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I got three banana plants about 3 weeks ago and some of the leaves look like the one seen here. It was turning transparent with a brown edge in between the good part and the bad. Then the leave would fall apart in that area.

when it grew new leaves in my tank, I figured they would be healthy, and they were. It is growing several leaves since coming into my tank, but each of them is developing this same condition. Is it normal? Or, is it some type of "fungus" or what?

My banana plants are nice with this one exception.



Cory_Di attached this image:

I dont know if its normal or not but my banana plant that i got about two weeks ago is doing the same thing.

Hi,
With any plant, when you move it such as moving it
from one tank to another, or it gets shipped to you,
the plant will suffer a setback as it becomes acclimated
to its new environment. In the banana plant the plants
reserves are stored in the bananas and they will shrink
as the nutrients are absorbed.

It looks to me like they are in need of nutrients.
Probably iron from all the yellowing.

Check out this site:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

I'd add some Flourish Excel, and some plant tablets pushed
into the gravel near the roots.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Looks like Iron is my all around problem, with the pale hornwort too.

You make a good point about transfers. I know for a fact that the banana plant made back to back transfers. They had just come into the store when I snatched three.

Leaves dieing and leaving the veins like the lace looking of your leaves, is a high sign of low iron. But, don't just add the iron to your tank. I suggest you add a full nutrient aquarium plant fertilizer, as they likely need all the nutrients in it. Tabs will not work well with this plant untill it developes a good root system down into the gravel. Liquid fertilizer is the best. For non-advanced planted tanks, I suggest something simple like Leaf Zone Aquarium Plant Food. Very inexpensive, and actually a good food for your free floating root plants. I use it regularly in many of my non-advanced plant tanks.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&amp;FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030065&amp;PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441776975&amp;bmUID=1100996424527

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There is always a bigger fish...

Ahhh - LeafZone has a combination of Iron and Potassium. I know that one needs the other for uptake (I think the Potassium is useless without Fe present, no?).

I have Flourish Iron and Flourish Potassium. However, I was only dosing them weekly. In fact, I stopped dosing the iron for whatever reason.

The bottle says once weekly, however, I like to work with targets. What is a good iron target for planted aquariums?

I know to keep my nitrates between 5-15, but not sure about iron. I'm hesitant to simply dose daily.

Been meaning to say, Acid - Nice Manatee .

Last edited by Cory_Di at 20-Nov-2004 19:28

Banana plants are improving with the added iron and potassium. I checked the levels of iron with a tester and it was zero. I started adding daily. I got new, whole leaves, with no brown around the edges, holes, or transparency - yet. The leaves appear more robust than the previous set. They are more pale than I would hope, but then again, i don't know what shade of green they should be.