# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk >  Plant turning yellow

## takaco

Plants turning yellow should i cut the leaf ? if yes i need to cut which part ?

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## stressed

Cut at 2. Watch for more part turning yellow or just this. Maybe a sign of iron deficiency kicking in.

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## Shadow

It depend how bad it is, some time it does not need to be cut. Also in bright light some plant turning yellow or even pink. If you have picture of the leaf that would make identification easier.

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## Urban Aquaria

Shadow made a good point, also have to see if the yellow color is on the old or new leaves... for example like anubias plants, their new baby leaves tend to start off light green/yellow then turn into dark green when they fully develop. 

Another example are stem plants like rotala roundifolia, their leaves become yellow (and eventually reddish) when exposed to stronger light, can often see 3 levels of color along the tall stems as they grow closer to the lights... ie. green (bottom stem) -> yellow (middle stem) -> reddish (top stem).

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## takaco

Will it be okay if i let my oto eat the dead leaf(yellowish leaf) ?

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## Urban Aquaria

That shouldn't be an issue... though usually when you see an oto grazing on a yellowish dying leaf its actually scrubbing at the algae or bio film covering it, rather than actually eating the dead leaf.

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## takaco

i think i mess up

1week ago

now

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## Urban Aquaria

If you are referring to the older anubias leaves which have yellowish edges, just cut off those affected leaves. Old leaves don't repair themselves.

Pruning off old or damaged leaves is part of regular plant maintenence and it helps the anubias re-direct resources to growing fresh new healthy leaves.

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## takaco

> If you are referring to the older anubias leaves which have yellowish edges, just cut off those affected leaves. Old leaves don't repair themselves.
> 
> Pruning off old or damaged leaves is part of regular plant maintenance and it helps the anubias re-direct resources to growing fresh new healthy leaves.


like this mean i need to cut 75% of my leaves right ?

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## Urban Aquaria

> like this mean i need to cut 75% of my leaves right ?


If that amount of old leaves are deteriorating, then it'll be best to prune the affected ones off now (instead of later). It'll look abit bare for a while, but anubias plants store most of their nutrients in the rhizome, so as long as the rhizome is healthy, it will be able to re-grow new leaves in time.

I've trimmed all the leaves off some of my new anubias plants before, just left the bare rhizome. After a few days, new leaves begin to sprout out and over the weeks they start to fill back in.

Note that if your anubias was recently bought from an LFS, its leaves would usually be in emersed form, so they will inevitably melt away to give way for submersed leaves anyways.

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## takaco

> If that amount of old leaves are deteriorating, then it'll be best to prune the affected ones off now (instead of later). It'll look abit bare for a while, but anubias plants store most of their nutrients in the rhizome, so as long as the rhizome is healthy, it will be able to re-grow new leaves in time.
> 
> I've trimmed all the leaves off some of my new anubias plants before, just left the bare rhizome. After a few days, new leaves begin to sprout out and over the weeks they start to fill back in.
> 
> Note that if your anubias was recently bought from an LFS, its leaves would usually be in emersed form, so they will inevitably melt away to give way for submersed leaves anyways.


All old plants i bought it from one of the seller at marketplace, the plant still degrading after i cut the yellow/brown leaves  :Sad:  is it because i never put fertilizer ?

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## leehyeok

For anubias, they are low requirement plant. They can survive in a low tech tank.

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## Urban Aquaria

> All old plants i bought it from one of the seller at marketplace, the plant still degrading after i cut the yellow/brown leaves  is it because i never put fertilizer ?


Maybe you can check with the seller how long the anubias has been in his or her tank? If it's been growing submerged for a while and the leaves have already transitioned to submersed form, then it could sometimes be due to the change in tank conditions which make the plant go through another transition process (the old submerged leaves could still melt, then new adapted leaves grow out).

On the other hand, if you see that that new leaves that grow out look weak or are melting, the it could be a sign of nutrient deficiency (though it tends to be less likely as they have rhizomes which are usually able to supply the needed nutrients for growing new leaves). 

You can check this useful chart for reference:

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## tureblue82

very informative!

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## takaco

Hey guy could it be because my light is too strong(hot) 24wx2 for my 2 feet tank causing the plant to turn yellow ?

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## Urban Aquaria

Warmer water making plants turn yellow would tend to be rather unlikely, unless its in hot water enough to cook the plant like boiling vegetables.  :Grin: 

I've had anubias plants in outdoor tanks at 32-33°C and they still grew without issues, no excessive yellowing or melting encountered.

I'd guess if you continue seeing yellowing in all the leaves (both old and new) then it could be some nutrient deficiency, maybe can consider dosing some all-in-one fertilizer like Seachem Flourish, see if it helps to fill in some of the deficiencies (especially the micro/trace nutrients which tend to get used up more quickly in most planted tanks).

Are your other plants also showing the same symptoms or are they still growing well?

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## takaco

> Warmer water making plants turn yellow would tend to be rather unlikely, unless its in hot water enough to cook the plant like boiling vegetables. 
> 
> I've had anubias plants in outdoor tanks at 32-33°C and they still grew without issues, no excessive yellowing or melting encountered.
> 
> I'd guess if you continue seeing yellowing in all the leaves (both old and new) then it could be some nutrient deficiency, maybe can consider dosing some all-in-one fertilizer like Seachem Flourish, see if it helps to fill in some of the deficiencies (especially the micro/trace nutrients which tend to get used up more quickly in most planted tanks).
> 
> Are your other plants also showing the same symptoms or are they still growing well?


