Jamie Drilling wrote:
Only the hygrophila is showing symptoms so far--new growth is brown.
They are in an aquarium without fish at the moment, two relatively
small plants (approx 8" tall). They are still in the rock-wool packing
but will be moved to a flourite & vermiculite substrate within the next
few days.

55 gallon tank
160 watts full spectrum light
temp 80 F
Whisper filter with carbon
Tetra Flora Pride fertilizer
pH is ~7.3 (our tap water starts at 8.8!)

I don't know the kH or gH because I bought the wrong test kit :{ and it
only tests ammonia, nitrites/nitrates, pH.

I've checked at thekrib.com's nutrient deficiency chart but none of the
symptoms seem to match exactly what's happening with my plants.

Any ideas? (she asked hopefully)
Jamie


cross-posted on *.plants & *.misc


Out of curiosity, how did you get your tapwater pH down to 7.3 from 8.8?
Whatever chemical you used, you must have dumped in a lot. Some
plants don't handle excessively hard water and if you lowered pH but
didn't soften the water, this could be your problem.

Next, be sure of your plant ID. There are a lot of non-aquatic plants
sold as aquarium plants. These will go brown and die no matter what you
do. Cryptocoryne spp. also tend to "rot" when first planted. Many or
all of the leaves will turn to mush and die back to the roots. If there
is adequate fertilizer and the roots aren't disturbed, the plant will
usually start growing again.

With no fish, there probably isn't any nitrate or phosphate around for
the plants to use. Florapride only supplies potash and iron, assuming
fish will supply the nitrate and phosphate. Aquarium Products Plantabbs
work pretty well, so maybe you want to use those in the substrate until
you've added fish. Even afterwards, heavy feeders like swordplants and
Aponogetons apreciate fertilizer at their roots.

Eventually, when you add more plants, you're also going to need a trace
element fertilizer like Flourish, Tropica Master Grow, or Plantex from
www.gregwatson.com.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com