Hi all,

I am new to fishkeeping and have a 40 litre tank. I have planted the
tank with a Limnophila, a Hygrophila and a Lugwigia. The tank is
usually lit for 12-14 hours with a 15w flourecent bulb. The plants
appear to be doing well, having been in the tank for 4 weeks or so
now, but the edges of the leave on all the plants are going brown.
This is particularly true of the top leaves.

Being a newbie, I am sure I have been overfeeding the fish and have
cut back the amount I feed them as I get the impression the brown
stuff is waste product as it dries to a brown/yellow dust and is
present on the tops of my filter and heater. It also accumulates
around the edges of the tank.

I have cleaned the gravel today and conducted a 25% water change in
the hope of reducing the waste in the water (tank is fully cycled
btw).

I am not feeding the plants any nutirents.

I would therefore appreciate some advice as to whether peopel think
this is waste/algae or something else such as a nutrient deficiency.

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Vimes

First, if they have only been in the tank for 4 weeks, it could be the shock
that's just wearing off on them, probably not 'grown' alot, and when you
seen new shoots here and there, consider taking the old browning leaves
off... but that's up to you.

The brown stuff could be algae, a brown algae, diatom, but it usually
doesn't just settle somewhere, it'll be on the glass where the light doesn't
hit... Try rubbing it off, if it comes off easy, it could be food, and if
it's real slimy it's diatom algae... not a bad thing, just cumbersome... not
sure about the volume on a 40l, can't convert metric for the life of me...
I'd guess that it's a 10-20g tank

Seachem's Flourish and Flourish Excel are nice ferts for anyone starting out
with plants, they're available at almost any LFS, and you may even benefit
from Flourish Iron.... Others with more experience can chime in on that....

the best nutrient a plant can get sometimes is clean water, but a planted
tank doesn't need as many or as large of a water change, more like 10-15%
every OTHER week.... IF it's a light fish load...

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