Hi; I have a 55 gal freshwater community tank with Anubis and Amazon Sword plants. The Anubis are doing great with new shoots and new leaves even a "flower" on the top of the plant! However the same cannot be said for the Amazon sword plants. They do not grow and the tips seem to disinergrate. I currently have two CO2 injector systems and put in liquid plant fertilizer weekly. (leaf zone) I have also replaced my overhead light within the last month or so with a good light for plant growth. I have talked to several fish stores and they asked if I have plecos; I have two of them. They said that they like to suck the cloraphyl from the leaves. However the Anubis plants are are doing fine like I said before. I also do weekly water changes with a special filter from Aquaruim Pharm. that filters out all the crap out of tap water. I do a 10 gal change once a week. pH seems to be fine around 6.8 to 7 more or less. No nitrates,no amoninia. The fish are doing fine with no deaths for a long time(over 1 year). Any hints or tips would be appreciated. Are there any plants I could use in place of the Amazon swords that are tough like the ANUBIS? Thanx
Having problems w/ Amazon Sword Plants
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I'm not an expert, but I can give you some advice on similar problems I've had with swords in my learning process.
First, how much light do you have over the tank? If the Anubias is doing well (with no algae) and the swords aren't, it's possible that your lighting is inadequate. Even if you have a good bulb, you still need to have enough light for plants like swords.
Second, swords do a lot of root feeding. I put some root tablets in the substrate near mine and noticed a LARGE increase in their growth rate. Another thing that helped with mine is dosing more iron (they seem to suck it up like crazy).
Finally, what type of plecos do you have? Smaller ones could be okay, but some of the "common" types which get very large can damage plants. Your problem sounds more like a nutrient or light deficiency to me though, since it's at the leaf tips. I think plecos would be damaging the leaves all over.
You also might want to check out http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm if you haven't already. Chuck's page can help you diagnose nutrient deficiency symptoms. Your filtered water could be removing some necessary trace nutrients or something.
First, how much light do you have over the tank? If the Anubias is doing well (with no algae) and the swords aren't, it's possible that your lighting is inadequate. Even if you have a good bulb, you still need to have enough light for plants like swords.
Second, swords do a lot of root feeding. I put some root tablets in the substrate near mine and noticed a LARGE increase in their growth rate. Another thing that helped with mine is dosing more iron (they seem to suck it up like crazy).
Finally, what type of plecos do you have? Smaller ones could be okay, but some of the "common" types which get very large can damage plants. Your problem sounds more like a nutrient or light deficiency to me though, since it's at the leaf tips. I think plecos would be damaging the leaves all over.
You also might want to check out http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm if you haven't already. Chuck's page can help you diagnose nutrient deficiency symptoms. Your filtered water could be removing some necessary trace nutrients or something.
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