frogbits dying

**shyta** · 24th Dec 2013, 17:21

Took this with my phone, hope it's clear enough. could you point out what kind of deficiency is this?

**Urban Aquaria** · 24th Dec 2013, 21:15

The middle one looks like its melting... though all of them in your photo look like tiny broken off leafs from main plants, are those all you have?

Maybe the tiny individual leaves didn't have enough reserves to continue growing and hence melt instead.

How are the other plants in your tank? Do they also exhibit yellowing or melting leaves too?

Do you dose excel? Sometimes if excel is poured directly on or around frogbits they'll tend to melt too.

Anyways, you could have a look at this chart for some reference, ignore the left side (Co2 deficiency) as frogbits are floating and get Co2 directly from the air, look at the right side (nutrient deficiency):

Photo from Google Images.

**juggler** · 25th Dec 2013, 14:15

Originally Posted by shyta

media sucking away nutrients? like what do you mean? i only have ceramic rings and sponges which are both inert.

and i'm always over feeding my cories as they are greedy eaters so i really don't know what's the problem.

i kinda gave up though, tried duckweed too but failed. i guess i could take a picture of my duckweed/frogbits to see what kind of deficiency the tank is suffering from.

Looks like no problem with your tank.
When was the last time you cleaned your filter? If it was long ago, try washing your filter media (using your tank water) and see if it improves the plant growth over next week or two. Sometimes excessive biological filtration retards plant growth.
Good luck.

**juggler** · 6th Jan 2014, 01:44

Originally Posted by shyta

Took this with my phone, hope it's clear enough. could you point out what kind of deficiency is this?

From the pics, the frogbits look so tiny, like they are shrinking.
Wonder if any developments so far. Happy New Year!

**shyta** · 6th Jan 2014, 08:41

happy New year! ah those were duckweed actually. I tried to grow duckweed in the same tank to see if it can grow instead. but failed too haha. I tried dosing the macros as well but it doesn't seem to help. I actually didn't see your previous post about washing the media though, will give it a try this weekend maybe

**bennyc** · 6th Jan 2014, 16:03

Where did you get your frogbits from? Looks funny with only 1 petal/leaf. Anyway, in my fishless tank with constant supply of light, my frogbits do not grow too. I believe there is not nitrate for it to feed on.