# Argentine Sword leaves turning white



## Wheely34 (Jul 15, 2011)

I'll be picking up some Excel today and will be dosing it with that. I also have Flourish potassium and iron ferts on order. And like I said, I'll have my T5 fixture here very soon.

EDIT: Hmm, now that I'm looking again, all the plants are starting to whiten at the leaves. Is there a deficiency somewhere? I know the tank has very low light as of present, but that doesn't seem like it could be the problem.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

That's what happens when plants don't get enough light bro.


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## VeeSe (Apr 16, 2011)

Those are emersed leaves. They will all (or almost all) die off eventually when submerged. At the very least, growth of those leaves will stop completely. The timeframe you provided is a little fast though. It shouldn't start happening immediately (within a few hours).


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## alex009 (May 21, 2011)

VeeSe said:


> *Those are emersed leaves. They will all (or almost all) die off eventually when submerged*. At the very least, growth of those leaves will stop completely. The timeframe you provided is a little fast though. It shouldn't start happening immediately (within a few hours).


+1
I see these sold in the tubes that Petco sells.


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## Wheely34 (Jul 15, 2011)

Well yes, they were sold in tubes. I will be buying the rest online probably from aquariumplants.com, I figured I would pick these up because Petco was having a buy 2 get one free sale.

So normally, are emersed leaves supposed to die off and new ones grow, taking their place? And jeff, now that I think about it, I think lack of light may be what's going on. I probably receive my new fixture tomorrow, so I'll see what happens after installing it.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

It's been my experience that emersed sword leaves either don't die off, or take months to do so. My guess would be low light is the main problem. Fert dosing is pretty forgiving at low light levels, so unless you are using RO/DI water to fill your tank, I really doubt it's a calcium problem.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

You are seeing submersed grown plants that are acclimating to emmersed growth. YOu will not see any other sort of deficiency in 24 hours. 

They commonly die off quick if damaged. Low light symptoms take forever in swords, not a day.


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## Wheely34 (Jul 15, 2011)

So far, there doesn't seem to be any other issues arising. I'll just have to wait and see what happens, and make sure to only buy plants that are grown submersed :icon_roll


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

OverStocked said:


> You are seeing submersed grown plants that are acclimating to emmersed growth. YOu will not see any other sort of deficiency in 24 hours.
> 
> They commonly die off quick if damaged. Low light symptoms take forever in swords, not a day.



If chlorosis from emersed -> submeresed conversion can occur in a day so can lack of light. I've personally never heard of emersed leaves start to die off and rot in less than a day. I'm guess it might be a combination of the two factors.


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## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

I too bought couple of the small plants from Petco. I think it was less than 7 days ago. I got the Argentina swords and hygrophila corymbosa "Stricta." So far so good. Maybe because these were not well matured ones????
*
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## Bill1366 (Dec 19, 2012)

*Argentine leaves turn white*

I just set up a 100G freshwater tank with overflow and wet/dry filter system plus a canister filter. The substrate is broken coroal. I don't have any fish yet. I started with some plants to start the cycle. I bought An Argentine sword with roots from Petco. It was about 8" high with all green leaves. I placed it it in tank with roots under substrates. After about a week. leaves start turning white and dieing. I have 2 of 20W 5,500K fluorescent light on the top of tank. Is it because low light? 
I will have 2 of 65W 10,000K T8 light tubes. Will that be helpful?
The tank condition is following:
Temp - 75F
PH - 7.8
KH - 105 gm/L
GH - 130
NH3- - <0.3

Can any one give me some advise?

Bill


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