Vonzorfox

Would Amazon Swords grow well in a El tank? I have a 20 gallon El doing great but haven't tried swords. I would never put a sword plant in a 20 gallon but I want to convert my 75 angel tank to El. I have three very large swords (they grew out of the tank) that I would like to transfer over. The high tech 75 is really getting to be a pain maintaining, co2's being a pain and I've been so busy lately I forget to fertilize everyday. The 20 El tank is just so easy, just add water and next to zero algae. Thanks.

Vonzorfox

Oops, my first post and in the wrong category, sorry please move it to the El Natural thread.

TAB

They are very heavy root feeders, so you would most likly have to use root tabs

bpb

I have an amazon sword growing in a low light mineralized topsoil tank. I put a seachem root tab right under it. It is slow, but definitely growing. I nearly killed it moving because it was in direct sunlight for too long. I replanted the stump and roots and in two weeks it went from nothing, to 4 leaves about 2" long each. I would say you can definitely grow amazon swords in a npt

Vonzorfox

Thank you for the replies, I just might give it a go in a few weeks. My big worry is keeping the angels healthy when it gets done. I figured the swords would be fine because the roots will be in soil instead of fluorite. I might just pick up a smaller sword this weekend and put it in the 20 to see what happens. No big deal on the tabs, I use them now anyways. Besides it's still much easier to add some tabs every few weeks than this daily maintenance I have to do now.

redchigh

If you have a good enough substrate, I don't know why everyone thinks you need root tabs... Soil is fine by itself for swords.

Also, in a 20, you could try E. Parviflorus, E. Blehirae 'compacta', Echinodorus var 'Klienar Prinz' and perhaps ozelot swords..

Morius

I have a 55 gallon NPT. Soil sub with a gravel cap. Two big amazon swords , one of which currently has four stalks with a whole bunch of plantlets on them. Never used any ferts of any kind and they've been doing great for over a year now.

If you use amazon swords in a 20 I'd think that the plants would out grow your tank in probably less than a year. I have several "melon swords"(no idea what the latin name would be) growing in my 20 long with the same type setup and they are doing great. Also, no ferts.

Mor

Vonzorfox

Thanks, now I'm sure the swords will be OK. Now that I pretty much finished my complete kitchen remodel (new Sheetrock, tiled counter tops, etc.) I can finally start spending money on the fish again not to mention the time.
I would like to replant the three huge swords that are in the 75. I don't mind if they die back some. Then I won't have to remove my canopy and hang the lights. Can I use my cycled fluorite as a cap for the dirt? I would hate to throw it all away but will if needed.

Vonzorfox

I took the plunge yesterday and converted the 75 to NPT. Looks good so far, just a tad cloudy but It looks like it will go away. It's probably running a new cycle, it's not brown at all. I put down about 3/4 to 1 inch of MTS replanted the swords and capped it with about one inch of the old fluorite. It looks just as it did before the conversion. Most important the fish look fine too. Even the angel that jumped from the net into the bucket of water. Guess he wanted to do a high dive.. I'm really looking forward to enjoying the fish more without the daily fuss of dumping ferts in and the weekly water changes. That I will NOT miss at all. I'll have to get some photos to post and share what you fine folks helped me set up. Thanks for all the info in the forum.

Vonzorfox

As promised here is a quick shot of my "new" NPT tank. There are six lovely angel fish about 8 cherry barbs, 3 ottos, 2 black mollies, 1 spotted catfish, 3 loaches and 1 green cory. The algae that is on the swords appear to be turning brown and dieing off so that's a good sign. If anyone is interested I'll take some time and get some good shots of the fish. I just noticed that the ghost shrimp in my 20g NPT had babies. And I thought they didn't reproduce in freshwater.