Unhappy dwarf water lettuce

LookoutTrout
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Several weeks ago I put some dwarf water lettuce in my tank, it spreads fast but always looks limp with stunted growth and end up sagging underwater. The leaves are all a bit floppy whereas after being in a bucket outside (filled with tank water) for a week the leaves grow out of the water and look much stronger. I thought it may be overcrowding so took most of the weaker plants out but it hasn't helped. I took a healthy plant from the from the bucket, put it back in the tank and it wilted.
The top of my tank has a lid with ventilation and I have an air line so I don't think it's lack of air, the light is pretty bright with about 140 LEDs but it's the light the tank came with and I have no info on it apart from the transformer says 36W output.
Any idea what it is they don't like? I need to buy a new light as the current one doesn't fit with the new filter hoses, also I think it's weak even for a low tech tank.
The plants can be seen at the top right here, there's little flow and for some periods there was almost no flow but that didn't help.
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plankton
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Are you using ferts or "liquid CO2"?
I'm not sure about the low flow, I find plants grow better when there is a reasonable flow around the tank.
Tank looks good though. :)
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I'm using NT Labs Plant boost and liquid CO2, the same ferts would have been transferred to the bucket.
I know these plants don't like high flow and they are doing very well in the bucket outside with no flow and nothing else added.
Other plants grow pretty well but only along the back of the tank where they get a lot of sunlight, the water lettuce relies on the LEDs. It's probably obvious I'm blaming the light in my head but even if it wasn't strong enough for the depth of water that's irrelevant to the water lettuce which sits under a few inches of air and a sheet of glass. The light has some red, blue and green in it but I don't know how much that really makes a difference.
Nitrates have been a minimum of 10ppm, I saw them go through nitrate deficiency in the QT so it isn't that.

In my bucket outside I now have some frogbit and water chestnut as well that I'm going to try but I'm worried that they will have the same problem when I transfer them indoors. I think all of these plants like soft water, mine is medium with a ph of 7.2.
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Last edited by LookoutTrout on Tue Jul 13, 2021 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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New experiment:
I took one from the tank and one from the bucket and put them in a glass on top of the aquarium. There are still a couple of variables being the air in the tank and the lid on the tank but at least it is the same light source.

The leaves in the tank are convex with the edges pointing down into the water, in the bucket they are concave with the edges curving towards the sky.
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plankton
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I didn't think floating plants liked it too light....??
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It could be that though I'd imagine the sunlight has been a lot stronger.
I have 2 experiments going now, a glass on top right under the light with a bucket plant and a tank plant, then the same floating in the tank to see if the problem is just moving water. If the light is too bright I should see the ones on top of the tank deteriorate quicker, what I'm hoping is one or both of the plants from the tank improve.
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fr499y
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plankton wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 18:58 pm I didn't think floating plants liked it too light....??
This never crossed my mind, but floating plants have done better for me with lower flow and lower light, strong light burns them and they melt away.
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A third glass has gone out now, so one in the tank, one under the light and another off to the side. A few days to wait and I'll see what works best.
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Gingerlove05
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fr499y wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 19:26 pm
plankton wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 18:58 pm I didn't think floating plants liked it too light....??
This never crossed my mind, but floating plants have done better for me with lower flow and lower light, strong light burns them and they melt away.
I did start typing a reply earlier but I was still in work and got disturbed ROFL
I think they dont like being too close to the lights because of the heat given off (as @fr499y says they get burnt/dried out), they do like a humid atmosphere and a lot of light (but that doesn’t necessarily mean close to light). I have found that if theres a few inches (3-4inches) between the plants and the lights (2xt5 juwel and led lights), they don’t burn and it also allows for the humid atmosphere, you might have to experiment a little depending on your lights. The low flow allows them to settle and grow roots, as high flow tends to damage the roots if they get bashed/blown about too much. Biggest one i grew was bigger than my hand span (approx 9 inches), and had a couple of sister plants attached :)
If they get big enough they will flower with quite pretty little white flowers :)
To the tune of “the saints go marching in”:
Oh fluffy sheep! Oh fluffy sheep! Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful, they’re white Welsh and fluffy! Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful!
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My test has now finshed, a couple of days before I expected but someone decided she wanted to munch on the inside of the floating test.
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I found two possible influences affecting my plant growth. The most obvious was light, the floating test and the glass to the side of the light both had leaves that were drooping downwards. The glass right under the light (plants about 1" away from the LEDs) looked much happier with lighter coloured leaves growing towards the light.
Something I wasn't looking for but was very noticable was root growth in combination with light and flow. Low light and low flow resulted in the roots shrinking wheras with decent light or mild water flow the roots stayed a decent length.
The photos don't show it very well, the difference is more obvious in 3D. At the start I put a healthy and unhealthy plant in each. I also notice that leaves that look lighter to my eye are darker in the photos.
Low light:
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High Light:
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From this I'm deducing if I put a decent light over the top the plants will become stronger and more buoyant and cope well with the low flow, I'll test that bit after I find a new light.
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