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Watersprite Dying Help!

8K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  Byron 
#1 ·
Hi, I got a bunch of water sprite from ebay and I put it in a gallon of water to float and grow before putting it into the aquarium. But after two weeks all the leaves have lost their green color and are white/brown. Some of the roots are still white. I don't know what I did wrong I thought they were really easy to grow and can float around...the java moss that I put in another gallon of water seems to be doing fine. Please advise, thanks!
 
#2 ·
What light did you use over this gallon bucket???
 
#4 ·
Wattage? Duration you ran it?
When plants turn like what you're describing they either do not get enough light and/ or not enough nutrition; normally plants will feed of of the tank (fish food, CO2 from fish, fish poo etc) I really think with the clean bucket there rather then adding them to your tank after a lil soaking you done more harm then good.
 
#6 ·
Ok, lemme see if I understand you.....You're saying you took a ONE gallon jug water with plants stuffed in it and ran TWO 32 watts @ 6500K for 16hrs per day over this.......Uhm yea that sorta kinda literally does indeed burn/ melt your plants.....Its all about the balance and that is far from any balance.....

Now lemme ask you - What size tank do you have and what lights (watt, K's Hrs) do you run over that?
 
#8 ·
Like I said its ALL about the balance between lights & nutrition (which there's prop next to 0 of them w/out fish there); be GLAD yur java moss survived!
 
#9 ·
ferts might have helped. But other concerns I have are water temp and water movement. If you don't keep the water above 75 that might be why they are dying. It also helps to keep the water moving. That way the water can replentish its supply of CO2 and expell the o2 created by the plants.
 
#10 ·
I second WisFish. First a comment on the light, I think there may be a mis-understanding...I am assuming from your posts that you have several aquaria and these gallon jugs on a shelf/bench with the fluorescent light fixture suspended over the lot, correct? In which case the light is fine. I think Angel thought there was one light over just the jug, and that would not have worked.

As WisFish mentioned, plants need nutrients and these they get from being in an aquarium with fish, plus added liquid fertilizer in most cases to supplement the minerals that may be missing from just fish and tap water.

By watersprite I assume it is Ceratopteris, the floating India Fern being another common name. This plant is a very heavy feeder, as are most floating plants; they develop fine roots to absorb more nutrients from the water, but as there were no fish in the water it was basically devoid of nutrients. Floating plants obtain CO2 from the air, another reason why they are such fast growers compared to submersed plants. But the mineral nutrients and nitrogen must come from the water. If you have any left alive, put it in (floating) an established fish tank and it should recover in a couple of weeks. One other comment on this plant, it does not do well in very hard alkaline water, but will adapt to basic slightly or moderately hard water. It also does not like changes in water parameters, and sometimes takes a while to settle in to a tank with different water from what it was previously living in. I have had these plants almost die back when moved from one tank to another if water parameters are significantly different.

Byron.
 
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