# Whats wrong with my plants?



## futurezach (Jun 11, 2012)

Couple of issues:


My plants have been gradually going lighter green 
my wisteria leaves are growing larger than how they were growing in the store. 
on my red plant (who's name I don't know) the leaves are getting thinner
Thanks for your help!

Tank specs:


29G tank
80 degrees
ph 7.2
T5 glo lite two bulb (one white, one rose) - currently 7am-10pm lighting cycle (i'm not experiencing algae so I thought I'd push it)
fluorish excel dose every other day
http://imgur.com/a/J72l8#0


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## default (May 28, 2011)

futurezach said:


> Couple of issues:
> 
> 
> My plants have been gradually going lighter green
> ...


are you dosing fertilizers at all?
first of all, your tank is really warm. i keep my planted tanks around 73-75F.
honestly, duration of the lights could prove an issue for you later on, you're not using pressurized co2 and just because you dont see/have algae right now dosent mean you wont. avoiding algae is easier then getting rid or cleaning up algae, so why would you want to put yourself in that position? (if you get BBA, staghorn or any of the more difficult to treat algae, you would be in more of a mess.)

cut your lights down to 8-10 max, your plants arent going to grow any faster in your situation even if you left it on for 24 hours a day.
start fertilizing them so you would get more normal growth.
dial down your temperature (if you can, some people just cant avoid warmer temperatures.)
and dont worry too much about the shape of leaves and other small differences too much, most plants grow differently under different setups.


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## futurezach (Jun 11, 2012)

I'm kind a noob so I didn't really do much research into dosing before I got started. I bought some root tabs this last weekend and installed them under my current plants. Maybe this will help. What else should I be dosing with? What do you recommend? 

About the colour, i've read that its lack of light thats making the leaves larger and brighter, have you found this to be true?

I will lower the temperature and change the light schedule. Does the light have to be all at once e.g. 9-7 or can I plan a "siesta" e.g. on 7-11, off 11-3, on 3-9?

Thanks for your assistance!


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## default (May 28, 2011)

futurezach said:


> I'm kind a noob so I didn't really do much research into dosing before I got started. I bought some root tabs this last weekend and installed them under my current plants. Maybe this will help. What else should I be dosing with? What do you recommend?
> 
> About the colour, i've read that its lack of light thats making the leaves larger and brighter, have you found this to be true?
> 
> ...


some people do put their lights on maybe first time for 4 hours then an hour break and back on for another 4 hours. works almost the same, i just prefer the one 8 hour schedule 

root tabs do help, great for red plants i find. but if you dont use EI dosing (me neither, barely have time to look at my tanks to begin with lol) just get flourish or tropica fertilizers and follow their instructions.

true, leaves getting larger is due to lack of light usually, but you said your leaves were getting smaller/thinner no? and are your red plants losing their colours? im guessing you have the GLO fixture that fits perfectly for your tank, same length? and are you using their bulbs?
your link for you pictures dont work, perhaps upload a attached file so we could get a look at how the situation is?


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

The lights could be a factor, depending on their specifics. It is not unusual for plants to alter there habit after you buy them. Many are grown immersed so are bound to change, when submerged.


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## Sameer (Sep 30, 2007)

From your description, it looks like its due to low light. Thats the reason why wisteria is growing wider/bigger leaves, to capture more light. It seem the plant on the most right was red but is growing green because theres not enough light. Its nice to see they are all doing well though, so I think you could go like this.


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