Skip to Content

Why Your Anubias Leaves Are Turning Yellow And How To Stop It!

With the various types of Anubias plants being such a popular option within the aquarium keeping hobby, we have noticed a spike in the number of questions that we get regarding the plant as the hobby has seen a surge in beginners recently.

Although the Anubias plant is considered a very beginner friendly plant due to its hardy nature, there can be some common problems with the plant that can cause your anubias leaves to turn yellow.

The two most common problems that can cause your anubias leaves to start turning yellow is an iron deficiency in the water and having your light intensity set to moderate or high.

Less common causes of anubias leaves turning yellow include a deficiency of potassium or magnesium as well as low levels of CO2 in your aquarium water.

It can actually be very common for beginners to aquarium keeping to have multiple problems in their tank that are causing the leaves of their anubias plant to yellow with this usually being multiple mineral deficiencies.

Thankfully, an aquatic plant fertilizer product such as Flourish is usually enough to correct the problem quickly and help get your anubias leaves green again.

Is It Normal For Anubias Leaves To Turn Yellow?

In some rare situations, it can be normal for the leaves of an anubias plant to temporarily turn yellow when the plant is first added to a new aquarium but the leaves should quickly return to their normal green color.

In all other cases, it is not normal for an anubias plant to have yellow leaves with this being an early indication of a potentially serious problem.

We have seen some people misunderstand why different types of anubias plants will have slightly different shaped or different colored leaves.

No matter the type of anubias plant you keep in your aquarium, you will always have green leaves on a healthy plant rather than yellow leaves.

As we covered in our article going over anubias leaves curling, there are often multiple symptoms of problems with your plant that show helping to narrow down the issue.

For example, if you notice that the leaves of your anubias are turning yellow and curling, it is highly likely that the problem is due to light intensity or CO2 levels rather than problems with nutrient levels in the aquarium.

Why Is My Anubias Leaves Turning Yellow?

Most people who notice the leaves of their anubias plants are turning yellow will find that they have a deficiency in their tank or low CO2 levels.

In some situations, a lack of potassium and/or magnesium can also cause the leaves of an anubias plant to turn yellow with moderate and high light intensity levels also commonly causing yellow leaves in anubias plants.

If you are a beginner, it is highly likely that you will have problems with the nutrition levels in your aquarium as we see people make this mistake time and time again.

Due to this, we would usually recommend that you start investigating the iron, potassium, and magnesium levels in your aquarium to try and work out if this could be the problem.

You can pick up a cheap CO2 checker to monitor the CO2 levels in your aquarium with anubias plants usually doing better with a lime green bubble in your CO2 checker.

Although a dark green bubble can still be fine for most setups, it can still be too low for some setups with anubias plants in it and may cause your leaves to start yellowing.

How Do I Stop My Anubias Leaves Turning Yellow?

If you discover that your anubias leaves are turning yellow due to a lack of iron, potassium or magnesium in your tank then you can supplement the nutrition levels in your tank with the Flourish product to help the leaves of your anubias to turn green again.

Issues with CO2 levels in your aquarium are often easy to fix and your anubias leaves should start to turn green again within a week of correcting the CO2 levels.

Problems with the light intensity in your aquarium can also cause the leaves of your anubias plant to rapidly turn yellow.

The anubias needs low light intensity and can quickly start to have problems with the more light that is provided to the plant.

Many people use cheap lighting units in their aquariums that have inaccurate intensity dials so even if you think that you are providing your aquarium with a low light intensity, you may actually find that your real lighting levels could be much higher.

We have seen some people reporting that their anubias plant can start to have issues with its leaves turning yellow if a tank mate is constantly biting the plant or its roots are being eaten.

It is usually very easy to work out if this is the problem with your own anubias plants as there is often visible damage to the plant and then you can try and move the plant or the offending tank mate eating your anubias to a different tank to prevent the issue.

Why Does My Anubias Turn Yellow After A Water Change?

The anubias plant can do very well when fully submerged but the plant can rapidly have problems when out of water, even for as little as 30 minutes.

This is why many people will spray their anubias down every couple of minutes when doing a full water change in their tank to prevent the plant from having problems with its leaves yellowing after a water change.

Unfortunately, this is just one of those things when it comes to the anubias plant and there is nothing that you are able to do about it if you do have an aquarium setup that requires full water changes.

Trying to get your tank water changed in less than 30 minutes can prevent these issues but a partial water change where your anubias plant is kept submerged will always be the better option.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over why your anubias leaves are turning yellow to an end. We hope that we have been able to help as many of our readers as possible better understand why they may be having problems with the leaves of their anubias plant starting to yellow. For the most part, provided that you correct the issue causing the yellowing the problem should fade within around two weeks and your plant should be able to make a full recovery.