# Loosing Leaves



## BaRoK (Sep 10, 2009)

My stem plants are loosing leaves at the bottom portion of the plant. Do you have any suggestions to keep the leaves from floating? Do I need more supplements? Is my current light unable to reach the bottom of my tank?

I have the following plants:

Bacopa Caroliniana
Cabomba caroliniana
Star Grass 
Ludwigia brevipes
Nesaea red

I have a 40G tank with 2x39W T5HO lights (Aquatic Life) and diy CO2 injected to my canister filter.


----------



## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

Plants lose their bottom leaves when the top leaves shade out the bottom leaves. The common solution to this is to prune your plants frequently, which will also help make your stems plants grow in bushier.

However there will always be some leaf loss on the bottoms of the plants as they grow, regardless of pruning. In this case the only solution is to hide it with midground plants. I guess you could use rocks, driftwood, etc. But midground plants are probably your best bet to work with...

Look around google for some information on pruning stem plants. You'll be amazed at how much people hack their plants back to prepare them for a show tank. We're talking pruning them almost right down to the substrate.


----------



## BaRoK (Sep 10, 2009)

Guess I'll have to prune my stem plants.

Any more suggestions?


----------



## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/57960-pruning-timeline.html

This thread should be of some help to you...

Also, it's a good idea to make sure you leave some healthy leaves on the plant when you trim it. It's advisable to not let your plants grow so tall that the bottom is too far gone to trim it right down until you get nice and bushy growth. Hiding the lower leaves is really your best option in the long run though.


----------

