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Hi all having problem some some of my bigger plants on my 20g tank. I have a wisteria and a ludwigia repan these 2 plants r amount the biggest of all in my tank atm. But for some reason on the bottom of those plants they all turn to color brown before they were green. But still new leaf growing. Any one knows why?

IMCL85

I would assume that you most likely don’t have enough light on your tank. How much do you have? It seems to me that the top section of your tall plants creates too much shade for the bottom part and as such it is deteriorating.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I have a 15wt lightube install atm look for higher one. And I dont think it block the sun light for the bottom because plant I put on bottom grow very healthy just those big one have this problem.

IMCL85,

You currently have about 0.75 WPG of lighting on your tank. I looked up the required ligthing for your tall plants in question. The information I found is:

Wisteria: 2.5 – 3.0 WPG
Ludwigia Repens: 2.5 – 3.0 WPG

I would still assume that you do not have enough light for these two plants and that is the reason why they fade at the lower section. What plants do you have at the bottom and are they growing in the shade created by your tall ones?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

even if u have enuf light for these plants...the mere fact that they grew so big...the top leaves just shades the lower portion and the tendency is to wilt.

just reread the thread...well..u definitely do not have enuf lights in there then...those plants growing underneath may require less light thats why they still thriving... can u tell us what this plant underneath...is it java moss??

Last edited by tankie at 22-Jun-2005 10:47

I agree that you might be shading the bottoms of the plants, the other thing it may be(which I have done) is clump too many of the stem plants together. I used to group 3-4 stems together but the bottoms would rot. Instead, I put 2 stem plants grouped together at the most, sometimes only 1 if it has many branches. This may be a headache to plant, but it cured the rotting of the bottom most parts of the stem in my case.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Wisteria: 2.5 – 3.0 WPG

I would highly disagree with this light requirement for Wisteria.
I have found Wisteria to do the very very best at under 1 wpg. Otherwise I have found it gets burned and shrivels away leaving only an ugly old stem.
In my 25g tank I keep wisteria, in either of my other 2 tanks one with 2.6WPG and my big tank that has 1.8WPG and the wisteria just grows algae and gets burned.

Yes, the upper foliage on the plant will block light out from getting to the leaves underneath. Remember being a kid standing under a big tree, and how shady it was? And how consequently big trees tend not to have a lot of brances down low? Not enough light.Try spreading the plants out more. For the wisteria do not clump stems together at all, leave a 2-3 inch gap otherwise the stem will rot off eventually, and for the Ludwigia do the same.
I tried Ludwigia Repens in my 75G with 1.8 WPG and it died after a couple of months.
It wont last in your tank.
The problem with the flouresent strip lights , is that you will never find a bulb with a higher wattage. They just dont make em.
You would have to replace the entire light fixture with a new one to get more light. Compact Flourescent is the best quality of lighting for a cheaper price (I paid 219 for a 48" 135 Watt fixture). metal Halide is the best possible lighting, but it can cost much more, and usually requires that you hang the lighting to your ceiling and hook it up to the electrical direct.


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ok thx guys but I think due to the low lighting I'm currently having I'm going to stick with small plant that live on the bottom which dont require alot of light. I have already set up another 20g in front of my window for those plant that dont grow well on my current tank so sunlight can aim right on my plant 15 hours of good healthy sun light should beat any lamp.

Sometimes sunlight can cause an algal breakout, I'd be careful. Some good low light plants include java fern, java moss, and most anubias species. I'd try those out before I'd try to use direct sunlight.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

yea I hate algae too. But oh well yea I'm going to go to fish store to get some java mosses tomorrow.

oh pls...remove that tank in front of the window where theres direct sunlight...u better be off where it is now...a direct sunlight is a no no unless ur growing algae