plants turning brown

[RockabillyChick]

some of my plants seem to be turning brown


tank specs:

2.75wpg. i use 2 full spectrum bulbs.
7.8ph
0ammonia
0nitrite
15-30 nitrate, depending on if i've just done a water change or not. the plants do NOT use up all the nitrate.
no co2 and no ferts. i really do not want to setup a co2 system, but i CAN dose with flourish excell, which i know has carbon in it and can sometimes be used instead of co2 for moderately planted tanks with lower light.

i do not have an algae problem. there is a small amount of algae on some of the hornwort, but not enough to bug me.

my hornwort is brown, and all the new leaves on my crypts are brown. the aponogeton is still green, so is the cabomba, hygro, and rotalia indica. swords look normal, and so does the tiger lotus. so really just the hornwort, crypts, and hairgrass.

i don't know what kind the crypts are. they've got a rhysome, most of the leaves have a ruffled edge, but some of the larger ones left from when i first got them are straight-edged. the old leaves are bright green, but new ones are turning a bronze-brown. the leaves look healthy, not rotting or anything, just brown in color.

the hornwort, even the old growth is turning brown. it was very dark, dark green when i first got it, and the new growth was a lot softer and a paler green. now ALL of it is turning brown, even though its still growing like a weed.

the hairgrass also is turning a little brown. there is definately some new growth on them though that is nice and green, but some of the older growth is browning. i believe in this case it's the older growth dying, not some kind of deficiency like in the hornwort and crypts.

so should i start dosing with ferts?

[SueM]

Rocky all plants go thru a transition period when planted. But it seems yours have more then that.

4 Questions..........
What is the Temp? Most plants like cooler temps, for example a lace leaf will melt like butter in over 78.

Well actually these 3 questions go together..... How many fish? How old is the substrate? And what kind of substrate?
As in Nature, the fish will fertilize the plants with their waste, the substrate in nature if more like a mud/clay/fish poop sludge. If you are using just regular gravel and its fairly new. There's nothing there for the plants yet. First, never vacuum your substrate except maybe to clean the very top just for looks. You can get a box of "plant Tabs" and poke them into the substrate by the roots. Another trick that sounds gross but works, is when you clean your filters, rinse it all in the tank!!!! ewww I know, but give it a bit for the major particles to settle into the substrate, then fire the filters back up. Doing this a couple times with new substrate will speed up the buildup up the "sludge".
Once your substrate gets "older" and thicker, you may want to consider getting Malaysian Trumpet Snails. They are the earthworms of the planted tanks (no they don't eat plants) and they will keep the substitute from developing methane pockets. Which are bad news for fish.

[RockabillyChick]

sand substrait. the tank has been setup for about 1.5-2 months now. i have a red honey gourami, 6 glowlight tetras, and 3 otos in the tank, and will add 5 blue tetras as soon as they are done with QT.

the gravel is not new, it was used for my hermit crabs and i didn't bother washing it. there should be plenty of nutrients in there for the plants. but hornwort has no roots and pulls all its nutrients from the water column anyway.

oh yeah, the temp is 78.

[SueM]

cool, Then just getting some plant tabs to give em a boost. And just a very small amount of liquid furts. But go very slow or with your good lighting, you'll get the algea bloom from hell

P.S. we wanna see pictures, sounds like its going to be a gorgeous tank

[RockabillyChick]

it seems like all the other plants are doing great. the only plants that aren't doing so great is the hornwort (i just went to stir up my sand to remove air pockets and started pruning the plants and pulled out a big chunk of hornwort that actually seemed like it was dried out. it was HARD, and brown, and sparce.

the crypts don't seem like they're dying or anything, not like the hornwort. one crypt has 3 babies on the rhyzome, and another, my cat got ahold of when i was setting up the tank, and dragged it under a chair and i didn't notice until about an hour later. so it was all dried up and i pulled all the leaves off, and all the roots, and tossed the rhyzome in, and its got about 3 new plants growing off it and is rooting nicely. its just the two adult plants, all the new growth is bronze-brown. i wonder if i just have a variety that is bronze? i heard that its often hard to ID crypts because they can change depending on the water and lighting.

everything else seems to be doing well. the rotalia is nice and pink and sending out new stalks right and left, the hygro is nice and red like its supposed to be and getting pretty tall itself, the swords are getting huge and all the new leaves are bright red, the tiger lotus' are sending up leaves all the way to the top, which i am cutting off because i want them to stay lower. everything is doing well except for the hornwort, which i thought was supposed to be like the uber beginner moron plant that would thrive no matter what?

[RockabillyChick]

here is a pic of it RIGHT after i planted the hairgrass, from about a week or two ago.

[SueM]

It looks wonderful !!

Be careful stirring up the gravel around the roots, you can set the root growth back. Thats why I prefer to use MTS.

[RockabillyChick]

i'm gonna get some java fern to attach to the driftwood then wait for the hairgrass to grow in before i add anything else.

[RockabillyChick]

hmm, i just googled MTS's and i think my LFS is like.....overrun with them. do they get large? all the ones at the LFS are like less than 1/2" i bet they would give me some for free, every single tank is crawling with them over there......lol

do they stay buried in the substrait? or do they come up often? will they take over the tank? i heard that snails will only reproduce to the level that the tank can support them. then they stop.

[RockabillyChick]

actually, come to think of it, i think i found one the other day in my tank. i didn't know what it was so i pulled it out, since i've been finding the occasional pond snail in there too....

[Magdelaine]

Does your crypt growth look anything like this?

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7553

If so, than you definitely need to add some fertilizer. I since moved this plant to my 29 gallon, to which I add Florish, and the new growth is bright green. Also, I find my plants, especially my hornwort, get brown too...from diatomaceous algae! I run my hands over it and it comes off, leaving nice green grown. As you have a new tank I would double check to make sure it's not something growing ON the plants. And finally, in a book I got from the library, I saw a pic of hornwort that was red/brown from being exposed to too much light. That shouldn't be a prob for you but I thought I would mention it.

BTW, how are your otos doing? I'm having more of an algae problem than you and I'm considering getting some. I think our tanks are about the same age...