# plant tips browning



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

90 gallon, soil capped with sandblasting sand, just occasional DIY co2, just started it again a few days ago. Dual t5ho lights, bulbs only a few months old. I put a bit of sechems standard ferts in once in a while. Very good water circulation. quite heavily planted.

mostly lower light plants, bleheri sword and crypts have brown tip on the leaves. Even some of the java fern has browning tips. Also my normally crazy growing vals seem to have slowed down


all levels are 0 so my first guess is 0 nitrates is the problem. Stock in the tank is a little low, had some losses after some major plant removal months ago, now I know to do a water change after messing with plants a lot. I don't do water changes very often but I did a large one a few weeks ago after moving a number of plants. I try to avoid water changes because of the low nitrates

Any other possible problems besides 0 nitrates?


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## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

i believe brown spots or browning is due to a lack of nutrients like potassium? I'm not exactly sure so dont quote me on it


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## Reckon (Mar 6, 2013)

pyrrolin said:


> I try to avoid water changes because of the low nitrates
> 
> Any other possible problems besides 0 nitrates?


I had this issue about a month ago in my riparium where each crypt of mine lost a couple leaves. Started with browning. I was dosing (and running CO2). After taking measurements I realized that nitrates were very low, most likely the emergent plants were using up more nutrients and the tank was bottoming out (even with ADA substrate). After increasing dosing the crypts are now doing much better.

I would start first with trying to keep NO3 levels at least at 10ppm.

Also, you are keeping your lights on a timer?


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

no timer yet, but hoping soon there will be lots available cheap for Christmas season.

Dollarama has timers but they are only 2 prong but I have one on my son's goldfish tank.

I need quite a few timers unless I get creative and can get the cords of a few lights into a power bar that is in a timer, then maybe I can go with just 2 or 3. My budget sucks so bad. There are so many things I want to do, but can't due to funds available


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## Reckon (Mar 6, 2013)

pyrrolin said:


> no timer yet, but hoping soon there will be lots available cheap for Christmas season.
> 
> Dollarama has timers but they are only 2 prong but I have one on my son's goldfish tank.
> 
> I need quite a few timers unless I get creative and can get the cords of a few lights into a power bar that is in a timer, then maybe I can go with just 2 or 3. My budget sucks so bad. There are so many things I want to do, but can't due to funds available


So how long are the lights on for?
Lights should not be on for more than 12 hours. 10 hours max really.
Perhaps try to work out a habit, eg. on when leave for work, and off after dinner. Or something like that.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

so, an idea I have is to lower the light on time of this tank in the hopes that with less light time, the plants will use less nitrates so it can build up a bit until I have the funds to add more stock to the tank


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