Anubias Dying
- Thread starter Deadeye
- Start date
Agreed.. I'll clarify my limited experience... while my lights are technically on for 12 hours the first & last hour are blue light low intensity (<10%) and 1 hour break down to 20% daily.. Been thinking of extending the break so may give that a shot like F FJB and
Fishman Dave
.. My lights peak at 68% for 7 hours daily. the other 5 hours between 10-50%..
I first read about the idea that
Fishman Dave
mentioned here on MFK and was quite astonished at the difference it made in my tanks. Apparently the explanation had something to do with vascular plants being able to utilize the light even if it is administered in several short doses, but algae for some reason are less able to adapt to that schedule. Must be something to it, as this simple change in light timing pretty much eliminated most of my algae. In fact, a couple of tanks in which I was trying to encourage the growth of hair algae needed to go back to one long light period versus two short ones because the hair algae was largely disappearing. Tanks that I wanted algae-free remained so as long as the light period was divided.I'm talking here about hair algae...never had the misfortune of dealing with BBA...but maybe give it a try?
Just FYI, the right half of this sump/refugium 6 ft tank gets 4 hours of direct sun per day (9AM until 1 pm).
The left half only gets indirect sun, pretty obvious from the pic.
As you can see the Vallisneria on the left, have significant;ly less growth than the right, but are sill doing well.
In my main tank, (which only gets short spurts of sun) the aquatic plants like Val and Hydrilla go from thick growth, to seasonal almost total melt down when the sun changes trajectory.
I have huge success with anubias. From what I've learnt over the years...
-More light = better growth. But the slow growing large surface leafs attract algae
-Otos are the ultimate solution to the problem above if introduced early enough
-Remove any weak or algae ridden leafs
-Co2 = little improvement on growth
-Liquid fertiliser = huge improvement in growth
-Current = improved growth
-More light = better growth. But the slow growing large surface leafs attract algae
-Otos are the ultimate solution to the problem above if introduced early enough
-Remove any weak or algae ridden leafs
-Co2 = little improvement on growth
-Liquid fertiliser = huge improvement in growth
-Current = improved growth
Also... I've managed to bring a whole plant back that had a huge and healthy rhizome but knackered leafs that I brought on ebay. It had a good 15+ leafs. I cut all but 2 leafs off and then just stuck it in the back of the tank and forgot about it. 6 months later it had 4 new and healthy leafs and looks good to go now. Just took patience (which I normally lack with dying plants).
It’s my first plant and I’ve been growing it for a few years, so I’d rather not lose the whole thing. The rhizome looks good, not rotting or anything.
Trimming a bit off the root tips helps encourage growth as well in my experience.
