layout for those fish with plenty of cover. The sand should be good and with the plants tied up off the bottom, there should be no problems with any digging. I would guess they would choose to dig at the edges of rocks if they get the urge. I find labs a bit hard on tender stuff like anarchis but no sign of them on anubia.
I'm more fish guy than plant guy so my thoughts might be more guess than others. I might wait to see more results as moving is hard on most any plant. I would not hesitate to let the nitrate go higher if there is question of being enough for the plants. I find no problems at 30-40 with my tank of Africans. Many of the stories about them are a bit overblown, I find. I find them very adaptable on water.
Wait and see and maybe add some KNO3 to get some potassium as well as bump the nitrate a bit higher?

I plan on ordering more seachem stuff today, iron, potassium, etc. I need it for my 20 long basement experiment tank anyway.

I just hope these big anubias dont die.

thanks for the compliments - they do seem very happy in that tank.

I agree that you need to dose the water column with Nitrate, potassium, and some micros. Stunning tank man. What species do you have in the tank? You have the identical setup I've been researching. African cichlids and some Anubias and maybe an Amazon Sword.

Definitely try some swords if it suits you. I find the Africans I keep do very little in the way of leaf damage. They do tend to get rowdy and break a stem at times and then figuring where they would dig was a bit of a game. While many of the African cichlids are not native to the planted portions of the lake, they really adapt well to having them in the tank. One of my bigger surprises has been the way they get in the plants to hide when strangers come around. I have a combo of some of the sturdy plants like swords of several types, crypt Wendeti, Java fern, etc. but the one they like best seems to be red tiger lotus which grows to the top and spreads all over. They duck into the stems just as if they were jungle cats! With the long slender stems, it is the one they break at times but it grows so fast, it is not real trouble.

I will try and get some better whole tank pics tomorrow.

Species -
Lab. caeruleus (lions cove)
Ps. Acei (Msuli yellow tail)
Met. Dolphin (Ndonga) F1
Met. Callainos OB F1 (makonde)
Cyno. SP. Lion (mara rocks)
Mixed syno cats x4

I just want to make sure these plants succeed. I may try swords too, if these live

Some yellow is turning to brown, and a couple leaves have now broken off.......