plants turning brown

[marc johnson]

I have a 50 gal bow front I decided a month ago that i wanted plants . I cleaned the aquarium put in new substrate [eco complete] planted numerous plants Anubis just started to open new leaves and all in one day are turning brown/ black .the two new leaves are beautiful just the old ones turning bad , have some reeds there also going bad . I have a new grow bulb [just the stock single florescent]water is ph 7.4 10 small fish barbs and such

 

[prototop]

Plants will generally shed their old leaves when adapting to new conditions. If there are new leaves coming, the plants should be fine. Any new growth on the reeds?

 

[aquaticclarity]

Are the leaves themselves turning brown or can you gently wipe off the brown if you rub the leaf? Is it comes off it's an alage growing on the plants-most likely a diatom algae.

What other plants (beyond the Anubias) are in the tank? When starting a planted tank there tend to be a lot of nutrients in the water and if you do not have a good number of fast growing plants (bunch/stem plants that can pull nutrients from the water column) to help suck up the fertilizer that's loose (Anubias are a slow growing plant that feed mainly from the substrate) you wil often end up with an algae bloom of some sort.

If the leaves them selves are falling apart then I would agree with prototop's advice. Just be sure to remove the dead leaves as they become loose so they don't rot in the tank and add to the possibly high nutrient level. Also, with Anubias, be sure that you only plant the roots in the gravel and that the rhizome (woody stem like part that the roots and leaves grow out of) is above the gravel line. If it's buried the plants will NOT be happy! If the Anubias are tied/stuck to a piece of wood or rock then you don't need to worry about that.