# Help!! Dying Anubias Nana, and Marselia sp.!!



## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

Also, anyone have experience with marselia sp. Mine is growing very weirdly some is growing more or less straight up, and have a wrinkled appearance, also alot are yellowing on the tips too. What signs of deficiency does this show and how do i fix this??










I should just give up on live plants -_-

If it is a K and Fe deficiency i can go out and grab some API leafzone at the closest petsmart.


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## BaltimoreGuy (Dec 23, 2009)

Maybe Iron? Here's a nice picture diagram showing common deficiencies.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/62876-plant-deficiency-picture-diagram.html

Edit: That looks like eco-complete... If that's the case Iron shouldn't be a problem.. I'd wait for a pro to chime in.


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## xmas_one (Feb 5, 2010)

Looks like you buried the rhizome. That is a no-no.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

no the rhizome is not burried, must be a bad angle.










hers another shot


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## xmas_one (Feb 5, 2010)

What are your water parameters? 

Has the tank been properly cycled?


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

Looks like Iron deficiency to me especially the clover.


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

Potassium maybe? I had some yellowing leaves on my ludwigia and flourish potassium helped. 

My anubias is attached to driftwood and all I dose in that tank is excel every other day. They are doing great.


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## StaleyDaBear (Apr 15, 2010)

gotta think too that there could be some acclimation going on. It was set up a week ago? using walstad? There has got to be some purgatory period while your system gathers the necessary nutrients, and parameters. Any fauna? Dosing anything right now would probably be an alright idea. As well as co2 until the tank gets over the hump as it were . . .


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## TheVisionary78 (Mar 6, 2010)

My anubias nana does this from time to time on it's own usually after a large water change but bounces back after about a week. I brought it back with iron supplement and moved it to a different area of the tank. I don't bury the roots on any of my anubias plant.


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## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

What soil are you using?


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

I am using miracle gro organic potting mix.

The last time i checked water parameters i only checked ammonia and nitrites which were both 0.

I just went out and got some leafzone stuff, which has mainly K and some 0.1% Fe so im gonna start dosing that and see how it goes, some peopel are saying Fe some are saying K, should i just dose both?? I have a bottle of flourish Iron as well. 

and yes i am using Ecocomplete substrate.

Any other suggestions or comments i missed?

Any idea why the marselia is growing kinda flat and straight up?

Oh and to the fauna question i have 2 Dps in the tank, as well as other plants.


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## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

What soil are you using under the ecocomplete? Where did you get it from?


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

kilfrg7864 said:


> I am using miracle gro organic potting mix.


thats the soil i am using as recommended by ms. walstad herself


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## StaleyDaBear (Apr 15, 2010)

well, the water column looks good as indicated by the crypts and anubs you have tied to that driftwood. So I would either root tab your substrate or maybe it got impacted some how and wont let roots grow very well. Break it up a little bit at a time as to not turn your aquarium into a giant tea party and get some CEC going on in there ...


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

I've read that anubias actually need quite a bit of iron and the yellowing leaves is a sign of the deficiency so, adding a root tab, which would have good amounts of iron and potassium, is probably the way to go.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

Since i am using eco complete as well as topsoil, shouldnt i not need to use root tabs?

Anyone know why my marselia is beginning to look wrinkled? I dont know if its new growth or the older growth but they are starting to go up as shown in the picture on page one and they texture of the leaf looks like i said wrinkled.


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## StaleyDaBear (Apr 15, 2010)

kilfrg7864 said:


> Since i am using eco complete as well as topsoil, shouldnt i not need to use root tabs?


Root tabs provide the macro nutrients your plants need, which eco-complete does not supply. So I would tab it.


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

Admittedly, I don't know enough about growing aquatic plants in top soil and I too would have assumed it would have enough nutrients, at least for awhile but your pictures really look like an iron deficiency to me so, a root tab would be a really easy fix.

EDIT: Did you already buy Leaf Zone? If so, give that a try for a week or two before investing in root tabs. Since most of us grow healthy anubias without roots in the substrate, I would think that liquid iron would be just fine.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

haha yea i alrdy did buy leafzone. But i think i went crazy on the minerals. i dosed leaf zone which is mostly K. I dosed flourish miconutrients, and i dosed flourish iron, and i put down some root tabs for the marselia and the anubias haha. 

can i over fert with those to a point where it can harm the fish?


