# Bolbitis heudelotti - turning brown/black



## binesh (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi All, 

I have few healthy rhizomes of bolbitis heudelotti and i keep getting new leaves every 4 days however the issue i have is that the new leaves remain green and healthier however the moment that rhizome shoots a new leaf the older leaves starts truning transparent, becomes brown/black and stays like that thereafter....this is happening to each and every old leaf. i have increased the dosing of k2so4 and kno3 as well but it does not seem to help. there is enough water circulation. These bolbitis rhizomes are with me from last 1 and half years and they have always shown this pattern. 

my current tank specs - 
40x18x18 inch, 2x54watt T5HO for 8 hrs, PMDD dosing (increased by 30-40% in last 2 weeks). 2-3 bps presurrized co2. 
filteration - one sunsun 1000l/h canister and one ehiem 500 l/h canister. 

attaching 3 pics, one of the oldest leaf which is almost black, one relatively old which is slightly brown and one of multiple new leaves which are healthy and green. 

all other plants have grown without any issues. 

Cheers, 
Binesh TD.attachrow {	BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #000000; FONT: 11px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #000000}TD.attachheader {	BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #000000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d1d7dc; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #000000; FONT: 11px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #000000}TABLE.attachtable {	BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse; FONT: 12px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #000000}


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## Psionic (Dec 22, 2011)

I had that problem with mine in my high tech also. I'd remove the older leaves and new healthy smaller ones would grow in. Same cycle of larger ones turning black tips. I put it in a low tech tank and none of them have gotten any black tips since then. Everything else in the tank was healthy, it had good current, dosing and light were fine also. It just puzzled me. 

I believe the leaves will go semi-transparent for high light tanks.


-Val


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## toddziegler (Aug 16, 2011)

They grow better in a lower light set up. You can do what I did and put plants around them that will provide dappled shade. That's how I grow mine in a high light tank.


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## binesh (Jun 14, 2010)

I agree that they do good in low tech setup....i would say in less light to be precise, mine grows more tansparent and light green under direct light however i have no clue the reason for black tips/dots only on old leaves...read somewhere that it may be due to excess iron in the water (mine is a direcet borewell water and tend to agree that it has high content of iron because when i tried a small dose of csm b sometime back my tank was infested with thread/hair algae which is a clear sign of very high iron content)

I have stopped dosing micro from this week onwards and will see if that helps.

I have a hobbyist friend from whom i got the rhizome about 2 years back and it still grows dark green with him including old leaves...his current setup is hi tech but still. The only difference is that his tap water is probably soft and has less mineral content as its majorly from a local river.

Cheers,
Binesh


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## binesh (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi All,

Just to update, problem was the hard water. in my new setup i am using commercial canned water which is supposed to be relatively soft and the same bolibitis rhizome was grown and all the leaves remain green and healthy.

Thanks,
Binesh


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