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ludwigia pantanal bottom leaves falling off

How do you know that it's not that much light? Have you measure it with a PAR meter?
Just because your fish are gasping it does not mean that the plants themselves are getting enough CO2. This is a CO2 issue, plain and simple. Trimming will help and so will reducing the light intensity.

No, my next question has nothing to do with sediment because sediment has nothing to do with this problem. My next question is where are the photographs of how you are distributing the flow. We still haven't seen that. As mentioned by jalexst, flow energy is only part of the story. How that energy is being distributed is even more important. You could easily be canceling the flow by incorrect placement of the pumps and filter outlets.

Cheers,
 
It does look like a easy case of too much light.

X=light
Z=co2
Y=ferts

If x then z and y are needed.
If xx then zz and yy are needed.
If xxx then zzz and yyy are needed.

Sadly for us fish gasp at the third iteration and will die if your light goes xxxx, as you will try to give the co2 that the plants are now requesting.

The plants will request the co2 needed for the light you are giving them, they are addicted to it, never enough. Drop the light and then they will ask for less co2, as they have all they need.

I get good results with xx then yyy and zz.

Decrease your light, carry on with the co2 and add pumps to ensure that co2 gets everywhere. At night get a airpump and aerate the tank.

Can't go wrong with that.

Obviously you can argue your way into keeping the lights as they are, after all your tank. 🙂 but eventually you will see the light, pardon the pun.



You


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OK, thanks for that. Those are pretty plants. I really love L. pantanal. :thumbup:
I'm fairly certain that the problem is that you have flow going from left colliding with flow coming from the right. So the energy of the two filter outputs cause some degree of cancellation or interference. This was OK when there were not so much plant mass in the tank, but after a while it causes problems. It's probable that you have stagnation somewhere in the middle/front where the water does not penetrate to the lower areas of the plant starving them of CO2.

It would be better if both filter outlets were on the same side and pointing in the same direction. Also, I prefer to have flow coming from back to front. Again, this is not an absolute requirement. If your flow is strong enough going left to right or from right to left then it will work fine.

Cheers,
 
Trim the other plants on both side and see how the plant responds.

I bet you'll see better growth in a week.
Keep the other weedy stem plants hacked back, otherwise you end up having a case where the plant-plant competition for CO2 becomes VERY strong.

Since the other stems are CLOSER to the light, they will get 1st dibs on CO2, why? Light drives CO2 uptake.
So if the pool of CO2 is limiting, this will favor the plants that are can reach for the light faster and that are already closer to the light to begin with.

This leaves the other plants that are lower down with little CO2.

If you trim the plants so they are all the same height/distance away from the light, this will improve flow a great deal, and reduce the CO2 uptake(so there is more avail).

I see this in my 120 gal all the time, if I allow some plants to take over, they beat up on the other species.
Ferts are a non issue since there are plenty, light is different due to distance changes and shading by other species, or the SAME SPECIE. This also effects CO2 uptake and demand as well, you cannot escape the linkage there.

So something as simple and not typically suggested like trimming consistently........can cause issues as well.
Still, it's a CO2 issue and also a light issue, but the plant is changing and being exposed to different lighting even if you think the light is the same all the time.

My pantanal is a weed and my significant other sort of hates it due to the insanely fast growth, but likes the color.
I do not think at the rates it grows(8 to 15cm a week), that the lower leaves would even have time to fall off, but IME, poor CO2 is the main issue for lower leaf loss.
 
am not sure if trimming was the issue, i had to trim this plant weekly and i keep it at minimum size as possible. but i will trim further to see if that will help.

i have removed one of the filter and left only one, along with the powerhead, now water gets sucked up from the left side of the tank and comes out of the right side of the tank, i also installed the powerhead on the right side. lets see how things goes.
 
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