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

You could get a serious algae bloom.


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## StaleyDaBear (Apr 15, 2010)

No. Your nutrients will not harm the fish. The only real harm you can do when dosing is adding a lot of KNO3 which ups your nitrates. It would have to be a lot to get to a toxic point, but the sudden fluctuation would cause serious stress on your fish, which could cause problems even deaths. What you dosed is Ok for this tank. My advice would be to dose a 1/2 dose of flourish every day to keep your NPK's aka Macro's up so your plants can use the Micro's. A little extra fish food will take care of the lack of phosphate in your Flourish.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

okay, so i took a trip over to my LFS today, and i noticed their marsellia that they have in their tanks in little pots are WAYY healthier than the ones that i planted that i got from them. I think they are alrdy all in their submerged form.

But there was tons of growth outside of the pot (free floating) and the roots of the marselia were white!! but when i look at the roots of the ones in my overflow tank (tank i use for excess trimmings/extra plants and such) they are BROWNish... ut oh.... this cant be good. Anyone know what this means when the roots are black, and the stem/runner areas are getting brown spots? The picture you can see all this happening, the bronze brown roots that will turn black, and the burnt/brown patches along the different parts of the plants.










i swear its just one problem after another with me and live plants(yes i am the same person having troubles with java fern as well), and how crappy my water is here


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## justinq (Dec 6, 2006)

I'm not sure about the root problems with your marsellia, but I have some thoughts about the yellowing of your leaves. I haven't used the Walsted method, but I have a tank set up using mineralized top soil capped with Ecocomplete. Like the method your using, the plants are supposed to get most of their nutrients from the soil. However, there is supposed to be an acclimation period while the rooted plants actually get their roots down into the soil. I know my cap was deeper than my anubias' roots when I first got them, and I had a similar problem to you with the leaves suddenly turning yellow, and me wondering why when anubias are supposed to be the easiest thing to grow. My cryptocoryne ciliata also did the same thing, so it wasn't just an anubias thing. What I did was buy some root tabs and put them directly under/next to the anubias' roots. This seemed to provide the boost the plants needed until they grew out enough to get down into the good stuff. I know they're not "supposed" to need root tabs with these methods, but like anything else things vary with the setup. I'd try some root tabs instead of the water column ferts, because like others have said, your other plants look great. Pop some under the anubias and marsellia and give it a while. They both grow slow so they might not show any improvement for a while, so in my experience as long as they don't continue to look like they're getting worse, they'll bounce back eventually. Hope that helps.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

justinq i will do that! thanks!

so i switched from my pure tap water, to 1/2 tap 1/2 DI water, and it brought my pH to about 7.5 ish im starting to dose excel, iron, and k. But look at what happened to my marselia over night










the next day









look at the huge chunk that died in the backish middle. that was a HUGE chunk, and for some reason it seems like over night the whole thing just died. I have no clue what im doing wrong :-/ really i dont.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

here are more updated pictures over light this can happen :-/ suggestion? other plants in my tank seem to be doing fine


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

check your PH also


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

hrm, just checked the pH in the tank and the tank pH is up to 8.4 ish. Which is strange because the water im adding was around 7.5. Possibly from the eco complete raising the pH?


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

It takes a while to drop the pH from water changes. Two 50% or more water changes should get it down.


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## dj2005 (Apr 23, 2009)

Just in case you are still wondering about the Marsilea root color:
Brown means they have been sucking in nutrients for a while. White roots are new roots and will turn brown in time. Brown roots are a good thing.

I'm not sure why your Marsilea is dying. My pH is about 8.0 and the stuff grows great for me.


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## kilfrg7864 (May 7, 2010)

hrm... maybe i will just grab some c. parva for a foreground haha


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

dj2005- The marsilea you sold me is going nuts in my tank. It took it a couple weeks to settle in, but the new leaves it's throwing off now are HUGE compared to the one's it originally had. They are about two inches tall, with big leaves, but it's staying all nice and closely grouped. I absolutely love it! :biggrin:

I have c. parva in my tank too, and I really like this plant as well. It grows _really_ slow, but it's very pretty. Mine keeps it's leaves about an inch off the substrate, at most. As it is a crypt, expect it to melt some, and it takes some time to get adjusted, but it should be fine.


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