Signs of Poor Plant Health

Live plants are the best for your aquarium

As you probably found out in your research, a natural looking, wonderful aquarium must have natural plants inside. These live plants are very important for the water environment, because they are producing oxygen.
Natural plants are also important for their natural aesthetic looks. Very different in color, size, shapes, preferred living conditions plants can be found at the pet shops. It’s your choice which plants to put into your tank, and the fish are going to enjoy them in their environment.

Recommended platns for a beginner in aquariums

For a beginner in aquariums, the following plants are recommended: green cabomba, mangrove, giant hygrophila, hairgrass, Amazon sword, hornwart, dwarf swordplant, java fern. These plants are easier to be kept than other plants.
So, you are a beginner aquarium hobbyist: your aquarium is set, the equipment is working great, the fish are swimming happily and the plants are colorful, producing oxygen in the water. One problem you might encounter is to find signs of poor plant health.
These types of problems are very rare in aquariums but they can occur. Obviously not all your plants are going to have problems in the same time, unless your whole aquarium is in danger.

Freshwater aquarium plants - Signs of poor health 

In order to be aware of plants’ problems you must be well informed about your plants, how should they look, their living conditions, the food they need. However, if you are creating perfect conditions for the plants to grow safe, you must watch them from time to time in order to see signs of poor health:
• Holes in the plants caused by the fish. If your aquarium is populated with vegetarian fish, they will definitely eat the plants.
• Hole in the plants caused by rot. If many of the plants in your aquarium have holes in them and soon they break down, it is all because of nitrates. Good filtration and water changes will change the situation.
• Yellow leaves are caused by iron deficiency. For remediating this problem it is enough to add supplements with iron.
• Brown or black leaves are an indicator for an excess of iron. The solution for this is, again, good filtration and water changes.
• Dead plants and healthy plants in the same time are an indicator for the lack of CO2. You are having of mixture of hard and soft water plants, both needing CO2. The hard water plants are taking the whole CO2 in the water and the soft water plants are dying. More info about plants problems you can find on the page aquarium plants nutrient deficiency.

Adding CO2 into the aquarium you’ll solve the problem but you’ll lower the pH, probably causing other problems into the environment.
The advice would be to place into the aquarium plants that grow well together in the same environment.
No matter the problem encountered when finding signs of poor plant health, you should know that there is always a solution. You should not be too desperate and don’t give up. Read and learn about it, or ask for specialized advice so that you can prevent a real damage for your aquarium.