Aquarium Plant Troubleshooting - Captain Grant’s Ultimate Guide to Dying Plants
If you’d believe it, we have a lot of plants die. It’s not because we’re awful at keeping plants, it’s just a fact of life that plants will die. This guide will act as the ultimate beginner level troubleshooting guide to understand why your plants might be dying or not super healthy, and to provide input on how to improve your tanks to rescue your plants. We’ll go step by step, starting with the moment you get your plants.
Plant Energy Science- Before we begin
”The Plant’s Health Bar”
It’s important to understand a little bit about plants, especially aquarium plants, before we begin troubleshooting. This is extremely important to understand.
Plants have an “Energy Level.” Imagine it like a health bar in a video game. When plants are thriving, their energy is at 100%.
The less energy a plant has, the less likely it is to survive. Plants begin melting when they do not have enough energy to stop themselves from rotting.
Plants need to use energy to adapt to new things:
Trimming plants uses a little bit of energy so the plant can start channeling energy towards new growth
Replanting plants in new tanks uses a good bit of energy, because the plant needs to adapt to the new tank
Shipping plants uses a LOT of their energy, because they have to survive without light or nutrients in different temperatures for a long time.
Plants use energy to grow roots, BUT they use more energy to regrow their roots in new tanks if they’re not adapted to them. This is why we sell fresh cuttings rather than pre-rooted plants.
All three of those above things happen when a plant is shipped. We do our best to only ship the best, healthiest plants so they have the most energy and thus the best chance of surviving.
You can help a plant restore it’s energy by providing it strong lighting, nutrients, and lots of O2 and CO2.
Oh no! Plants arrived mushy and rotten
This is all too common of an issue and usually entirely out of our control, since the time and temperature in the mail can kill aquatic plants pretty easily. Remember the energy level in your plants, they’re extremely ‘exhausted’ from being stuck in the mail for days without light or nutrients. Their energy is slowly draining every minute they’re in the mail. We do a few things to combat this including adding insulation, heat packs, and anti-rot agents to the packaging, but it’s still tough to make sure they survive.
If you got a melted or rotting plant from Sunken Treasure Aquatics, just shoot us a message and we’ll make it right free of charge.
If you’ve received a plant that feels mushy, smells bad, or looks like it melted, don’t worry! It might still be recoverable. Here’s what you can try:
First, check the stem. Is the entire stem mush? If it is, unfortunately that plant is likely done for. However, if there are any parts of the stem that still feel solid, use your fingernails or scissors to trim off all of the mushy parts of the stem then try planting the trimmed stem.
Assuming your plant has some stem left, your next steps are to plant it and give it the very best survival chance:
Most plants melt because of a lack of gaseous exchange, AKA O2 and CO2. The best thing you can do is increase the surface flow in your tank. You want as much surface agitation as possible (without blowing the plant around or hurting your fish). You can try adding a powerhead, a pump facing upwards, a bubbler, another filter, or pointing your filter outflow upwards.
Provide your new plants as much light as possible, but do not turn your lighting up as this can cause instability and algae. Simply plant your plant somewhere directly underneath your light and ensure there are no taller plants or floaters blocking out light.
Provide your new plants some nutrients. They don’t have roots yet, so they need to absorb nutrients from the water. Make sure your fertilizer has macronutrients and micronutrients. Our Clean n’ Green is a great option!
Clean your tank. Detritus and other decaying matter will accelerate the decay process. Make sure your filter and water are nice and clean.
Some Rotala H’Ra that I grew entirely from one, half rotten, 3 inch long stem.
Troubleshooting Established Plants
If your plants have been in your tank for more than 2 weeks, it’s safe to call them “Established” and adapted to your tank. If they’re still growing poorly or don’t look right, almost certainly the issue lies with your tank and not with the plant and the plant is simply trying it’s best to grow in sub-par conditions.
Remember Sunken Treasure Aquatics warranties all plants for ONE MONTH, so if your plants still look bad after a few weeks please contact us!
Plants are brown, stubby, or have algae on them
Plants grow diatom algae (also known as dust algae) on their leaves when they’re unhealthy. Remember the energy from before? A plant with it’s full energy has the energy to fight off algae from it’s leaves, but a plant with less energy isn’t able to defend itself from algae and thus will grow algae on it’s leaves. If your plants are beginning to turn brown, look stubby or stunted, or have algae on them, your issue is that your plant itself isn’t healthy.
