# Plants turning transparent and slimy, leaves getting holes



## Reckon

I was away from home for 2 days 1 night and I came home to see some changes with my plants
in both my 
10gal and 20gal the stems of my blyxa japonica were turning white and transparent, same with the stems of my dwarf red tiger lotuses, holes in the leaves of the cryp


































They must be deficient of something

2 days ago I dosed excel, flourish, and potassium
please help me save the plants. thanks!


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## vdub

Are those newly planted specimens? Blyxa usually melts when you uproot and move it. Looks like snails ate your crypts and also a bit of melt as well. Don't worry, just remove as much of the dead leaves as possible and let them regrow back on their own.


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## Fish rookie

I dont know but I had my B Japonica did that same to me...They completely melt to the roots. 
I think back the my Co2 and light was very unstable and there was a dead spot where the B.Japonica were sitting.
I since bought another 2 and now I have like 8 of them, they are growing non stop and keep getting taller and bigger. I think you can try to cut out all the dead leaves and may be plant it in another spot?
Hole on the leave could eb a lack of postassium but I could eb wrong.
Turning white could indicate a lack of nitrogen or sulphate...I think... but I am just a rookie so I am probably wrong.
Would love to hear what the knowledgable members have to say.


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## Reckon

*Update*

I talked to a couple guys and did some reading, it looked like nutrient deficiency so I backed off from the water changes and excel dosing. I also went to dosing flourish every night for the next week. The plants stop melting and started to recover. Only 1 out of the 2 tiger lotus plants survived. A lot of the weeping moss went brown. I lost several leaves and stems from other plants as well but I pulled out the white bits that were floating and here's what I see now. Still a few empty stems but new growth:










In the last week I've added co2 and started Ei dosing. The fast growing plants look amazing now and are actually going quite berzerk. I recently took out quite a bit of cabomba and water sprite.


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## vdub

Is that a new or old tank? That blue gravel pretty much has no nutrients in it and most plants take in 80% of their nutrients from their roots. I find that EI dosing (column dosing) isn't really as effective as having a nutrient rich substrate where the roots would anchor down.

Also is that a vallisneria near the left side of the picture? Excel melts vallisneria's, just to let you know.


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## effox

You can also put root tabs into the gravel, just so long as they aren't sticking out of the gravel (push them in all the way, or cut them to fit) I think people use Jorbs or something like that, but I don't know, you'd have to ask someone else. I'm not a terrific plant guy.


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## Fish rookie

I think he may have two kinds of substrate in his tank...


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## Reckon

Thanks, I think it's some sort of sword (are they considered vals?). It's been struggling a bit regardless of ei and co2 but the stutned growth might just be due to the substrate. I have a few of its brothers in the new tank with eco complete so we'll see. But I'll definately keep the excel away from vals in the future.



vdub said:


> Is that a new or old tank? That blue gravel pretty much has no nutrients in it and most plants take in 80% of their nutrients from their roots. I find that EI dosing (column dosing) isn't really as effective as having a nutrient rich substrate where the roots would anchor down.
> 
> Also is that a vallisneria near the left side of the picture? Excel melts vallisneria's, just to let you know.


Thanks for the advice. I already had most of these major plants root tabbed. It just wasn't doing enough unfortunately. What's crazy is that the Japonica in blue gravel is doing awsome but the same plant in florabase/playsand root tabbed still is struggling.



effox said:


> You can also put root tabs into the gravel, just so long as they aren't sticking out of the gravel (push them in all the way, or cut them to fit) I think people use Jorbs or something like that, but I don't know, you'd have to ask someone else. I'm not a terrific plant guy.


I have 3 tanks. My original 20gal with blue gravel. New 22gal with Eco Complete. 4 week old 10gal with Florabase and playsand.



Fish rookie said:


> I think he may have two kinds of substrate in his tank...


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## Tarobot

Some roots dont do very well in sand could be why


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## Reckon

*Update: Blyxa Japonica*



Tarobot said:


> Some roots dont do very well in sand could be why


This is definately true of the Japonica. 1 month later, the plant is doing amazing in crappy blue gravel with dosing. In the playsand/florabase it just melted away and is completely gone from my 10gal. I'm certain playsand doesn't let it breathe enough.


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