What's Wrong with My Frogbit?

[Nicci Lu]

I've had it for about a week and a half now, and brown spots keep showing up on the established leaves. Many of the new leaves (though not all) are turning brown starting at the tips.

I have a 10 gal tank with 2 13 watt 6500k CFLs. The water line is about an inch from the top of the tank. I have the filter baffled so that the frogbit stays pretty much in the same spot, although I've been doing water changes once a day for 4 days now due to my betta's injuries, and the frogbit gets moved all around during the changes. I hadn't been putting any ferts in- I put some Flourish Comp. in 2 days ago and the brown spots actually seem to have multiplied. Some of the roots are rotting as well. Any help to keep my frogbit alive would be much appreciated.

I am trying to keep it trimmed by cutting the brown leaves off- though it's really hard to just snip the one and not cut the healthy leaves since they grow so close together.

[Nicci Lu]

Does this sound feasible to anyone?

I was thinking that they are suffering from both too much light and too little. The new leaves are the ones that point straight up and these appear to be getting scorched at the tips. The brown spots on the older, flat laying leaves might be because the plants are too close to the light and therefore the light is not being diffused to those areas.

I just lowered the water level by half an inch- we'll see what happens.

[aokashi]

it may be too dry at the water surface.... too little light or too much flow
what is your water temperature by the way?

[Nicci Lu]

The temp is 79. The filter is baffled and the frogbit stays pretty stable unless I do a water change- then I have to move it back to a spot where it won't start drifting due to the current. Once I find the spot it stays there, though. The tank does have a hood and there is condensation above the water line. My nitrates are usually at 10 and the frogbit is my only plant ATM, so there's nothing else competing for nutrients.

[aokashi]

There is a small possibility that the water is too warm... I see slight melts in my heated tanks but not in my unheated ones....

[Nicci Lu]

Hmm... I'll try turning it down to 78 and see if that helps.

[aokashi]

[Aluka]

I experience the same thing. Few days after i got them, brown spots started showing up and some of the leaves started melting. I just assumed it was a combination of brusing from transport (they were mailed to me) and high water flow. (I have since baffled my filter)

I trimmed off the melting parts and let the brown spots stay till they started to melt. I lost about 30% of them, but the rest has recovered and started spouting new leaves.

[Nicci Lu]

It was strange because they seemed to do well the first 4 days- I had them mailed as well. But lowering the water level has stopped the new leaves turning brown, so I guess they were burning. There is still some melt on the established leaves. Hopefully the new leaves will catch up since they are growing.

[Phaydra]

Give it about a week. Frogbit can recover from almost anything.