# What is my Anubias telling me?



## jason1245 (Aug 10, 2013)

What is this Anubias telling me? I use root tabs in my tank and excel flourish liquid... Am I over fertilizing the tank? It is growing but not sure what's up with the spots? It's been in the tank for a month now. I've attached a photo. Thanks for the help in advance!


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

How is your nitrates? You also need some potassium. Im not sure what all is in the Flourish, I dose dry ferts.


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## hotwingz (Mar 3, 2013)

Root tabs wont help your anubius. But the flourish will. Your not hurting your plant with ferts. But that is a sign of high nitrates. Change water. Higher amounts and more often. This will help your fish and plants. What's your WC schedule, tank size, amount of fish, filter.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

That is not a sign of high nitrates. I dose nitrates in most of my planted tanks and have had levels near 100ppm and the plants don't care. The fish may. Plants need nitrates to thrive properly.

Anubias is a somewhat slow growing plant. From the looks of it those leaves were on it when you got it. For the most part, don't worry about those. It happens with nearly every plant you put in there and for lower light tanks it seems it is present for a while because....well....they are growing as fast as they can from the light you have. I would worry more about the new leaves that have formed since you put in the tank. Let those be the signs that your tank may be lacking something the plant needs, not any old leaves. This goes for any plant you put in there. Doesn't always happen, but if it does I wouldn't worry about it. The one smaller new leaf looked perfectly fine from the pic.

I do have to ask though...what are you putting root tabs in there for? Do you have a heavy rooted plant that needs it like a Sword/Crypt? This could help your Anubias if it was planted in your substrate but doesn't look that way. Most will suggest to place as you have, but the roots portion can be buried in the substrate as long as you don't bury the rhizome.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Anubias grow very slowly and the older leaves often get algae on them in a tank/w higher lights just cause they've been in there 
for a while. But this looks as if it might be the result of those leaves drying out while you brought home the plant. IF that is the case
the leaf will get more and more yellow and possibly turn brown before it falls off. Best in that case to cut it off once the whole thing
turns yellow. For now they are still absorbing light for the plant. Don't "know" that is the reason, just looks that way to me.
This has a list of nutrient deficiencies and what it looks like on a plant. There is no Phosphates in Flourish. But don't jump and
get some unless you see symptoms of lack of it. Also no Nitrate but the fish waste/food contains some of that. May or may not
be enough. That is why I looked on e-bay and found some of each in small amounts(less than one pound) I could get.
Wisteria will look like Swiss cheese if you don't supplement these along/w the Flourish. But most other plants don't need them
if you don't have high lights. There are exceptions but they will show one or more of those symptoms if so.
Aquarium Gallery - Nutrientdeficiency
Those "live" Neons in there tells me you don't have an ammonia problem.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Don't buy ferts off of ebay unless it is from an aquarium company that sells on ebay! Better off to buy from a reputable site so you know you are getting what you are supposed to. I can put any white substance in a bag and call it anything.

That nutrient deficiency chart is not good to use in this case. Not for those old leaves anyway. Like I said, only pay attention to the new leaves. Most people on the planted sites don't want people using that chart at all as they claim it doesn't do much. TPT used to have it linked right from their main page, but pulled down the link.

I don't agree with high light being the only light level you need ferts.


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## jason1245 (Aug 10, 2013)

I have plants like swords, rotala, jungle Val, and few other rooted plants. My nitrates and nitrites are 0 ppm and ph 7.5. The new growth does look good. The leaves in question are the original ones not new growth. I have a 47 gallon corner aquarium, about 25 inches tall, with a 72 watt HO T5, with about 30 small tetras etc. any other suggestions? Thanks for everyone's input btw.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

If your using Flourish Excel that isn't a fert. Its just a carbon additive


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## jason1245 (Aug 10, 2013)

What should I use for a liquid firt?


