Why aquatic plants die

Aquatic life is super interesting. However, your fish and other tank animals could also be the reason why your aquarium plants may be prematurely dying off. Some fish like to nibble on plants every now and then, while others take it as a challenge and try to pull the plants right from the root as a way of playing, leaving them floating on the top.

Other animals like snails and bottom feeders alike can actually eat away at the roots, which completely obliterates the plant. In fact, certain fish are pretty bad tank mates for water plants.

The ideal pH level for aquatic plants to survive should range between 6. In fact, water chemistry also determines whether or not rot, algae or other harmful substance will affect your water plants. If water chemistry is not monitored, these things can become silent killers in your tank, deteriorating plant life and affecting fish life, too. Just like ordinary plants, aquarium plants need nutrients, light, and healthy water chemistry to survive. You also need to maintain the plants and trim them from time to time.

Even introducing the correct tank mates is a great way to ensure that your aquarium plants will do just fine. Water is also the chief way to maintain plant health. In a tank, the water is the whole ecosystem that sustains life and also goes through several changes because of the gases, waste, and processes that happen within it. How Often to Change the Aquarium Water? How much gravel does an aquarium needs? Signs of phosphate deficiency on old leaves Magnesium Deficiency Lack of magnesium looks similar to a lack of iron, where leaves turn lighter in color with dark veins, but in this case, the deficiency affects older leaves instead new ones.

Signs of magnesium deficiency on old leaves Calcium Deficiency If you see new leaves growing in a twisted, gnarled fashion, this is usually related to a calcium or water hardness issue. For a quick reference guide, get our free infographic to plant nutrient deficiencies here: Download the Guide. Subscribe Get weekly aquarium blog articles right in your inbox. Email address Subscribe. Easy Green All-in-One Fertilizer.

Sale price Regular price. Error Quantity must be 1 or more. Easy Root Tabs. Easy Iron. Seachem Equilibrium. Crushed Coral 1 Pound. Wonder Shell. Back to Freshwater Aquarium Blog. For picky species, other than doing the steps above, planting them in open areas with good access to light and flow increases chances of success. The area 2 inches from the tank front glass is the most favorable area in most tanks due to higher light levels internal refraction of light off front glass and good access to flow downwash from flow hitting glass with no taller plants to block the area.

Without CO2 injection, one large stress factor access to CO2 cannot be mitigated. That is why melting plants are so common in non CO2 injected tanks. However, the other variables still apply.

Getting submerged grown, robust plants will help. Choosing species that are hardy and suited for non CO2 injected tanks improve success rates tremendously Java fern, crypst, anubias. Most low tech tanks have lower light levels overall, you might want to choose open spots that are not shaded to plant sensitive species so that they receive more light. Flow is still important - good circulation in a tank improves gaseous exchange and bring dissolved gases to plants.

If you are not dosing the water column, dosing an all round fertilizer is impactful; freshly planted plants can draw nutrients through their leaves directly, even if their root zone has not developed yet to feed from the substrate. Transition also generally takes quite some time in non CO2 injected tanks. So patience is necessary and resist the urge to keep moving plants around, let plants settle in and acclimatize to their positions in the tank. This usually happens in tanks that adopt very lean dosing methods over a long period of time.

Long term underfed plants can look outwardly intact, but are actually very delicate. Once there is some minor shock to the system, melting occurs. Often in such tanks there are subtle signs of long term nutrient deficiencies along with minor, but persistent algae issues. Intermittent melting in an other wise stable tank, could be a hint that dosing methods are not robust enough. This is more prevalent in approaches where the tank is heavily dependent on substrate feeding of the plants.

As the substrate depletes over time, plants that have been dependent on the root substrate grow less and less robust over time. If your tank is dependent on substrate feeding to grow plants, it is important to enrich the substrate as time goes by.

Many aquasoil substrates deplete much faster than people realize, with the majority of the nutrients being depleted in the first few months of submergence. More water changes to remove ammonia and dead and dying leaves reduce algae trigger; better water quality always help plants settle in. Magnesium is still a rather underrated nutrient in planted aquariums.

If you want to get more involved with the topic, we recommend our Wiki article about the calcium-magnesium ratio. This Bucephalandra develops yellowish leaves, while the leaf veins remain green. This may be due to a lack of magnesium.

Micronutrients are elements that the plants only need in small amounts for the most part only as trace elements for their growth. The most important of them is iron, but also other metals such as copper, boron or manganese. When you use a complete iron fertilizer , all micronutrients are usually covered. When iron Fe is deficient, plants will produce less chlorophyll in their new shoots. An iron deficiency is therefore easily identified in the shoot tips of fast-growing stem plants.

The rich leaf green fades, and the young plant parts assume a yellow to white color chlorosis. This stem plant clearly shows lighter shoot tips, due to an iron deficiency. In the case of a serious iron deficiency, stunted growth and black, dying leaf tissue necrosis may also occur.

The deficiency symptoms can be easily remedied by adding a little more complete iron fertilizer. Alternatively, you can target the iron content with a special fertilizer like Aqua Rebell Mikro Spezial Eisen. In literature, the ideal iron concentrations for planted tanks are given as 0. However, it is not absolutely necessary to permanently maintain a measurable iron concentration.

Especially when you use mildly chelated complete fertilizers such as Aqua Rebell Mikro Spezial Flowgrow , iron can only be indicated right after fertilization. After a couple of hours, the nutrient might not even be detectable anymore since it is absorbed very quickly by the aquatic plants due to its easy availability.

So long as no typical deficiency symptoms show, it is not necessary to increase fertilization with a complete iron fertilizer. On the contrary, over-fertilization may even promote the growth of red algae such as staghorn or beard algae. These can be removed quite easily by appropriate measures , though. Very clearly visible in direct comparison: A houseplant leaf with chlorosis left. A lack of magnesium or iron may be the reason here. In aquaristic practice, therefore, these other micronutrients and their deficiency symptoms are not given special attention.

A lack of carbon, iron or macronutrients is much more likely and should therefore be addressed first. A lack of light is rare in a well-coordinated system.