Loaches Online Forum

I am new to plants for my aquarium. I got some type of sword plant and about 2 days later a leaf started turning brown. I believe there are 60watts in the 29g aquarium. The heater says 8o. The tank has been up for atleast a year. Why is he plant dieing?

Is it the leaf itself turning brown, or is there brown stuff stuck to the leaf?

Brown stuff stuck to the leaf might be brown algae, Diatoms. You can wipe it off.

The leaves actually turning brown:
This can happen when they are exposed to air. When they are bagged or shipped the humidity in the package should be high enough to prevent this. But if the plant was lying out on a plate or something before you planted it the leaves can start to dry.

Some nutrient deficiencies show up as dark spots in the leaves. Google for images of potassium deficiency. It would be really weird for this to show up in just 2 days, though.

Can you describe more of your set up with respect to the plants?
What sort of light? Flourescent? T-12, T-8 or..
Brand name? (Lots of info about bulbs can be researched on line)
What color wavelengths? Warm white? Cool white? Is there a K number like 6,500K?
What kind of substrate?
Are you adding fertilizer? What sort?
Any source of carbon? CO2? Excel?

Often swords are nursery grown emersed, leaves out of the water. After being planted underwater these old leaves gradually die & are replaced with new submersed leaves. The new leaves are usually a slightly different shape with a shorter "stem". A root tab fertilizer can help, swords are heavy root feeders.

Could it be from stress? I think it is getting better. Im not using substrate or fertilizer. I put the plant in there to see how my fish would react to it and hopefully that plant will survive untill I set my 55g up.

a lot of aquatic plants, like ones with broad, soft leaves, hate salt. if you add any salt to your aquarium, this could be a cause for the plant's stress. also, like nancy said, if they were grown emersed, or in a drastically different PH, the change would make the old leaves fall off before new ones develop. If you have about 2wpg, that isnt bad, but like Diana said, the type of light matters as well. I also would recommend trying some fertilizers.

I do use salt... Should I stop usuing it? Would the fish be ok?

what kind of fish do you keep? the only freshwater fish I add salt for is goldfish/carp. Loaches and many other types of fw fish are very sensitive to salt, and do not need it added to their water.

I found out the hard way years ago that certain types of plecos are very sensitive to salt.

Fresh water fish do not need salt. There is so little salt in fresh water that some fresh water fish are not tolerant of it. Some fish can handle a bit of salt, but it is not usually good for them, except as medicine.
Pleas list your fish.

To remove salt do small water changes with less and less salt. For example do a few with just 1/2 as much as you were adding, then several more with 1/4 of the amount.

Lower the salt slowly so the fish can adapt.

I have 5 angelfish, 2 plecos, 1 male betta, 1 corydora, 1 kuhli loach, 2 zebra danios, 1 female gold gourami, and 1 hoplo cat.

The plant looks great today... and is growing new leaves!