general questions...

[keprydak]

planted tanks are a lot harder than i thought it was going to be! i've got a 25 gallon, and sufficent light for the plants im growing anyway, and ive got flourite in the bottom. i'm not adding anything to the water yet... but i might need to. here's my questions:
first of all - why are my medium/lowlight plants turning yellow and practically dissentegrating before my eyes? there is about 2 watts to a gallon... its more like 1.7 watts a gallon, but they're lowlight plants! hmmm..
next question, which plants can i keep that won't be turned into the lunch menu by my fish? they haven't eaten them all yet, right now they just pick at the bits of algae or something growing on it.. but even adding slices of zucchini daily hasn't detered them.
last question, anyone know where i can get my hands on some java moss? everyone seems to have it, and i want some incase i decide to breed my barbs, and ive also heard they won't eat it. but i can't seem to find it anywhere. any suggestions? thanks!

[Matt Nace]

The *yellowing of the leaves can indicate lack of Iron. If they are swords, you need root tabs + Iron.

The addition of a fert with iron will greatly help. Just limit the amount of liquid fertilizer with slow growing plants, cause they will use less.

With more light, you need to add Co2 to help the plants use the nutrients(liquid fert you need to add) before the algae can, which will become more plentiful with more light. It is all a process which works together.

For your low light..and low light plants(what are they?), you still have to add nutrients. I use leaf zone, along with kents trace elements. Leaf zone 0-0-3 provides Iron and potash but not everything plants need. So I use the Kents to add the extras.

Dose daily and not weekly, this will help your plants to use what is there, and not have all the nutrients there at one time for the algae to get some. I would start off with less than they recommend at first. When your plants start to show improvment, and nice growth, you can increase.

What barbs do you have?

I had to ask my LFS to get some, which they did..now it is everywhere..even little pieces grow.

My Barbs did pull at this as well(Rosys and Rubys)

[keprydak]

hmm.. see, i read somewhere about yellow leaves and a lack of iron - but i've planted all my plants in flourite. isn't that supposed to be rich in iron? maybe they haven't started using it yet or something.
alright, so i guess i ought to buy some of that stuff for my plants. perhaps their missnig potassium too.
i have a school of 6 tiger barbs, which is going to increase to 12 in a few weeks when i head back to my lfs.
thanks for the advice

[clothahump]

Do your plants retain the bright green veins as they turn yellow, if they do then your problem could be manganese deficiency.
Can be caused by too high a concentration of nitrogen compounds,in particular,nitrate or even iron over fertilisation. 8)

[SegaDojo]

the following two sites has info on nutrient deficiencies...

www.aquabotanic.com

www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/