prairielilly

I added some anubias nana (and some java fern and java moss) to a (fishless) cycling 10g with 8 PPM ammonia a few days ago. The oldest leaves on the anubias were yellow around the edges when I bought them. I did some research and found that if the oldest leaves are yellowing it indicates a deficiency in certain nutrients. The leaves have been slowly turning yellower over the last few days. So I've also read that you're not supposed to fertilize newly-added plants until they've been in your tank for about a month so you can tell what they actually need and the transfer 'shock' has worn off. So should I remove the yellow leaves, fertilize with say Flourish, or just leave them alone?

Butterfly

I personally would leave them alone
Carol

prairielilly

Makes sense...it's hard for me not to 'fuss' with stuff though. If it were a houseplant, I'd cut it off (and water it less...sorta not the case here )

tom28

ive been told..and have taken them off. the idea being that the plant will waste its energy trying to repair the old leaves even when they are too far gone. by cutting them off it allows the energy to go into new shoots. i found the same thing happened with some of my anubis, i was told its because of its change in water, nutrients, just like fish when added to a new tank cant just plop them in and they are ok like that, takes a little conditioning. presonally id cut them off and let them be for a bit and i think youll see they are ok otherwise youll see the dead leaves just sit there and break down in your tank adding more nasties.

SWilkins

I had a couple of yellow leaves on one of my anubia nana and I cut them off...I could not stop myself. That was over two weeks ago and now I have new little leaves coming on the plant.

Nate McFin

I always remove dying leaves for the same reason Tom stated and I always seem to notice new growth afterword as well. No experience with Anubias though.

prairielilly

I cut them off today. They had gotten worse and also had some algae, so all around I think this will help. Time will tell I guess!

tom28

give it a bit of time... couple weeks at the min and i can almost garentee (sp) it will help

prairielilly

Well, it's been about ten days - on one of the anubias the roots have begun to wrap around the wood, it's nice and green and all appears well. It took the leaf-trimming in stride. The other one (that I moved to another tank) still has nice green leaves, mostly - the oldest leaf looks 'crumpled' like a wadded up piece of paper, and the edges are turning yellow. The roots on that one are turning a yellowish colour too. I'm hoping I didn't kill it.

harpua2002

You won't kill it. Just remove the leaves that don't look so good. I have an anubias plant that I've not only trimmed many times, but also split 4 times and shipped parts of it hundreds of miles away. What I have left is so large it fills the back corner of a 120 gallon. I've had the plant for over 5 years and it's been in 3 different homes in 3 different cities and has probably been moved/upgraded to 10 new tanks.

I'm sure you get the point that it's practically indestructible. LOL

prairielilly

Thought it might be the extra ammonia I dumped in there the other day to keep the cycle going til I get fish on the weekend, or the rotting val I took out yesterday...I'm still kinda concerned about the roots though, as I don't want anything rotting in there and from the colour I thought they might be dead.

It's got a bit of black algae too, which I've never had before. It was on one leaf when I got it. I'd done a bleach dip for snails but got it before I learned about peroxide for algae...will this spread? from what I've read, it's nasty stuff and I should get rid of it, but the plant's semi-attached to a big piece of wood along with other plants and doesn't lend well to removal/peroxide dip. I had thought with live plants you didn't really get algae unless something was 'wrong' ie light or nutrients?

Nate McFin

Could be excess nutrients it could also be a hitchiker algae. I know when I was adding ammonia I had all sorts of algae growth.
The only option I see is removal and peroxide treatment or you could treat with flourish excel which is also a good spot treatment for algae.
The other option is snails. I had some leaves with black algae on a sword and my snail infestation went nuts for it. I am not sure snails for algae is a good trade though. LOL

prairielilly

lol and I was thinking maybe adding a snail, bc that would up the nitrates and I was concerned about too little nitrates...no idea which ones don't create population explosions. I'm a little snail squeamish (ok a lot) - they remind me too much of garden slugs. I've managed to avoid hitchhiker snails so far - I think. It's only been a week!

Can't really remove the anubias without removing the whole piece...it's not exactly bad, think I'll leave it. Indestructible? that suits me fine - I tend to destruct a little too well...

Thanks all!

Fish_wise_man

You should try this tip I just found out that works somewhat successfully for most people.

Take the plants that are growing a bit yellowish out of your tank and put it into a container (filled with water) and then after that find a spot that has a lot of sunlight coming through and if you put the container in front of the window, your plants should receive more nutrients and the plant should be more greener in a few weeks or days. Depending on how sunny it is and how much sunlight you receive. I know that down south there is strong sunlight. Like in Phoenix, Arizona