# Hemianthus Cuba (HC) yellowing / browning leafs



## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

Hope someone can help me here...
I set up a planted tank with hairgrass and HC about 3 weeks ago, and everything is growing well in there for the past few weeks...I see runners, root growth, pearling...
but since last week, the plants seems to be developing a lot of yellow / brownish color leafs!!

What is usually the cause of that? Too much light? too little light? too much co2 or oxygen?? PH level??? lack of or too much of certain nutrients??

I have 28 watts of light in the tank for 12 hours per day, DIY CO2, flourite substrate, a few shrimps and guppies fry...(i also started dosing excel since yesterday).

Btw...algae seems to be growing a lot since the yellow leaf started developing....don't know if they are related.


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

Picture of the yellow / brown leaf, they looks almost like a burnt mark on the leaf.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Probably a combination of low light and low CO2. How big is the tank? What kind of light do you have? (Include bulb temp too, please) What kind of filter are you using? Do you fertilize at all? Keep up with the Excel, HC loves excel. I wouldn't overdose with shrimps, though. Also, cut back on the hours. Longer photo period does not make up for lower light intensity, it will only induce algae. What kind of algae are you seeing? 

For general reading on plants and how they work, try here:

http://www.rexgrigg.com

Light drives the growth. When plants grow, the first thing they tend to run out of is CO2. Then, given sufficient CO2, the growth will be limited by macro fertilizers (NPK, nitrogen, phosphate, potassium). Finally, plants also need micro nutrients, or traces. You might need to dose a little trace, too.


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

Forgot to mention, tank is a 3 gallon nano (12x8x8)
The light I am using now is a sprial CF 6500K 26 watts... I tried using this together with another sprial CF 5000K 26 watts for a few days (about 17 wpg for 12 hours) ..but algae was starting to show up so I switch it back to single light.

No fertilizer

Filter is a hagen elite mini internal filter (just a small sponge for filter media)

Do you think I should use both 26 watts (6500K + 5000K) together for shorter period of time instead?


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

How much excel do you dose in your 3g? I roughly calculated, and got 1ml, but I tend to make errors.. My hc was browning/yellowing too, but I was growing it emersed. I'm growing hc in my 1g tank, under only 7 watts, and there is no yellowing/browning. Weird.


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

i dosed excel 2 days ago and I have only dosed it once (about 1.5ml)...
The normal daily dosage after the initial should only be 0.3ml / day...


The HC was showing yellow leaf before I started dosing excel tho, so I guess it is something else...

I was actually wondering if it is caused by "too much" light or the lighting color since I switched from a 5000K to a 6500K CF bulb.


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## htn86 (Sep 30, 2007)

It might be an iron deficiency


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I take that back, your light is fine. You have a good amount, I wouldn't call it too much. You can read the Rex Grigg article about minimum light threshold, which tells you why the wpg rule is not a good one (especially for very small and very large aquariums). It might, indeed, be an iron deficiency. Are you dosing trace? Are you dosing anything else?


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

fishscale said:


> I take that back, your light is fine. You have a good amount, I wouldn't call it too much. You can read the Rex Grigg article about minimum light threshold, which tells you why the wpg rule is not a good one (especially for very small and very large aquariums). It might, indeed, be an iron deficiency. Are you dosing trace? Are you dosing anything else?


I am not dosing anything other than excel (started a few days ago)

I thought iron deficiency is not common when using planting substrate (I am using flourite black)...grrr..that's the reason why I paid so much more than standard substrate...

Should I dose flourish iron and see if it would improve the situation? (I have shrimp btw...is iron additive bad for shrimp?) Other than "seachem flourish" iron, is there other iron additive good for aquarium?

And what else I could do other than dosing iron?


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

Btw...some floating plants (I think it is amazon frogbit) that hitchhiked into the tank with the other plants...its leaves are turning into a deep reddish color (kinda like the yellowing of the HC, except it is a deep red color)

Any idea??


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

Some plants will start turning red in high light. It's a good thing


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## FrostyNYC (Nov 5, 2007)

You can go with Seachem Flourish, Seachem Flourish Iron, and many other liquid ferts. I use Seachem Flourish for micros (including iron) and API Leaf Zone for potassium and extra iron. I havent found the need for the Seachem Flourish Iron. (Note: I do plan on switching to dry ferts when my liquids run out)

Regarding your substrate -- granted, it has nutrients in it, but this is mainly for heavy root feeders and even then its probably not enough in high light and with CO2. I'm not sure how reliant HC is on its leaves and the water column to absorb iron and other nutrients, but it's probably a good idea to dose the water column too for such a finicky plant. I'm growing it emersed right now myself.


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## fhqwhgads (Jan 18, 2005)

i'm pretty sure its iron, i had the same problem a few weeks ago, and it took a week or two, but the plants are super green now


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

fhqwhgads said:


> i'm pretty sure its iron, i had the same problem a few weeks ago, and it took a week or two, but the plants are super green now


So what did you do to make it green again? Did you dose flourish? or flourish iron or other chemical?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I would skip Flourish Iron. Dosing just iron is a luxury, not a necessity. You may want to try dosing plain Flourish. But, if you have shrimp, you should be careful. I personally have never had issues with it in my shrimp tanks, but it does contain copper. You may also want to dose other things. I would try dry ferts, because it is cheaper, although in a 3g, you won't need much.


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

I had my first dose of regular flourish 4 days ago, and I dosed again yesterday....but the HC aren't improving...
It seems there are more brown leaf showing up too...

-I am using a 2x13 watts CF tube fixtures and another 26 watts spiral CF bulb.
-Co2 content is approx. >30ppm (drop checker = greenish/yellowish color)
-Ammonia / Nitrite = 0
-Nitrate = >0, <5
Water KH = 6

Hope someone can give me more help here...:redface:


Btw...I also have a bunch of hairgrass in there, and there are around 5-6 stems of grass also turning into brown color. (out of maybe 300+ stems...so it doesn't look bad)

Anything I should do other than wait?


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

Oh...btw photoperiod is approx. 8-12 hrs / day.
There are about 15 shrimps in there now

I had some algae problem before, but after dosing excel and increasing co2, they are pretty much all gone.


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## ashy4uk (Mar 3, 2008)

You need iron in there & your nitrates are low too. You need to aim for about 10ppm. Iron will definitely help though, add daily.


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

I don't know why nitrates is so low either...!! It was around 10-15ppm a few weeks ago, I did some small partial water change but nothing significant...

Is it possible that the plants are sucking up all the nitrates? I actually don't mind if they take out the nitrates, but will it affect the beneficial bacteria and nitrogen cycling things?

Should I feed the shrimp more to produce more nitrates?


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## Choco (Dec 8, 2007)

THanx for the suggestions...

I am considering taking a small scissor and cutting all the brown leafs...(that way, it will be easier for me to see if the brown leafs are developing or not)

Is it a good idea? Can the brown leaf kinda revert back to green later? or once they are brown, they won't go back and will fall off eventually?


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

brown leaf basically means the leaf is dead. I do have a yellow leaf that's growing roots though; very odd looking 

Don't accidently uproot any hc when you're cutting! It's such a pain.


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