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Sorry I mis-read what you said. Flourish is a product name and comes before a few ferts like what I use called Flourish Comprehensive.
You also have Flourish Trace and Flourish Iron. But Flourish Excel is a carbon additive. Flourish Comprehensive is a fair all around
type fert. You might read the ingredients on a few to see what you think contains the most nutrients. Most advocate dry ferts
as they contain more nutrients and you aren't paying for water. Some on here could give you a better list of them but rooted plant include Swords and Crypts and they get nutrients from the gravel/substrate I think primarilly but the other plant(most of which still have
roots) get nutrients from the water and are content to hang their roots in the water. Anubias and Java ferns are examples of plants which
can be planted in gravel or allowed to let the roots just dangle in the water.
Actually the Sea Chem root tabs have a more complete list of nutrients than Flourish Comprehensive but I don't know if much of it
gets into the water to do that much good to plants which take it from the water as opposed to threw their roots.
Someone else on here could answer that one better than I could. They may also have suggestions on dry ferts you can get.
I have never had any negative results from over 400 E-bay purchases in the past 5 years. I have bought some plants which died
but they came from a place where it took over 18 days to ship them to me. Even though I could have asked for my money I did not
as I knew it was going to be questionable if they lived after all that time in the dark and did not consider it to be anyone's fault.
Bought other plants from them after those two and they lived.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Plants are cool off of ebay as long as they are in the same country you are in. I was just saying if I was buying powdered ferts I'd want it to be from a place that I could trust, not some blend of ferts that they made themselves.

Flourish Comprehensive or Leaf Zone are two of the most I see mentioned for liquid general ferts.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

jrman83 said:


> Plants are cool off of ebay as long as they are in the same country you are in. I was just saying if I was buying powdered ferts I'd want it to be from a place that I could trust, not some blend of ferts that they made themselves.
> 
> Flourish Comprehensive or Leaf Zone are two of the most I see mentioned for liquid general ferts.


I believe I have heard you say you use dry ferts. Could we ask which kind ?


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## jason1245 (Aug 10, 2013)

Osmocote tabs from eBay. It has made a big difference on my rooted plants.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Raymond S. said:


> I believe I have heard you say you use dry ferts. Could we ask which kind ?


I get mine here Estimative Index | Aquarium Fertilizer | Green Leaf Aquariums . I don't use the K2SO4 though, I just dose with a gh booster in its place.

You can also get the PMDD pack. It is all you need also.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Main, Main, Dry Fertilizers, Dry Fertilizers,
This came highly recommended but I get the impression that you get one bag of this Micro/Macro already mixed and
how can you split the doses between days that way ? Supposed to dose different ones on ever other day type thing.
Not intending to do that anyway so I will use the ones from Green Leaf as they also are highly recommended.
Going to use up that Flourish Comprehensive first and then will look into these further.
What I bought from e-bay is in small quantities. One came from the U.S. and I'm not really sure about him. Good rating though.
But the other one came from overseas so it's up for grabs on that one but still a good rating.
Thanks for those links.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Been a while since this started. jason1245 did you say that you had or do you have a Pleco in there ? Someone showed me
a picture of some Pleco damage to some plant leaves and it look almost exactly like what you have on the Anubia leaves.
It was on a different kind of plant I think was the reason that it didn't look exactly the same.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I buy from the same place Ben does and am very satisfied with the quality and prices of them. 

I bought from the company you linked to Raymond, years ago and the box was all but destroyed and the ferts were spilled in it, in which case I not only emailed them with pictures as soon as I opened it and written a nice email, but never got a response from them to either tell me off or to offer reimbursment. Not happy with them at all.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

majerah1 said:


> I buy from the same place Ben does and am very satisfied with the quality and prices of them.
> 
> I bought from the company you linked to Raymond, years ago and the box was all but destroyed and the ferts were spilled in it, in which case I not only emailed them with pictures as soon as I opened it and written a nice email, but never got a response from them to either tell me off or to offer reimbursment. Not happy with them at all.


Well that settles it then, it'll be Green Leaf for me. Not a very prudent decision on their part at all.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Yeah I was not very happy. At the time we made more money so it was their loss for sure as I would have easily been a returning customer for so much more.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

So jason did that Anubias come from a tank where they had a Pleco or do you have one ?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

That's not pleco damage. I have had plants that has been damaged by plecos but usually its on softer leaves than anubia.


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