Dwarf Water Lettuce and Mysterious Objects

[Tyler LaZerte]

2 seperate questions for 1 tank. 

1) I put this Dwarf Water Lettuce in my tank on Saturday. Today, I noticed some die off and the leaves turning translucent. My tank is well planted, is a 16 gallon, new, and gets 3 pumps (I have crypts and some stems with root tabs as well) of Easy Green every friday on Water Change Day. Do you think it's just a matter of new tank so it has to adapt and melt a bit? More ferts? What do you think is causing it? 

2) What are these squiggly black things in picture 2 on the sand? Is it fish waste? Snail waste? I have 6 baby Corys and 3 Otos with a bunch of pond and bladder snails. 

 

Thank you in advance?

[laritheloud]

Some of the water lettuce yellowing and melting off is normal! Just remove yellowed leaves. You should be seeing the roots growing very, very quickly. They get long and green and extend into the water. 

The black/brown things look like poop.

[Tyler LaZerte]

@laritheloud Okay thank you. My red root floaters went translucent like this and didn't come back. They call disintegrated

[laritheloud]

On 6/21/2021 at 10:09 PM, Tyler LaZerte said:

@laritheloud Okay thank you. My red root floaters went translucent like this and didn't come back. They call disintegrated

I started out with a really enormous water lettuce that has since branched off to lots of small ones. So long as you see the roots growing you should be okay. I regularly pull off some leaves from my water lettuce every week but it bounces back quickly. Fingers crossed yours is the same!

[Streetwise]

I enjoy this plant, but it grows almost as fast as duckweed, so prepare for dealing with excess!

[Tyler LaZerte]

On 6/21/2021 at 9:16 PM, Streetwise said:

I enjoy this plant, but it grows almost as fast as duckweed, so prepare for dealing with excess!

I love the look of it so that will be okay 😁 My shrimp will enjoy it!

[Colu]

On 6/22/2021 at 2:19 AM, Tyler LaZerte said:

2 seperate questions for 1 tank. 

1) I put this Dwarf Water Lettuce in my tank on Saturday. Today, I noticed some die off and the leaves turning translucent. My tank is well planted, is a 16 gallon, new, and gets 3 pumps (I have crypts and some stems with root tabs as well) of Easy Green every friday on Water Change Day. Do you think it's just a matter of new tank so it has to adapt and melt a bit? More ferts? What do you think is causing it? 

2) What are these squiggly black things in picture 2 on the sand? Is it fish waste? Snail waste? I have 6 baby Corys and 3 Otos with a bunch of pond and bladder snails. 

 

Thank you in advance?

I have water lettuce in my tank you will probably end up taking out half of it each week as grows really quickly under ideal conditions that looks like fish waste on your sand

[Tyler LaZerte]

@Colu Thank you! I hope it bounces back and grow well 

[tolstoy21]

On 6/21/2021 at 10:16 PM, Streetwise said:

I enjoy this plant, but it grows almost as fast as duckweed, so prepare for dealing with excess!

. . . but much easier to deal with than duckweed.

In my experience, the melting is to be expected when transferred to a new environment. So is some drop off of roots.

If you have nitrates in the tank for it to thrive on and it's still not doing well, try increasing the lights a bit. Mine enjoy being very close to my lights at a medium-high-ish setting. If your's aren't close to the lights, maybe increase your light intensity. As they grow in and thicken they will give shade and cover to the plants below (which can be good or bad depending on what other plants are growing in the tank). 

My water lettuce also grows like mad and I remove a bunch every water change (maybe every two weeks). I dry it out, crumble it up into a powder and save it to make infusoria. 

Unfortunately, my water lettuce is co-mingled with duck weed which is near impossible to eradicate in my tank for this reason.

But, these two certainly keep the nitrates very low which my shrimp appreciate!

Edited June 22, 2021 by tolstoy21

[Tyler LaZerte]

@tolstoy21 I appreciate all of the info! I will keep that all in mind 

[BaRanchik]

If the melting continues and leaves look like they are disintegrating even in a few weeks, you might need more nitrates. What's your current nitrate level?

[Tyler LaZerte]

@BaRanchik Currently 20 ppm, I believe. I'm sure it will go up with time because the tank is only 1 month old. 

[BaRanchik]

On 6/22/2021 at 3:37 PM, Tyler LaZerte said:

@BaRanchik Currently 20 ppm, I believe. I'm sure it will go up with time because the tank is only 1 month old. 

20 should be plenty. Just keep an eye on it for a while, and possibly dose an extra amount of nitrates if needed (floaters are sponges for nitrates, so you might see your nitrates drop quickly soon).

[Tyler LaZerte]

Which is great, but I just want to make sure it does well. 

[laritheloud]

On 6/22/2021 at 8:39 AM, BaRanchik said:

20 should be plenty. Just keep an eye on it for a while, and possibly dose an extra amount of nitrates if needed (floaters are sponges for nitrates, so you might see your nitrates drop quickly soon).

It absolutely will drop to nothing soon enough @Tyler LaZerte. Less than a week after transferring Water Lettuce into my main tank, my nitrates dropped from 20 to zero in a few days. I have since then struggled with keeping nitrates high enough to be detectable on a test strip (reading between 0 and 5 ppm on the liquid test kit), and I have what I consider a fully-stocked tank!

