# Anubias in trouble...again



## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

I just can't seem to grow these guys! They do well for a few months, and the last one rotted, and this one...

It all started with a bad outbreak of algae that wouldn't come off the leaves of the anubias, even after a Hydrogen Peroxide dip. I changed up the light to a much higher power and higher kelvin and the leaves just started turning yellow and brown and dying. I moved it to a tiny little tank that only gets light from a window to see if that can help it at all. A few of the leaves are sticking up out of the water though. I heard anubias can live like this, but is there anything else i can do to try and save it? It was expensive...


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

What are you giving it for fertilizer? Anubias, to the extent of my knowledge, grows better when anchored to a piece of rock or driftwood, not in the substrate (mine is the same).


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Mine's been anchored to a rock since I got it. At most I buried the roots, but left the rhizome out of the sub. Here's a picture of it since I trimmed off most of the defective leaves and how I have it attached. Right now there's some ferts in the water since a root tab I was using partly dissolved before I got it buried. I put some of that water into the pico to fertilize it.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

That is a tiny tank! (more like a femto than a pico, haha). Are you sure you're not constricting the plant and/or depriving it of CO2?


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

lol nah, I call it my palmtop tank. I just moved it in there yesterday because I can move that tank away from my tank's light. I don't use CO2 in either of my tanks (probably should in my main tank since it's a high light tank) and the light it's getting right now is just indirect daylight from sitting in a windowsill.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I think less light and no CO2 will do that plant better than high light and no CO2 - I've heard anubias are low-light plants.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Agree,they are low light plants.Could possibly be burn marks on it instead of a defeceincy.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Hello Kehy...

To keep your plants healthy and growing, they need a balance of the proper light, a lot of clean water and a good organic fert dosed regularly.

I have several large, well planted low light, low tech tanks and change half the water weekly. I also dose a liquid hydroponics fert when I replace the tank water.

Plants need macro and micro nutrients to thrive. They get the macros from the large volume and frequent water changes and from the fish. So, it's important to feed your fish a balanced diet.

The micros come from a commerical source in granule, dry or liquid form.

Planted tanks are pretty simple if you provide the basic three.

B


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I hope there aren't fish in that thing. You have way too much gravel in it, IMO. It looks like 1/3 of the capacity is gravel. Gravel is also too big. If you want to grow those dwarf sag, that gravel will probably not be very good for them.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> I hope there aren't fish in that thing. You have way too much gravel in it, IMO. It looks like 1/3 of the capacity is gravel. Gravel is also too big. If you want to grow those dwarf sag, that gravel will probably not be very good for them.


Don't worry, no fish! Just Fred and George, the pond and Malaysian trumpet snails. I'd be a horrible person if I put a fish in there! The dwarf sag is actually rooted in dirt (it's in my palmtop bowl thread here: http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/palmtop-tank-build-20163.html ) and I've actually been expecting these two to die since the day I first got them...Normally there's a xmas moss covered rock in there instead of the anubias, but I switched them out to save the anubias, hopefully.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

BBradbury said:


> Hello Kehy...
> 
> To keep your plants healthy and growing, they need a balance of the proper light, a lot of clean water and a good organic fert dosed regularly.
> 
> ...


I don't think ferts were the problem here, I'm guessing it was more the light. It was growing great, until I messed things up, changing the light (and a light quality that I think caused the algae outbreak to begin with). I do large weekly water changes on both the main and the palmtop tanks, and everyone aside from the anubias seems happy and healthy. My dwarf lilly, for instance has never looked better. I just added root tabs though, I'll see what those do. (NOT to the palmtop bowl!) For the palmtop, I just added some of the water from the main tank after part of a tab dissolved before I could bury it.


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## dsgems (Sep 10, 2011)

I have trouble with my anubias. I have one leaf left with a little root growing. How do I attach it to a rock or something. I think I had it in the substrate to deep. I guess the root, and rhizome was buried. I didn't know it should be above the substrate until it was too late. I may be too late to save it.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

try tying it to a rock or piece of driftwood, if you have it. I like rubber bands, but you can use string to tie the roots and rhizome to the rock/whatever, make sure there's good waterflow around it, and it's getting the right amount of light (in other words, not too much)


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