More Light DOES NOT EQUAL More Algae
Your first step should be to try increasing your light output as much as possible. Don’t worry, this won’t make your algae worse. Aquatic plants need a lot more light than most cheap lights provide, so if you’re just using the LEDs that came with your tank or a cheap “Full Spectrum” LED from Amazon, you may need to upgrade your lighting and you can read my Lighting Article here for more info.
Increasing your light will cause an imbalance in your tank so you may temporarily see a bit more algae, but your plants will grow much better. After a week or two, you’ll notice all your plants are growing healthier and fuller, and they’re able to absorb more nutrients which means you’ll have less algae.
Check out these two photos of the same plant, Rotala Rotundafolia. The photo on the left was taken at my local fish store in a tank without fertilization using the light in the hood of an all-in-one tank, and the photo on the right is the same plant, but from the 2Hr Aquarist grown with CO2 and high lighting.
Plants melt randomly!
If you’re having an issue with plants melting after they’re established, most likely you’re still running into the same essential issue. Your plants are running out of energy, because they’re trying their hardest to survive in your tank.
Most of the time plants melt, the issue is a lack of gaseous exchange. CO2 will help this issue dramatically, but CO2 injection simply isn’t possible in many tanks. The easiest solution is to improve gaseous exchange by introducing more O2 and CO2 to the water through surface agitation. Whenever the surface of your water is agitated or churned, it mixes in a tiny amount of gas into the water.
You can try adding a bubbler, adding another filter, adding a powerhead aimed at the surface of the water, or anything else you can think of to simply cause your water to move more. The cheapest method would be to simply add an airstone or sponge filter.
Plants may also melt because they’re not getting enough light or nutrients. Remember, they need all of these things to thrive, and without them they’re slowly losing energy. Try increasing your fertilization routine (No, fish poop isn’t fertilizer, it’s one tiny part of the nutrients plants need) or increasing your light.
My plant’s leaves turn colors or have holes!
Plant leaves with holes, yellowing, etc are all telltale signs of a lack of fertilization. Hygrophila Pinnatifida, for example, is notorious for developing pinholes in it’s leaves when it lacks phosphorus. The easiest solution here is to upgrade your fertilizer and ensure you’re getting a fertilizer with both Macro and Micro nutrients. It’s important to note that Seachem and API brand fertilizers do NOT have all the necessary nutrients for your plants, and will cause this issue. Some good fertilizers include our Clean n’ Green, Nilocg Thrive, and 2hr Aquarist brand fertilizers.
My plants simply won’t grow
Lighting is the #1 cause for unhealthy plants, and in this case it’s almost certainly the issue. If you have an established tank that has been cycled for over a month, you’ve added fertilizer, and you’re still not seeing any new growth from your plants, it means your plants aren’t getting enough light to photosynthesize and create growth.
Try turning up your existing light to the highest brightness, or consider upgrading your light using our recommendations from this guide.
Note that if your tank is new or hasn’t fully cycled, your plants won’t grow. Plants need nitrate to grow, and a newly set up tank won’t have any nitrate until the nitrogen cycle is complete. Plants are still perfectly fine and even good to plant when first setting up a tank, just don’t expect them to grow much until your cycle is complete.
I have a good light and fertilizer, and my plants are still unhealthy.
What gives?
Yeah, sometimes that’s just the case. A weird thing I’ve learned is that some plants simply don’t like some tanks, even if everything says they should.
The first thing you should consider is the tech level of your tank and the tech level of a plant. Some plants are simply too difficult to grow and might not be able to grow in your tank, for example Rotala Macandra varieties almost always require CO2 and very strong lighting, so even if you have a great budget light, great surface agitation, and great fertilization you just simply won’t see any healthy growth unless your tank meets the conditions needed for the plant.
Another consideration is the temperature and pH of your tank. Extremely hot or cold tanks might have issues growing some plants, for example Val species hate cold water, so if you’re ordering plants consider providing your tank conditions in your order notes so we can make sure you get the right plants. As for pH, plants generally thrive in a lower pH and most of our grow tanks sit around 6 to 6.5 pH. Higher pH values of 7.5 or higher can begin causing issues for some plants, and especially above 8 you’ll begin to notice some plants don’t grow as well. The best solution to this is to simply try different plants and see what grows, if something doesn’t grow well then move it to another tank.
Finally, consider how clean your tank is. Detritus and gunk in your tank will cause plants to grow worse and to develop algae on their leaves, slowing the growth process. Gravel vacuuming and cleaning your filter will always help growth tremendously.
