Water lettuce withering away

what would cause water lettuce to wither/melt away right away ?

 

Did you just plant it?

Some plants do not like the transplanting process and will melt, many will come right back once they settle down. I have no experience with water lettuce so wait for more knowledgeable responses.

 

If it is being kept indoors, it probably is not getting enough light.

 

the guy I got them from just has them under stock florescent lighting in his tanks

so would better lighting fix it ?

 

Also, water lettuce (ironically enough) needs to be kept dry (the top parts, anyway) or they turn brown and die. My LFS had some in a pond, but due to splashing from the waterfall it all disintegrated.

 

I left it floting .,, not good ? how would I get it to grow?

 

Oh it's supposed to float, just I've heard the tops can't get wet. I've never kept it though, so I don't know much more than that.

 

so it floats in water and can't get wet quite the puzzeler lol

 

Good morning,

I've had Dwarf Water Lettuce (DWL)in my pond since early February (very warm here this year) and it gets mostly full sun. Due to too much sun (IMO) the leaves are a very pastel green, very light shade.

When I started my refugium, almost 2 weeks ago, I added some of the DWL to the refugium and some of the coloring is coming back. It looks much better. My lighting is 24w 6500k by Karo. Also it's an energy saver day light bulb. It came with the refugium.

I haven't had any issues with the DWL getting wet. After all , it has been in my pond in the open for months and it has spread big time. Rain, rain, and more rain and the lettuce getting wet...no problem.

These plants are meant to float and not be submerged.

Ken

 

hmm I might try it again

 

Water lettuce soaks up a lot of nutrients make sure you are adding fertilizer.

 

There is some in my container pond.
I also read that they don't like to have their leaves wet.
It also said it likes to be in bunches and suggested cutting the top off a styrofoam cup to corral it.
Since I've done that mine has flourished.
If you've got little plants floating by themselves give that a try.

 

HI everyone,

I am having trouble making my water lettuce thrive in my 4 gallon betta tank. Their roots are staying short/brown, all leaves have yellow edges or are entirely yellow and become transparent as they die off. I've been referring to the guide on and I'm guessing I have an iron deficiency, but I wanted a second opinion. I have a feeling there's a lot "wrong" for my plants, but I really want to understand what's going on before I go out and buy 20 different supplements that I have no idea will/won't work.

Here's some other important details about my tank if it helps:
*no fish in tank (maintaining Nitrogen Cycle with food pellets)
*Tested parameters yesterday (Ammonia: 0ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm, Nitrates: 10ppm, pH 7.8)
*Weekly 25% water changes
*Other plants in tank (anubias nana petite, marimo moss ball) are doing fine
*Add Seachem Flourish twice a week
*Tank lights on for ~6 hours/day
*Tank has lid (to provide humidity)

Am I on the right track with the iron deficiency? Do you guys think it could be anything else?

Thanks!

 

Water lettuce not doing well could be the result of multiple issues. What you're describing does seem like a nutrient deficiency. However, I had massive die-offs from not having enough light, and water movement as well. So first, make sure there isn't a lot of surface movement. And what are you using to light the tank?

After both of these checks off then you can move onto nutrients. Flourish is not a complete fert, but it does contain Iron. That means you probably aren't lacking in Iron. Seems like the issue is the amount of Nitrogen(Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate) in the water.

EDIT: Heres some more info about Seachem Ferts: Seachem fertilizers and what they do

 

Thank you for the thoughtful response! I have been very confused on what is the appropriate amount of water movement for the water lettuce. At first I tried addressing the issue by filling my tank to the point that the water level was the same height as the outpour of my filter. This kept my water lettuce from being submerged, but my LFS guy said my lights were probably burning the leaves. So now the water level is 2-3" below the outpour and I'm not sure if that's good enough.

My lights are the default factory lights that came with the tank. I don't have specifics as I bought the tank off a guy from Craigslist. If my lights are the issue, I'd definitely like to adjust that before using supplements. But where should I start? I don't think I could change the lightbulbs in my light setup now, so would I have to buy a new hood or lid for my tank? It has really weird dimensions (it's a corner tank) so maybe I can jerry-rig a hanging light?

Also, I've been maintaining my Nitrogen Cycle by adding pellets and this is the first time it has gotten to a betta-friendly point. I figured since my nitrates were high, it'd be good enough for my plants, is that wrong? Here are the parameters from the last week:



I took this to mean my nitrogen cycle was back on track since I went through the Ammonia spike, the Nitrite spike and now the Nitrate spike.

 

I've been looking into ways to lessen the water movement for my water lettuce and was debating on getting a sponge filter. Do you think that'd help?

 

HI again, I've got an update with my water lettuce and would really appreciate some further insight if anyone could help. I took some pictures to demonstrate some of the problems I'm having. Since I wasn't sure if the water flow was the issue, I separated my water lettuce and let some of it float around while keeping the rest of the lettuce in this small stationary basket. I'm convinced now the flow is a big issue, but I'm still not getting healthy water lettuce after resolving the flow. So these first pictures are of the water lettuce that have been in the tiny basket.