Yes not just anubias the rest of my plant turn yellow too, my tank have carbon will it affect thw all in one fertilizer ?

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## Cmlee

What if plant turns black?
which ingredient is missing?

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## takaco

my plant's root all turn brown color is there a way to save it ?

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## Urban Aquaria

> my plant's root all turn brown color is there a way to save it ?


Probably the roots are getting old so they turn brownish, new roots are usually whitish or light green in color. You can trim off the brown roots to help encourage growth of new roots.

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## Cmlee

My plant after cutting off black patches, still grow more black patches
how to save it?

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## Urban Aquaria

> My plant after cutting off black patches, still grow more black patches
> how to save it?


What kind of plant, where are the black patches and how do you cut them? A photo and more detailed description would help.

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## Cmlee

It's java fern I think . The black patches comes every where on the leave of the plant.
i used to cut off top of the leave that have black patches , now it's all over the leaves

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## Urban Aquaria

> It's java fern I think . The black patches comes every where on the leave of the plant.
> i used to cut off top of the leave that have black patches , now it's all over the leaves


Black spots or patches on java fern leaves could be the spores where baby plantlets grow from... those are a normal part of the plant.  :Smile: 

A photo of your plants will really help to identify and confirm it though.

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## Cmlee

It's like this

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## Urban Aquaria

> It's like this


Okay, those black patches look like damaged or rotted portions of the leaf, it occurs sometimes on older leaves, so you can just trim them away to encourage the growth of new healthier leaves.

Don't just cut part of the leaf, they will not regrow the cut parts, it'll just continue deteriorating... you need to cut away the whole leaf at the base of each leaf stem.

Alternatively, the black patches could also be algae too (perhaps the beginnings of BBA), just use your finger to test and see if you can rub it off.

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## Cmlee

Every leaf is 1 stem and the whole bunch is turning black patches

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## Urban Aquaria

Yeah, just trim away the entire leaves that have black patches... if the rhizome is healthy, it will be able to regrow new healthier green leaves.

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## takaco

My plant are getting sicker  :Sad: 



what did i done wrong ?

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## Urban Aquaria

Looks like a normal anubias leaf but just with the usual green spot algae (GSA) peppering the surface and black beard algae (BBA) growing around the leaf edges... its quite common with anubias since they are so slow growing.

The solution is to reduce the intensity of light shining directly on the leaf surface, maybe use some floating plants to block the lights... keep the anubias under a more shade-like environment, helps slow down algae growth on their leaves.

To tackle the existing BBA and GSA algae, shrimps can't help much with those so you have to look at "specialist" algae eaters... consider adding a small SAE to nibble on the BBA, can also try adding horned nerite snails to munch on the GSA (place them on the affected leaves and see if they can be effective).

For those affected leaves that already have tears and holes, just cut them off, they will not recover the physical damage anyway. Let the plant redirect resources to grow new healthy leaves instead.

Increasing Co2 injection (if possible), improving circulation and doing more frequent water changes can help flush out excess nutrients that may have been accumulating and contributing to the general algae growth.

Lastly, can try algae treatments like AlgExit, they can help inhibit the algae growth and gradually kill the algae, making it easier for your various algae eaters to consume and clear them.

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## takaco

> Looks like a normal anubias leaf but just with the usual green spot algae (GSA) peppering the surface and black beard algae (BBA) growing around the leaf edges... its quite common with anubias since they are so slow growing.
> 
> The solution is to reduce the intensity of light shining directly on the leaf surface, maybe use some floating plants to block the lights... keep the anubias under a more shade-like environment, helps slow down algae growth on their leaves.
> 
> To tackle the existing BBA and GSA algae, shrimps can't help much with those so you have to look at "specialist" algae eaters... consider adding a small SAE to nibble on the BBA, can also try adding horned nerite snails to munch on the GSA (place them on the affected leaves and see if they can be effective).
> 
> For those affected leaves that already have tears and holes, just cut them off, they will not recover the physical damage anyway. Let the plant redirect resources to grow new healthy leaves instead.
> 
> Increasing Co2 injection (if possible), improving circulation and doing more frequent water changes can help flush out excess nutrients that may have been accumulating and contributing to the general algae growth.
> ...


Hi thanks for the reply do i need to trim some of the leaves if there's holes ?

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## takaco

My fern also have black spots  :Sad: 

IMG_1238.jpg

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## Urban Aquaria

> Hi thanks for the reply do i need to trim some of the leaves if there's holes ?


Yes, trim away those leaves with holes... the holes will not recover anyways.





> My fern also have black spots 
> 
> IMG_1238.jpg


Wah... looks like bad algae infestation on those leaves, can see beard/fuzz algae growing on the leaf edges too, no choice you'll have to cut away those affect leaves.

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## takaco

If i cut all my leaves that seem to be rotten/algae infestation will the leaves grown back ?

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## Urban Aquaria

> If i cut all my leaves that seem to be rotten/algae infestation will the leaves grown back ?


Yes, those are rhizome plants, if their rhizomes are healthy they will grow new leaves again within a short time.

Like i mentioned previously, i've trimmed off all the leaves on new anubias plants before (those that came with leaves in very poor condition), totally botak only left the rhizome stump... after a few days can see new healthy leaves sprouting out.  :Smile:

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