[Alec]

Him I recently purchased some dwarf baby tears and it seems to be turning yellow in some areas. Some places are growing, but it still seems to be turning yellow. 38G, 2x39W, Excel, no CO2, nutrient solution.

Here is a picture:

 

[Darkblade48]

No CO2 could be a problem for HC. What nutrients are you currently dosing, how often, and how much?

Also, HC should be ideally planted by separating each plantlet and planting them individually.

 

[Alec]

I dose once a week with Leaf Zone(API), i have root tabs, and i dose excel everyday. I have been waiting to rip it apart when it was healthy, but it looks like its getting worse..

 

[THaehn]

Don't worry, the same thing happened to me when I first bought HC. I think it just has an adjustment period to get used to your aquarium. Mine looked worse than yours before it got better. Then about a week after I planted it, it just looked GREEN. New roots were coming out and the yellow had faded. Make sure no other plants are shading it. I made that mistake and the shaded HC slowly lost leaves but it is slowly coming back.

I have mine under 42 watts of T5's. I dose flourish excel when I remember and Leaf zone weekly. I recently moved one light directly over the HC and its just going crazy.

Be patient and let it adjust to your tank. I would take this time to plant it how you want it to spread though. It will spread faster. Hope this helped.

After looking at your picture, your gravel substrate is not ideal for HC. It prefers smaller grained almost sand like substrate. Not to say your's won't work. It will just have a harder time rooting in your substrate. You could plant it how you want then spread some sand over the top of the plants. This will give the roots something to bite into when they first emerge.

 

[Alec]

Don't worry, the same thing happened to me when I first bought HC. I think it just has an adjustment period to get used to your aquarium. Mine looked worse than yours before it got better. Then about a week after I planted it, it just looked GREEN. New roots were coming out and the yellow had faded. Make sure no other plants are shading it. I made that mistake and the shaded HC slowly lost leaves but it is slowly coming back.

I have mine under 42 watts of T5's. I dose flourish excel when I remember and Leaf zone weekly. I recently moved one light directly over the HC and its just going crazy.

Be patient and let it adjust to your tank. I would take this time to plant it how you want it to spread though. It will spread faster. Hope this helped.

After looking at your picture, your gravel substrate is not ideal for HC. It prefers smaller grained almost sand like substrate. Not to say your's won't work. It will just have a harder time rooting in your substrate. You could plant it how you want then spread some sand over the top of the plants. This will give the roots something to bite into when they first emerge.

Thanks! I will try the sand thing as suggested

 

[Philosophos]

API Leaf Zone is worthless as a fertilizer. It's got a little K+ and Fe. It's disgusting that API even sells this product; an RO unit with old damaged filters would leave more nutrients in your water.

So, with that uglyness out of the way, I'd say your HC is turning yellow because of a lack of nutrients, specifically nitrogen. You're also letting it grow rather thick.

-Philosophos

 

[Alec]

API Leaf Zone is worthless as a fertilizer. It's got a little K+ and Fe. It's disgusting that API even sells this product; an RO unit with old damaged filters would leave more nutrients in your water.

So, with that uglyness out of the way, I'd say your HC is turning yellow because of a lack of nutrients, specifically nitrogen. You're also letting it grow rather thick.

-Philosophos

What solution would you suggest?

 

[Philosophos]

Go to aquariumfertilizer.com or Rex Grig's site and pick your self up some KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4. You may also need some MgSO4.7H2O (epsom salts; buy them from the grocery store in the pharmacy section for cheap) or some CaCl2 or CaSO4 (order either) depending on your tap water paramenters. You should be able to get a water quality report online.

From there, how you dose depends on your method. There are a number out there. EI is what I do, and it's got its own levels that you can find in a number of places. The original source of EI would be Tom Barr over on thebarrreport.com where others, as well as my self, tend to use this method.

Oh, scale back your lighting or get some compressed CO2; you'll see a world of difference. You could probably do 50% lighting half the day and full lighting the rest with a 2 hour break if you run DIY CO2.

-Philosophos

 

[THaehn]

Philosophos, I think your over complicating things a bit. Why would you want to scale back lighting? Because of co2? And would you go into more detail as to why leaf zone is worthless? I run a low tech aquarium and I noticed a definite imprvement in my plants when I started dosing leaf zone, especially with the HC.

Back to the thread question, the HC is new to this particular aquarium so I think its safe to assume that is going through a transition period and will need some time to adjust. The HC is not established in the substrate and was probably taken out of a pot and placed where it is now.

With all that said, HC is a light hungry plant. It does not require co2 to survive however all plants will benefit from it. Like I said earlier, my HC was shaded when I introduced it into my aquarium and it did not fare well. Make sure it receives DIRECT light from your bulbs.

Your HC will turn around. You said yourself that some parts are growing. Don't get discouraged.

 

[Philosophos]

Philosophos, I think your over complicating things a bit. Why would you want to scale back lighting? Because of co2?

Yup, a slight reduction in light because 2wpg of CF over a tank that size is about where it takes good DIY CO2 and excel to keep the algae out. More light isn't so necessary as people think; good spread is.

As for leafzone...

Up until perhaps a couple weeks ago, leafzone had its MSDS listing 10mg/m^3 which is about 10mg/10,000L. It was pure snake oil. I checked today, and they've increased it to a touch over 6% K+. Odds are the density is something like 1.1mg/ml at most, so we can stick with 6% K+ by volume as well.

Good K+ looks something like 20-30ppm in an EI tank, which means with leaf zone you'd need somewhere around 3.5-5ml for every L of column. In a 20 gal tank, the average column is something like 65L without the gravel and a little hardscape. 65*3.5 = 227.5ml/wk. Now, a 16oz (473ml) bottle is something like $5 each; that's $5 every two weeks for a high tech, $5 a month for K+ and lower level Fe for a 20 gal. Compare to dry ferts, or even the fact that TNP+ will supply almost complete nutrition for the same price as leafzone.

It's really not a good buy, and it really isn't going to provide enough nutrients for a 2wpg CF tank. Look at the color of the HC; that's nitrogen deficiency. After K+ is satisfied, guess what else has the same sort of demands that bioload and tap water alone may not provide for?

-Philosophos