In the first and third pics, I was trying to capture how my root tips are turning brown. And in the second picture, you can see the edges of the leaves turning clear and then dissolving. Also, while trying to take these pictures, I noticed bits of roots falling off. Is this a nutrient issue? If so, which one? My parameters still show plenty of nitrates and I'm still only using Seachem Flourish.

These next pics are of my water lettuce that have been allowed to float around. I have cheesecloth up (as of this morning) to keep them from drifting from now on, but you can still see they have the brown roots and dissolving leaves.

 

The yellowing can be a sign either of phosphate or potassium deficiency.

In use, Flourish is really only supposed to be use as a micro fert (for supplying iron, magnesium, calcium, etc.). It supplies very little to no nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium.

A better all-in-one solution would be to use NilocG ThriveS as it has a better composition of micro and macro ferts.

You can continue to use Flourish, but you'd need to supplement it with the rest of the Flourish macro line-up (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) which can become expensive and annoying to use.

 

Minnowette, I took your advice and got NilocG ThriveS. It's been about two weeks now, I dose 2x a week, but haven't seen much progress. Granted, I've really been messing up the light cycle (accidentally left it on for over 12 hours/day), but should I be concerned or give it more time?

The current situation is the leaves turn yellow at the edges, then turn clear and disintegrate away. The roots do seem to be doing better! The brown roots seem to be staying brown, but I am seeing a few new roots. The water lettuce is fighting for life. I can see smaller leaves begin to grow, but they just grow so slowly. It's very different than when I first got the water lettuce where it seemed a new leaf grew every other day. Thoughts or ideas?

I've since added Java Moss and I'm beginning to have problems with that, too. I tried aquascaping for the first time, bought a piece of driftwood and some Java Moss to attach to it. I boiled/soaked the driftwood, attached the Java Moss with thread and placed it in my tank for 3 days. I started seeing a white film/fuzz grow on the driftwood, freaked out and removed the driftwood + Java Moss immediately. I found out that the fuzz was normal and returned the driftwood + Java Moss back to the tank after an additional 3 days. The driftwood + Java Moss has been in there for about a week now and some of the Java Moss is beginning to turn brown. Is this due to it being dried out for three days? Or do you think it's another clue as to what nutrient my tank is lacking?

Another thought I had was what if I added both Seachem Flourish and NilocG ThriveS? When I compared the labels of the two, Seachem Flourish has more calcium, boron, chlorine, cobalt, molybdenum, and sodium than the NilocG ThriveS. My struggle is I don't have a good guage of how important any/all of those micro ferts are.

 

but should I be concerned or give it more time?

I'd say it's an issue of time. I think it's important to realise that plants can bounce back from the edge of death, but if too much cellular damage has occurred over a prolonged period of external stressors (such as nutrient deficiency, lack of light, etc.), plants can fail in new growth.

Is this due to it being dried out for three days? Or do you think it's another clue as to what nutrient my tank is lacking?

I don't think it's a nutrient deficiency (which tends to show over a prolonged period of time). It seems more, as you rightly guessed, due to drying out: it might bounce back, it might not. It's difficult to tell.

Java moss (and many other aquatic plants) do melt. In botanic terminology, it's autophagic ("self-eating") Programmed Cell Death: essentially, older cells which are adapted to a previous ecosystem "actively" die in order that cellular components can be recycled, and the resultant nutrients can be directed to new cells that can synthesise enzymes that are better adapted to the current water parameters.

Another thought I had was what if I added both Seachem and NilocG ThriveS? When I compared the labels of the two, has more , boron, , , molybdenum, and sodium than the NilocG ThriveS. My struggle is I don't have a good guage of how important any/all of those micro are.

Flourish is a concentrated micro fert, so it will have a higher concentration of the elements that you've mentioned (which are all micro ferts). However, they're only required in small amounts with the exception of calcium, but generally that's present in sufficient amounts in tap water.

In any case, Thrive will provide more than sufficient micro ferts: the concentration on the bottle appears lower because much of the fert volume is in the form of macronutrients which are required in far greater amounts.

In short: it's unlikely that ferts are the issue.

Given that we remedied nutrients and water lettuce can extract CO2 from the atmosphere (latent CO2 in water is very low, typically 3-5 ppm and aquatic plants tend to grow rather slowly in the absence of CO2 injection), it might be worth investigating the lighting.

Lighting can be a tricky thing, and I'm not in the best position to guage what's available in the US market (as I'm in Australia). However, generally I read that Fluval's lighting products () are quite popular in the planted tank community. They're not the cheapest, but they're the most likely to work right out of the box for aquatic plants with no need for adjustments.

