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Whats the cause of melt?

Rodgie

Member
Joined
22 Jul 2017
Messages
83
Location
NY
Good day everybody,

I have a question just in general. What causes our plants leaves to melt? Is it too much light? Less Co2? or nutrient deficiency?

Looking forward to hear from you have knowledge about this matter. Thank you

Cheers,
Rodgie
 
I'm sure more experienced users will comment, but normally too much light and not enough CO2.

They can melt back when adapting to a submersed form and come back but generally not enough CO2 with too much light.

Lower the light intensity, or duration and/or up the CO2.
 
Thank you for the replies everyone, first of all parameters;

Amm - 0
Trate - 20ppm
Trite - 0
Ph - 7.4
Gh - 12drops
Kh - 2drops
Temp - 78F

My tank is a 15gal Tall. With 8.9watts Finnex Fuge Ray LED

Filters are;
Fluval C4 (HOB)
Xy-380 sponge filter.

Plants in the tank;
Water spangles, anubias, java fern, amazon sword and banana plant.

When I experienced the melt on 3 of the lilies of my banana plant, I was only dosing Excel 3 times a week and flourish twice a week. Right now the banana plant lost all its leaves completely, except for two that are shooting to become lillies again.

After getting help here from everybody. I started changing my routine.

Now I'm dosing flourish every day (1ml) together with the excel (2ml). And, 50% wc instead of 25.

I think my light was too much and there wasn't enough Co2 before. Some of my other plants too were suffering with deficiency.
 
The corelation between CO2 and light is esential for many plants but is not so important for Anubias and Microsorum.
Anubias is very resistant and with low requirements. Microsorum need light and CO2 to generate new leaves.
Did you plant these as they have to be planted, on wood or rocks? Maybe you can place some pics here ...
 
Mr. Silviu,

Yes, both java fern and anubias are on a driftwood wrapped with a thread. Hopefully with the additional dosage of excel I won't have deficiency signs anymore. Specially for the banana plant.

The upward water movement caused by the sponge filter won't be a problem with my liquid carbon right?
 
A couple of weeks ago I suffered from minor melting after I had moved some crypts trimmed the roots and re-planted, I think the main reason for the melts was due to the big water change that I did at the same time at least 3/4 of the tank capacity. James Findley of the green machine told me many years ago that crypts dont like dramatic water changes.

Paul
 
Are you dosing macros? plants need NPK as well as the flourish (micros) you mentioned.

If there's fish and you're feeding that may amount to enough N. But a little P and some K is a must.

Is it just one spot in the tank that's melting? Could the excel be settling on the effected area?

'The upward water movement caused by the sponge filter won't be a problem with my liquid carbon right?' - Do you mean the sponge is not resting on the bottom of the tank? Wherever the sponge is I don't think it matters. I always have my in take/out take just a few cm below the water line.
 
Melt as term is used with plants submersed (aqautics) it is the same as necrosis, the term used in terrestrial invironment. In terrestrial invironment dead tissue eventualy always dries and turns brown or yellow. In aquatic environments the tissue stays always soaked and it can't dry, severe damage might melt away before any decoloration occurs. In general the same things can cause it such as deficiencies, mechanical damage, toxicities, transplant shock etc. :)
 
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I have always thought melt was due to the plants being grown out of water while enjoying 400pmm of prime airborne C02 and then being plunged into water with 30ppm and only a fraction of the light they were previously absorbing?
That is not melt in particular, it's one cause why plant can melt.. This you could catagorize under transplant shock.. :)

Any tissue that is not alive, so dead, is necrosis, in aquatic invironment it will melt.In non aquatic invironment it dries out turns brown or yellow and takes significantly longer before it turns into a hole or missing piece of a leaf..
 
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