EDIT: I also fertilize 3 times a week now.

Edited June 22, 2021 by laritheloud

[Tyler LaZerte]

@laritheloud Holy buckets. I may have to step up my Easy Green game. Good thing I started with a layer of Aquasoil haha 

[laritheloud]

RIGHT? Here's what I have in my 29 gallon tank, for reference:

1 Sunset Thicklip Gourami
2 Honey Gourami
8 Diamond Tetras Plus another fry I found growing out (2 of the 8 were babies that grew to juveniles, they are now nearly the size of the females in the school)
6 corydora elegans
3 mystery snails
4 nerites (2 are babies)
6 amano shrimp
Bladder snails for days

I have one more (male) honey gourami in quarantine that will join his buddies in 3 weeks if all goes well, and other than that, that's my entire tank. No plans to add more fish after him. Still struggling with nitrates!

[Tyler LaZerte]

@laritheloud That's amazing! I have some pond snails, 6 Corydoras panda, 3 Otos right now. I plan on adding 2 nerites and 2 rabbit snails with a school of CPDs. 

[BaRanchik]

On 6/22/2021 at 4:13 PM, laritheloud said:

It absolutely will drop to nothing soon enough @Tyler LaZerte. Less than a week after transferring Water Lettuce into my main tank, my nitrates dropped from 20 to zero in a few days. I have since then struggled with keeping nitrates high enough to be detectable on a test strip (reading between 0 and 5 ppm on the liquid test kit), and I have what I consider a fully-stocked tank!

EDIT: I also fertilize 3 times a week now.

 

On 6/22/2021 at 4:15 PM, Tyler LaZerte said:

@laritheloud Holy buckets. I may have to step up my Easy Green game. Good thing I started with a layer of Aquasoil haha 

 

If you have trouble keeping up the nitrates at a good level (although if you have red plants you want them as close to 0ppm as possible) you should consider using a nitrogen only fertilizer. I started using Seachem Nitrogen when floaters began melting and it's great.

[tolstoy21]

On 6/22/2021 at 8:37 AM, Tyler LaZerte said:

Currently 20 ppm, I believe. I'm sure it will go up with time because the tank is only 1 month old. 

20 ppm sounds totally fine.

Keep in mind that that measure represents the 'excess' nitrates not currently being utilized by plants. Healthy water lettuce will suck that up, so your nitrate levels should drop.

I would simply watch the plants to determine their health. If your tank measures few nitrates and your water lettuce is growing healthy it's because it is happily consuming everything it needs, keeping the excess nitrates low.

I don't fertilize the tank in the below pictures at all, and currently the nitrates measure <10ppm. I almost never measure them cause the rate at which my floating plants grow never stops and they appear healthy.

Personally, in my experience rose gardening for many many many years, trust what your plants are visually telling you about their health by how they grow and how healthy their leaves appear in coloration, size, etc. Only take measurements as a means to understand what's out of balance when the plants are showing you they aren't happy.  

Either way, you should be fine based on what you've posted thus far.  Water lettuce is not demanding at all. Expect your nitrates to drop unless you increase your fish or food load.

Only fertilize if the plants show deficiencies. If they don't they are getting everything they need to be happy and healthy. However, keep in mind that your water lettuce could out compete the other plants growing underneath it.

Like I said, haven't ever fertilized the tank below. However, the Java fern in there is suffering a little due to the lack of light cause by the water lettuce/duckweed. But the anubias and buce love the shade!

Edited June 22, 2021 by tolstoy21

[laritheloud]

On 6/22/2021 at 9:36 AM, BaRanchik said:

 

 

If you have trouble keeping up the nitrates at a good level (although if you have red plants you want them as close to 0ppm as possible) you should consider using a nitrogen only fertilizer. I started using Seachem Nitrogen when floaters began melting and it's great.

I have a Ludwigia repens, dwarf aquarium lily, and cryptocoryne tropica as my "red" or "non-green" plants and they are looking really great! I don't have any of the more challenging red plants, though.

[tonyjuliano]

Excess yellowing of mature leaves is usually a sign of potassium deficiency.  One of the difficulties in using "all in one" fertilizers is the inability to target specific nutrients.

There is really no way to "over-dose" potassium, but the same is definitely not the case with nitrogen or phosphorus.  Increasing the levels of "all in one" fertilizers MAY result in undesirable results.

But you can supplement potassium by itself.

Edited June 22, 2021 by tonyjuliano

[laritheloud]

On 6/22/2021 at 9:55 AM, tonyjuliano said:

Excess yellowing of mature leaves is usually a sign of potassium deficiency.  One of the difficulties in using "all in one" fertilizers is the inability to target specific nutrients.

There is really no way to "over-dose" potassium, but the same is definitely not the case with nitrogen or phosphorus.  Increasing the levels of "all in one" fertilizers MAY result in undesirable results.

But you can supplement potassium by itself.

I just started supplementing with Seachem Potassium, and I'm seeing some great results in my plants. Everything's looking very lush! Highly recommend if you think you have a potassium issue.