If you find that it's out of your budget, it'll be worth doing a search either on this forum or on planted tank for what lighting set-ups people are using for their nano planted tanks. It might reveal cheaper options (such as using a fluorescent lamp of some sort).

 

I'd say it's an issue of time. I think it's important to realise that plants can bounce back from the edge of death, but if too much cellular damage has occurred over a prolonged period of external stressors (such as nutrient deficiency, lack of light, etc.), plants can fail in new growth.



I don't think it's a nutrient deficiency (which tends to show over a prolonged period of time). It seems more, as you rightly guessed, due to drying out: it might bounce back, it might not. It's difficult to tell.

Java moss (and many other aquatic plants) do melt. In botanic terminology, it's autophagic ("self-eating") Programmed Cell Death: essentially, older cells which are adapted to a previous ecosystem "actively" die in order that cellular components can be recycled, and the resultant nutrients can be directed to new cells that can synthesise enzymes that are better adapted to the current water parameters.



Flourish is a concentrated micro fert, so it will have a higher concentration of the elements that you've mentioned (which are all micro ferts). However, they're only required in small amounts with the exception of calcium, but generally that's present in sufficient amounts in tap water.

In any case, Thrive will provide more than sufficient micro ferts: the concentration on the bottle appears lower because much of the fert volume is in the form of macronutrients which are required in far greater amounts.

In short: it's unlikely that ferts are the issue.

Given that we remedied nutrients and water lettuce can extract CO2 from the atmosphere (latent CO2 in water is very low, typically 3-5 ppm and aquatic plants tend to grow rather slowly in the absence of CO2 injection), it might be worth investigating the lighting.

Lighting can be a tricky thing, and I'm not in the best position to guage what's available in the US market (as I'm in Australia). However, generally I read that Fluval's lighting products () are quite popular in the planted tank community. They're not the cheapest, but they're the most likely to work right out of the box for aquatic plants with no need for adjustments.

If you find that it's out of your budget, it'll be worth doing a search either on this forum or on planted tank for what lighting set-ups people are using for their nano planted tanks. It might reveal cheaper options (such as using a fluorescent lamp of some sort).

Wonderful, thank you! I've had this nagging feeling my lighting would become (if not, already) an issue, but it sounded like the nutrients in the tank were more pressing. I have little to no history on my current tank since I purchased it off a guy on Craigslist. So I don't know anything about the factory lights the tank came with.

After doing a very brief search on the Fluval lights, they're not out of range price wise. I've been saving up to purchase a rimless 5 gallon long tank throughout the summer, but can simply use that money towards a proper light for my current 5 gallon. A small part of me cringes at having to delay the rimless for longer, but I'd rather work out the kinks in plant care skills in this "ugly" tank than a pristine rimless that I just blew a bunch of money on lol.

I will provide an update when I can, thank you again for all the help! The biological breakdown really helps me understand As a final question, how significant is lighting time? I've got a weird work schedule where I occasionally have 12 hour shifts so I can't be home to manually turn on/off the light. Considering the problems I've been having with my plants, do you think I should also invest in a timer? I can always simply buy new plants, but I'm really seeking to test my skills with this lot.

 

A small part of me cringes at having to delay the rimless for longer, but I'd rather work out the kinks in plant care skills in this "ugly" tank than a rimless that I just blew a bunch of money on lol.

If the 5-gallon is your ugly tank (we all have one for experiments and learning!), I definitely wouldn't splurge on a Fluval. I would recommend having a look around at planted tank for DIY solutions, i.e. a generic lighting fixture that can be bought a non-aquarium specific shop (or off Amazon or eBay). The goal here needn't be to supply a largesse of light, but just a bit more in the right wavelength. Definitely save your money and keep most of it for the rimless.

As a final question, how significant is lighting time?

Lighting time (generally called the photoperiod) is typically maintained at 8-10 hours. This is generally to optimise plant growth while minimising undesirable side effects (e.g. algae). I would definitely invest in a timer as it's a nice, simple way of automation.

 

If the 5-gallon is your ugly tank (we all have one for experiments and learning!), I definitely wouldn't splurge on a Fluval. I would recommend having a look around at planted tank for DIY solutions, i.e. a generic lighting fixture that can be bought a non-aquarium specific shop (or off Amazon or eBay). The goal here needn't be to supply a largesse of light, but just a bit more in the right wavelength. Definitely save your money and keep most of it for the rimless.

That's a fair point. I was thinking if I invested in a nice light now, I could just transfer it to the rimless once I get it. But DIY also sounds fun.

Lighting time (generally called the photoperiod) is typically maintained at 8-10 hours. This is generally to optimise plant growth while minimising undesirable side effects (e.g. algae). I would definitely invest in a timer as it's a nice, simple way of automation.

Cool beans, I'll look into one of these, too.

 

Timers are around $5 at Walmart or Target