Great website, Robyn. So helpful.

Last fall I moved a bunch of anacharis from my outdoor 40 gallon mini pond into an 20 gallon aquarium over the winter. The anacharis thrived during the winter months producing long green strands.

Last week I divided the strands into 5 bunches and placed back into the outdoor mini pond that is in a well lit area for at least 6-8 hours daily. The anacharis turned a pale brown within a day.

The water used in the mini pond comes from a well and is hard. The aquarium water is tap water treated with de-chlorinator/conditioner, but it too is hard, just not as hard as the well water.

Have any ideas, suggestions to remedy the situation?

Thank you.

Lisa

The color change could just be from the stress of the changes in water hardness, lighting, and probably temperature. What was the temperature in the tank, and what's it in the pond? Anacharis will go brown when stressed and may die but could also recover if the stress if over. If the water is super hard, that may be a problem for the anacharis. I have the opposite problem. In my ponds, anacharis is green. If I bring it inside, it goes brown, most likely because the lighting is not intense enough. Since I have a brown thumb myself, I hope someone else who knows more about plants will reply.

Robyn...thank you.

It may be due to stress one environment to another. The water hardness is about the same tap to outdoor well (mini pond).

I'll be turning out my goldfish, 2 rosey minnows and pleco this week. The aquarium water (anacharis came from) has higher acidic level and showed higher nitrates. I hadn't done the usual 3-4 week water change for about 8 weeks. The fish were very active and healthy in the enviroment.

I'm concerned of how they will adapt to the outdoor mini pond (they were in it last year until winter). Should I make the mini pond more acidic as close to aquarium level? I don't want to lose the little guys.

Lisa

Why not replace some of the outdoor pond's water with the aquarium water if the fish are going out there anyway? That way, they have fewer changes to which to adapt.

Thanks again, Robyn.

I thought of doing that, but remembered a comment made by a pet store owner not to mix the water the fish are coming from into the new container water. Don't remember the reason given, if any.

If you don't believe this will be a problem I may just do that and keep and eye on the little guys to see how they are doing.

Also, I pulled the brown anacharis and found that the leaves lost the green and were transparent. The brown was a gritty texture where the chlorophyll aparently was lost. Any ideas what may have happened given this new observation?

Lisa

You never want to put store water into your aquarium or pond. If you have a healthy, established aquarium, there's no reason you can't put that water out into a new pond.

The anacharis lost its chlorophyll when it was dying. Whether it died from changes in temperature, light, or nutrients, I don't know.

Hi Robyn.

Gotcha about the store water. Will give the addition of aquarium water a try.

Thanks for all your advice.

Lisa