Amazon Sword question?

[Dave001]

Hey every one,

I'm having (or have always had) a problem growing Amazon Swords, and require a little help, or push, in the right direction.
The Ambulia & Hygro I have in the tank grows fine, need to prune it weekly, the Anubias Nana is growing fine as well, but does have a fair bit of green algae on it.

The Sword plants are growing, but the leaves are bent/twisted, and the new leaves aren't as wide as they where when I originally planted them. Sword plants have been in the tank for about 4 months now. Hopefully the pics below will show what I mean.

Tank specs:
120 gallon (48" x 24" x 28")
20 gallon wet/dry filter
Temp 30 deg C
Lighting - 2 wpg (shop lights, so might not actually be getting that figure from the reflectors, into the tank)
Substrate is 3mm Coffs Harbour pebble, with Laterite base.


PH - 7.5
GH - 8
KH - 3
Ammonia -0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10 ppm
Phosphate - 1 ppm
Iron - 0.25 ppm
Calcium - 20 ppm
No CO2

I do 50% water changes weekly, and with that dose 1 tbls of Epsom Salts and 1 tbls of Potassium Sulphate.

I dose 15mls of Chelated Trace Element / Chelated Iron mix (PMDD with out the Nitrate and Potassium) on day 2, 4 and 6.

Sword plants are fed root tabs every couple of months.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated. :)

Thanks,
Dave

[scott bowler]

hi dave this plant is Echinodorus horizontalis it is a tipe of sord but not a common sword .it is readily avalable but not allways as easy to grow ,they are a bog plant and do flower it is commonly grown with its leaves half out of the water . how long do you leave your lights on ? this plant likes shorter days then most swords .it is a nice plant but i like the echinodorus amazonicus in my tank i have some of them and they are two ft high .I dont use any thing to grow them just grolux lighting . try to get some amazon plant food and turn your lights off or on early . i have att a pic of my tank to show you my swords sorry its not better and i hope i have helped scott

[scott bowler]

oh yeah dave the leaves on this plant do twist and bend that is normal . it is some times call a paddle sword becouse the leaves are on long stems.

[ILLUSN]

Hi Dave001, your tank specs arnt bad, your problem might be temp, from memory that sword dosn't like temps above 28C I had a beutiful amazonicus that never did well at 30C and when my heater failed and temp jumped to 32 I lost it, asside from that what spectrum of light are you using, if you want broader leaves try raising light intensity (line hood with aluminium foil to maximise light hitting tank add extra globes, replace your globes if T8 every 9-12 months)

[scott bowler]

hi illusn i run my temp at 32c and my swords do ok i dont loss them

[Dave001]

Lights are on 10 hrs a day, 6x 4ft T5 with 6500k bulbs.

Thanks for the advice, i'll rip it out and try another type of sword plant then.

[ILLUSN]

hi scott, i like the look of your tank, that big Bleheri is impressive especially ate 32C heres a photo of my comunity tank, I only run it at 28 all the large swords at the back are bleheri, theres a green flame at the front being mangled by Jaja (My big plec) came from my grow out tank with a bit of BBA, he took care of it along with most of the adult leaves lol. Also i think you might be right about horizontalis just re checked my care sheets and found this link, it's in hebrew (? from israel??) but you get the just of it it's quated from rataj's work http://www.israquarium.co.il/Plants/Echinodorus%20horisontalis.html

[scott bowler]

very nice illusn that is a big plac and i bet he looked after a few of the plants hehe its nice thow what is in the tank at the bottom

[ILLUSN]

Thanks, Jaja's not too bad he only eats algae, the only leaves he's ever damaged are ones covered with BBA (it's a bit of a problem in my grow out tank too much light too much co2 siemensis keep dying) the smaller (14inch) Sailfin is a bit more of a pain he has devoured all my java moss and java fern over the last 2 years, but again hasn't touched any other plants. the small open top tank ate the bottom is home to George my 1 year old eastern long neck turtle, will post up pick of my new fish room with all the tanks as soon as it finished, i've stolen enough of this thread already.

[scott bowler]

cool sounds good and sorry dave hope we have helped you in some way too

[Dave001]

Well, after going to half a dozen LFS's, I finally tracked down what I'm pretty sure is a Echinodorus Amazonicus, did I get it right?

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

Dave

[scott bowler]

yeah thats the one they are easyer to look after , under the conditions that discus have . it may die back a little at first but dont panic it will come back , like fish it needs to settle in good luck with it all

[ILLUSN]

nice work, just keep up the root fertilizer and it should be ok, keep us posted how it goes