Damaged Leaves

[Christor]

I was wondering whether leaves that are damaged in the sense that, they are torn, brown and dead edges or even seem transparent/faded should be removed manually? do they have an negative effect on the plant as such?

I actually have one amazon sword plant/stem that the leafs fibres seem torn away and very bad looking, comapred to te other perfectly whole and green leaves

Should I cut it or leave it? which does more damage?

Thank you!

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
Remove the leaf if it looks ugly. Keeping plants is about aesthetics so there is no point in having a ragged looking plant. Remove the leaf and the plant will grow a new one.

Cheers,

 

[Christor]

Thanks Ceg just wasnt sure maybe there was a cause or a consequence, especially with swords but just needing the reassurance, cheers

 

[ceg4048]

Hi mate,
No, you don't have to worry about doing damage to any of the plants, especially when it comes to Echinodorus, which actually have a tendency to take over the tank if you are inattentive. Their strategy is to grow a massive root network and to take over the substrate. They can then muscle out other species by sprawling both above and below the substrate. This thuggish behavior and their knack for becoming obnoxiously large is one of the reasons they have disappeared entirely from modern "Nature" type aquascapes.

To control this "urban sprawl", remove leaves and lances regularly, and every so often, uproot the plant at water change time and trim the roots to a few inches, then replant. Continual trimming to remove unhealthy or excessive growth is of paramount importance to keep the tank healthy and to keep it from choking on itself, so one need never worry about this at all. Quite the reverse. You do have to feed the plants though, so as long as you pay attention to nutrition and cleanliness you're OK.

Having said that, browning and transparency is a sure sign of overzealous lighting and/or lack of CO2 and/or poor flow/distribution. So if this damage is appearing consistently then you need to investigate the reasons.

Cheers,

 

[Christor]

Ah thank you for that informative description Ceg, I will definitely keep an eye on it, at the moment I would definitely put it down to too much light for me as I dont use Co2 but the water flow is constant and quite strong (fluval 4, 1000lph) so I am in the process of reducing light

what would you recommend for a month old tank, as I use soil substrate so nutrients atm would be quite high I presume, as there s algae appearing, though not a concern as I want it for my snails and shrimp, and I really dont mind its appearance

 

[ceg4048]

Hi mate,
Yes, just keep the lighting intensity down and clean the tank as much as you can. This will be about all you can do really. The light intensity drives everything so just avoid going crazy with the wattage and duration.

Cheers,

 

[Christor]

Not sure If I can remove a bulb or how safe that would be, but definitel duration I will need to work on for sure, have been now cleaning and removing excess algae that is too much for the current clean up crew

roughly Ceg at 2 wpg ad my current situation of a new tank, how long would you recommend my light ot be on? is 8 hours long enough for the plants to try and out compete the algae 9though im aware that the amount of nutrients etc are only assisting in its growth, which is unavoidable now)

thank you again btw for taking the time Ceg

 

[ceg4048]

No worries mate. It's really difficult to say exactly how long the photoperiod should be because most people do not measure the actual value of the Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) which is what grows plants and algae. The amount of PAR determines the demand for nutrients and CO2 and the WPG is just a "best guess" rule of thumb. The PAR reaching the plants depends on the type of bulb, the distance of the bulb, the size of the tank, the cleanliness of the bulb, the turbidity of the water and so forth. T5 lights generate more PAR than T8 bulbs do. Fluorescent bulbs generate more than tungsten bulbs, so without an accurate way to measure it's all guesswork. If you can disable one of the bulbs then do so, if you can't then you can use floating plants to cover the surface and block some of the light.

With non-Co2 enriched tanks one has to be a little bit more patient for the plants to adjust to the low levels of CO2 but eventually they will come around with a little help, like lowering the demand for CO2 by lowering the light. You can try 5-6 hours a day for a while and see how that goes. Again, that's just a best guess on my part. Also you need to forget about plants competing with algae because it will never happen and this idea gets more people in trouble than you can shake a stick at. Algae rule the planet (and probably the galaxy as well) so just forget about it.

Cheers,

 

[Christor]

Thanks for that Ceg! with that considered my light intensity or PAR I would presume is quite high for the Co2 available, so I will look at reducing the photoperiod, algae isnt the worry as the tan still needs to stabilise, just for future reference really in terms of getting it right for the plants

will be looking into getting floating plants for sure and possible raising my light if possible, anyway thanks for the help Ceg! yet again veyr useful and informative