# Help Needed with Anubias



## Ashraf (Oct 7, 2014)

The optimum water params for anubias:

1 part oxygen, two parts hydrogen

Guppies are optional


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## Goldie (Aug 27, 2015)

The only thing I can think of is you have the light much too high? This is seriously the easiest plants to grow, I haven't been able to kill it yet.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Describe how the anubias went bad for you, you might have bought infected plant(s) with the disease rhizome rot, if an infected plant is introduced to a tank with other anubias it will spread to them and ultimately kill off all the anubias if not dealt with rapidly. Anubias is a very durable aquarium plant as as long as its not infected with above mentioned illness the only other thing that kills it when under water is having its rhizome buried, its better to tie it to decor/rock/driftwood or tie it to an anchor and bury the anchor (i use glass beads stuffed into the substrate). I grow anubias in 7.5 pH and hard water, low to medium light with very little ferts (excel daily and other ferts when ever I remember but maybe once a week-excel just to keep algae at bay). Since its slow growing it is prone to getting algae growths on the leaves but anubias leaves are durable so it can tolerate a bleach dip and gentle wipe off with a damp towel/paper towel to remove algae. 
Above water(emmersed) anubias needs very high humidity I think 85-90% or more or else its leaves dry out and the rhizome may dry out too (best to wrap rhizome in live moss to keep it moist).


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## FuzzyMuffin (Jan 26, 2015)

I've never had a problem with my Anubias. They're in my low tech 5gal and continue to put out new leaves. 

I have very hard water, pH 8.2, lighting is two 7 watt, full spectrum, compact fluorescent bulbs. I dose excel and flourish weekly. I use to dose excel more often, but then I had an algae outbreak that took out most of my moss, so I lowered the dosing and have yet to have a problem, and I would say the growth rate is about the same for my anubias. The substrate is a mixture of flourite and Mr. Aqua soil, about 2in deep. To avoid rhizome rot I tied my plants to river rocks or driftwood, to make sure none of the rhizome got buried. 

I did have a problem a while back when I was dosing aquarium salt for a case of fin rot in my betta. I think there was also calcium build up on the leaves (water, extremely hard) so trying to scrape that off + salt really did a number on them. It didn't take long for them to put out new leaves though, and now a month or two later you can't even tell it happened. They're extremely hardy plants, some of my favorites.


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## brandon4432 (Sep 7, 2015)

AquaAurora said:


> Describe how the anubias went bad for you, you might have bought infected plant(s) with the disease rhizome rot, if an infected plant is introduced to a tank with other anubias it will spread to them and ultimately kill off all the anubias if not dealt with rapidly. Anubias is a very durable aquarium plant as as long as its not infected with above mentioned illness the only other thing that kills it when under water is having its rhizome buried, its better to tie it to decor/rock/driftwood or tie it to an anchor and bury the anchor (i use glass beads stuffed into the substrate). I grow anubias in 7.5 pH and hard water, low to medium light with very little ferts (excel daily and other ferts when ever I remember but maybe once a week-excel just to keep algae at bay). Since its slow growing it is prone to getting algae growths on the leaves but anubias leaves are durable so it can tolerate a bleach dip and gentle wipe off with a damp towel/paper towel to remove algae.
> Above water(emmersed) anubias needs very high humidity I think 85-90% or more or else its leaves dry out and the rhizome may dry out too (best to wrap rhizome in live moss to keep it moist).



The Anubias slowly died off and lost all its leaves. I have very soft water. Does Anubias prefer hard water? I also had somewhat high lights.. But it was in a corner that was slightly shaded. 


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I have lots of success with other plants, as you can see in my profile picture. So I'm not an amateur but I haven't had success with Anubias yet 


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FuzzyMuffin said:


> I've never had a problem with my Anubias. They're in my low tech 5gal and continue to put out new leaves.
> 
> I have very hard water, pH 8.2, lighting is two 7 watt, full spectrum, compact fluorescent bulbs. I dose excel and flourish weekly. I use to dose excel more often, but then I had an algae outbreak that took out most of my moss, so I lowered the dosing and have yet to have a problem, and I would say the growth rate is about the same for my anubias. The substrate is a mixture of flourite and Mr. Aqua soil, about 2in deep. To avoid rhizome rot I tied my plants to river rocks or driftwood, to make sure none of the rhizome got buried.
> 
> I did have a problem a while back when I was dosing aquarium salt for a case of fin rot in my betta. I think there was also calcium build up on the leaves (water, extremely hard) so trying to scrape that off + salt really did a number on them. It didn't take long for them to put out new leaves though, and now a month or two later you can't even tell it happened. They're extremely hardy plants, some of my favorites.



Thanks for your help, i felt bad posting this because of the people who would doubt my ability in the planted tank world. I've had success with all plants but this one. Does a water softener put any source of salt in the water? 


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Goldie said:


> The only thing I can think of is you have the light much too high? This is seriously the easiest plants to grow, I haven't been able to kill it yet.



