# Water lettuce dying?



## Empress Akitla (Nov 17, 2011)

My LFS got some water lettuce in and I thought what the heck, I’ll give it a shot. I would love to have some floating plants in my 55 gallon, except I seem to excel at killing off frogbit and duckweed. Even the small kind. I think it might be because the outflow on my filter sinks them, but that’s only the small duckweed.

Anyway, this big water lettuce plant I got from the LFS looked lovely when I brought it home. Had fluffy roots, big green leaves. But now the outer leaves are turning yellow at the edges and kind of shriveling? Also, it had been sitting more upright, but now it’s kind of flattened out on the surface of the water.

Is it getting too much light? Not enough light? It has light for about 4 hours from the tank hood in the morning and then about 2 hours of indirect(ish) sunlight in the late afternoon. It’s sitting in my 10 gallon quarantine tank right now with some java moss and fern that are doing well, so I don’t know what’s up. Is it ferts? I dose micros when I do water changes, but this tank has no fish in it currently as it’s cycling, so is it missing macros?

Thank you in advance to anyone who answers!

-Empress Akitla


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

What fertilizer are you using? Duckweed is very tolerant on light levels so if that is dying it is most likely a nutrient deficiency. Not light or CO2.


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## Empress Akitla (Nov 17, 2011)

Surf said:


> What fertilizer are you using? Duckweed is very tolerant on light levels so if that is dying it is most likely a nutrient deficiency. Not light or CO2.


I use the fish in the tank for macros and use Seachem Flourish for micros.

-Empress Akitla


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## infolific (Apr 9, 2016)

My water lettuce will curl its leaves when I remove it from my glass covered tanks to a temporary, open top container. I believe it is due to a change in humidity. As a test I moved some to the same container, but used plastic wrap to cover the container. No curling.

I've also seen water lettuce go downhill if the leaves get and stay wet from splashing. Even an airstone generating bubbles creates enough splashing.


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## mbkemp (Dec 15, 2016)

This stuff is exposed to direct sun light in its normal world. Light will not be too strong. 

Flow can be an issue. Neither like wet leaves too much. More than anything else these guys are nutrient hogs. If macros are low they are not happy. If you stay with only fish load as a source thin it out a little


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> What fertilizer are you using? Duckweed is very tolerant on light levels so if that is dying it is most likely a nutrient deficiency. Not light or CO2.
> 
> I use the fish in the tank for macros and use Seachem Flourish for micros.


Fish can supply some of the nutrients plants need but unless you have an overstocked tank and do few water changes you likely are not going to have enough macros. If you water tests shows no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate you are deficient in nitrogen, If your water shows less than 0.5 ppm phosphate you are short on phosphate. The GH test will probably indicate some calcium or magnesium in the water but it won't tell you if you are short magnesium or calcium. and then there is sulfur and potassium. So in short you are guessing your fish are providing enough macros. Give your plants are dying you probably are short on at least one macro. Flourish is deficient in nitrogen, calcium, copper and zinc. So in all likelihood you are also short some micro nutrients.


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## Frank158 (Oct 1, 2013)

Water lettuce needs very bright light and a lot of it or else it will not do well. What were the lighting conditions in the store and what are you giving it?


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