Floating plants (Phyllanthus fluitans) decomposing

[DavidFranklin]

Hi all, a bit of help needed here.

Attached photos of my red root floaters which go in healthy and fall apart in a matter of days.

It's a small 30L with neon tetras, a small bristlenose and a handful of shrimp. The tank is heavily planted into Tropica soil with bogwood - the submerged plants are all fine. I dose 1-2 pumps of Tropica Specialised daily, have cO2 injection, a pH of 6.5+- and no snails.

Otherwise, I'm using remineralised RO water (150+-tds ppm), the tank is around a year old and I do also deal with a continued appearance of green spot algae.

I know it looks like some sort of nutrient deficiency but I presumed I had it covered with the Tropica ferts.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks,
David

 

[MirandaB]

Looks more like it's being eaten to me

 

[X3NiTH]

Nutritionally they look Ok but from experience the surface of phylanthus doesn’t like getting wet and because of close proximity to the light any water droplets will act like a lens concentrating light beyond the capacity of the tissue to cope. Phylanthus likes to be corralled so it can support vertical growth above the water surface, the growth you have may be struggling with being submerged because it may have been grown out above the water surface before you got your hands on them. Corral them closely together and allow the surface leaves to grow without getting wet, submerged growth usually looks a bit tatty.

🙂

 

[DavidFranklin]

Thanks for the input, folks. I'll try bunching them.