I've never killed it, just had melt back and not any new leaves grow big and strong. Just small wimpy leaves 


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Ashraf said:


> The optimum water params for anubias:
> 
> 1 part oxygen, two parts hydrogen
> 
> Guppies are optional


A little calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, iron, etc. mixed in will help too.

Seriously, anubias grow pretty slowly, don't need a lot of light, and, as a result can do fine without adding CO2, but they still do need some of the basic nutrients, and a source of bio-available carbon or they may just barely grow. If you prefer that they grow faster, adding more light, with pressurized CO2, and a good fertilizing plan, such as described in http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 will let them grow faster, but the downside is that avoiding algae will be much harder.


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## falcooo (Sep 30, 2011)

I'm sure someone covered this, but I didn't read all of the comments.....if the rhizome is buried, then it will slowly die off as described. The rhizome must be attached to wood or rock above substrate.


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## brandon4432 (Sep 7, 2015)

Hoppy said:


> A little calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, iron, etc. mixed in will help too.
> 
> 
> 
> Seriously, anubias grow pretty slowly, don't need a lot of light, and, as a result can do fine without adding CO2, but they still do need some of the basic nutrients, and a source of bio-available carbon or they may just barely grow. If you prefer that they grow faster, adding more light, with pressurized CO2, and a good fertilizing plan, such as described in http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 will let them grow faster, but the downside is that avoiding algae will be much harder.



The setup they were in has them tied to driftwood, co2 and a complete flourish dosing plan including flourish comp, iron, potassium, phosphorous, Nitrogen, and trace. It also has somewhat of highlight 


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## brandon4432 (Sep 7, 2015)

falcooo said:


> I'm sure someone covered this, but I didn't read all of the comments.....if the rhizome is buried, then it will slowly die off as described. The rhizome must be attached to wood or rock above substrate.



Yes I know that, the Anubias has always been tied to driftwood or such. 


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Anubias is a very easy plant, slow grower, but can survive most conditions. Only thing I can think of is either the temp was too high (over 84*) or I have heard a sort of Anubias "disease". I can't recall too much of what I heard, but I believe a section of the rhizome would be black and could spread to all the Anubias in the tank and they would all die. Some searching and you should find what I am talking about.
Only explanations I can think of.


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## Vreugy (Sep 23, 2014)

I have anubias in my 55g. Nothing special is done to the tank except water changes. Anubias are tied to drift wood or rocks. I do not fertilize or use co2 and have had two Anubias bloom. I do have high light and it is on 11-12 hours a day. I do have algae, but it doesn't bother the anubius.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Yes there is apparently a disease called 'rhizome rot' or something that eats away at all your anubias. I've never had it but people have complained about it happening before.

I can't really see why anubias would die under normal conditions - like others have said it is basically impossible to kill.

I had some tufts of nana petite that struggled badly and almost completely got killed when I dosed excel. After I stopped dosing they bounced back from basically nothing - the plant is ridiculously resilient.


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## brandon4432 (Sep 7, 2015)

Would snails that happen to bite through a leaf( leading to the death of that leaf) cause the plant to die off? 


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

They can handle the snails but they probably can't handle the soft water. 
Feed them and they should do fine.


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## brandon4432 (Sep 7, 2015)

BruceF said:


> They can handle the snails but they probably can't handle the soft water.
> Feed them and they should do fine.



Awe the soft water! Finally a actual answer. I do fertilize but what do you recommend 


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

We have a fair amount of calcium in our water and I add extra magnesium and dose a higher level phosphate to that along with the typical ei dosing. 

But if you have soft water to begin with try growing growing plants that prefer soft water.


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## brandon4432 (Sep 7, 2015)

BruceF said:


> We have a fair amount of calcium in our water and I add extra magnesium and dose a higher level phosphate to that along with the typical ei dosing.
> 
> But if you have soft water to begin with try growing growing plants that prefer soft water.



The tank in growing Anubias in right now is meant to be a Anubias only tank 



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## FuzzyMuffin (Jan 26, 2015)

Can you bipass your water softener? If that's what's making the water soft. That's what I do for my tanks, I just take from the water faucets that don't go through the softener. For my 5gal I actually mix half hard and half soft (so I can get the right temp during water changes, the hard water doesn't go through a water heater so it's always freezing) and it works fine. 

I heard adding cuttlebone to a tank will add calcium to the water, but that was mostly just to benefit snails, I'm not sure if it works the same with plants.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

We have very soft water from the tap, TDS 20-25. 
I add a very small dose of Salty Shrimp GH/KH to my non-shrimp tanks. 

Other remineralizer options are Seachem Equilibrium (K and Ca are first two ingredients), and Replenish (Ca is first ingredient). 

What's your tap water like, *Brandon4432*?


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## FuzzyMuffin (Jan 26, 2015)

I do believe a softener will put salt in the water. I use half soft water, half hard water. Our hard water doesn't go through a water heater, so I mix the two to get a proper temp. and haven't had any problems while doing that. Perhaps that's something you could try?

EDIT: omg I think I've been double posting. Buh, this new layout is confusing me lol


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