# Help! Anubias Yellowing :(



## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

My Anubias Nana plants are the only ones in my newly planted tank that are forming yellow spots on all leaves. Ammonia at 0. Nitrites, Nitrates at 0, and pH is about 8. Tank has been up for about 4 weeks. 5 Zebra Danios have been in there since 3 weeks ago.

Any ideas as to what could be doing this? I'm running a low light, low tech tank, so there won't be any Co2 added and I have only 1wpg of light...sufficient for anubias. If I need fertilizers, what do I use and will it harm danios, rasboras, corys, and gouramis? I read some ferts may harm fish so I want to avoid that!







Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


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## DAS9 (Dec 27, 2009)

I wish I could help, but I'm just a newcomer. However, am I correct in understanding you are only feeding the plants with what the Danios provide naturally? We've been adding some liquid plant food to our new tank, since it is new. Don't know if eventually we can stop that as we get more fish added and provide a better biomas for the plants to feed off of.

Also the small circular nature of these yellow spots makes me wonder if that is really a nutrition problem. Hope someone else is able to nail this down for you.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

DAS9, thanks for your input. Yes, right now the only "food" for the plants is what ever is available in the tank. With anubias, they get their nutrition from the water, not from being planted into substrate like some of the higher light plants.

What kind of plant food are you adding to your tank?


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## DAS9 (Dec 27, 2009)

It is Kent's iron and manganese plant food. My 10 gal has two anubias, one wrendt?, and another I've forgotten the name of but send delicate 1" leaves to the surface. The 29 gal has 1 amazon sword, 3 or 4 white ribbons, 3 or 4 Kyoto grass. Will be looking to add some more top the 29 gal. 

Good luck. I'll watch for responses to your querry. Hope someone has some answers for you.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Thanks again! I'm wondering if it isn't some kind of iron or potassium deficiency....


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## choylifutsoccer (Jan 2, 2010)

One of my friends that work at the local fish shop told me that using Flourish root tablets almost instantly helped his yellowing plants turn green again.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Yeah, I've read that the Flourish line of products produce good results. I would try the tabs, but the anubias are attached to driftwood...their roots aren't established in the soil yet.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Root tabs won't help this situation, they are used for heavy root feeders. You need to be dosing a general fert and npk to help. Also a liquid iron. Flourish carries a full line of ferts that is good and if dosed per directions won't harm your fish. In a low light situation you can dose the tank once a week after your water change and it will help a lot.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Thanks so much. I will be going to my lps today to buy these.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Flourish or Kent have been the only two to visibly show results in a matter of days. You need to dose, I am using 1-0-0 and iron/mag from kent this past fert pickup and its showing faster results then flourish. 

I got some anubias but thats all that I know that I have, I have no clue what the other plants are but I doubled the lights and started using kent and wow. I am trimming twice a week now.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

If I'm dosing ferts from more than one bottle, do I add them all at the same time after my water changes??? Just how often should I be changing the water now that I have plants and am dosing? I was going to do 20% changes twice a week...


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Oh, and what about the carbon in my filter? I've read it removes some nutirents from water... True or False? Will it remove my fert doses?


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Ok, so here's an update, or lack there of *td I went to my lfs and not only was the guy I needed to talk to not there, but they had none of the Flourish product line in stock! Looks like I'll be ordering from good ole Drs Foster & Smith!!!!

I was going to get the Florish (reg.) and the NPT (the big three 

Does this sound sufficient? 

Thanks again for all the help
*c/p*


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

That would be good for ferts. On water changes I would do 30% once a week unless your tank is over stocked.

I dose a different route, I use dry ferts, but I also have 26 tanks so its cheaper for me to go this route. I also EI dose which is dosing everyday and doing 50% water changes each week.

If you can post picks of your plants we might be able to give you the names of the plants you have.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Ok thanks Susan. I'll order those. With that many tanks, i'm sure dry dosing would be less expensive. I start doing just 30% water changes once a week. Wow, that sounds very easy  I'm glad I'm going the planted tank route.

p.s. I believe it was WhiteDevil who didn't know which types of Anubias he had. I have two nanas...I would love to get some nanas petite and use them for more "ground coverage" in the center of the tank.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

I also removed the carbon from my filter, added a sponge in it's place...and added a prefilter to my intake. Looks like once I get those ferts in I'll be good to go


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Is it safe to add the macro ferts the same time as micro??? I stumbled upon something saying that you couldn't but I had no luck find any more info on it.


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## choylifutsoccer (Jan 2, 2010)

Sweet Tee said:


> I also removed the carbon from my filter, added a sponge in it's place...and added a prefilter to my intake. Looks like once I get those ferts in I'll be good to go


What kind of sponge did you use? I may have to remove my carbon filter cartridge and use a sponge too. *w3


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

My filter is an AquaClear...so I used the sponge that fits those filters. Great filters BTW.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

The way I do it is I dose the macros the day after I dose the the micros. But I dose everyday. You can dose them even an hour after dosing the other. Any kind of aquarium sponge that can be cut to fit can be used. I usually use aquaclear sponges in all of my filters. With cleaning them out during water changes they will last for a long time.


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

Susan I cannot thank you enough! I am so grateful for all the help I have received!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Anytime, thats what were here for.


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## spawn (Sep 21, 2009)

since this plant is a slow grower, you can easily be dealing with a chronic state of nutrient deficiency (seems to be low iron chlorosis for the yellowing, magnesium is also possible but id agree its Fe) and these ferts you are dosing may not have time to correct it for that round of growth you are seeing. matter of fact I can't recall one single time in ten years that a cholorotic leaf ever corrected itself, it's always the next round you have to check, so expect that leaf to get worse even if you correct your nutrient issue.

Id look more to your new shoots and make sure they are normal, if so just prune these when they get ready. a little algae isn't terrible, unless your tank is years old I'd consider it normal as it's still balancing relative to what you keep in it and how you feed and clean it. steady states take a while.

also, even though you listed faster growing plants the amount you'd have to have relative to your bioloading and fert addition would have to be astounding to uptake all that business. In other words, even your fast growers aren't dense enough to really scrub the system for you, although they are still fast growing. you should step up water changes imo for a while and use a low dose sustrate fert pellet to keep ferts out of the water column, not the heavy phosphorous ones be sure and check the lable to make sure these major nutrients and balanced by micro ones as well. There are some pellet fertilizers for tanks that are just phos, potassium and nitrate and those are algae farms although they will sprout the heck out of your plants. You can also cheat 99% of this process by using an oversized UV light although most will recommend a natural approach. When I put one onmy tank it corrected the problem for me, -then- i learned the natural approach and used it on other tanks.


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