Yellow Leafs

[chris]

Hello forum people, I have a question in reguards to My Amazon Swords, there going a little yellow, sort of burnt looking.
Just wondering what causes this :?:
My Ph is sitting around 6, I have lights on them for 12 hours.
Maybe some plant food might help :?:

[pitchblack]

hey thee Ive had the same trouble a while ago. I did some research and found the following:

1. leave the lights on for around 8 hrs
2. get an iron test kit and test water for iron levels which plants need to survive. 0.25 is an acceptable level
3. to achieve this level you must top the tank up regularly with a good fertilizer

good luck let me know how it goes. Seem's to work well for me

[chris]

With closer inspection I have noticed that the sword closer to the heater is affected more than the other one, so at the moment im putting it down to, heat.
But maybe some fertilizer may help with growth and health.

[kalebjarrod]

Sword will survive in a tank with no fert but grow in a tank with fert

most planted tanks suffer from lack of iron, iron is nessecary for the uptake of nitrogen, which is in ubundance due to poo

try a simple plant food for straters and go from there

P.S the heater will burn the leaves also

[flukes]

Basic ferts will keep it alive... Amazons shouldnt be too hard too keep healthy..

[chris]

can you recomend some brands, Ive never used fertizlers, in my Tanks,
got any pricing and Tips for swords.

[Proteus]

I just use Discus poo... works wonders...

:wink:

[Merrilyn]

:shock: ................. :lol:

[flukes]

hehehe well on my low requirment planted tank, (pulled down now) i used to use bio-green. It was a cheapo brand i got from aqua force, and if you took the bottle back you got a discount. Nothing fancy but it did the job..

Or fish poo..... :lol:

[kalebjarrod]

thats the thing

fish poo is the main fert

but iron is needed to use the product effeciently :wink:

[chris]

With my fish growing and nitrates rising amonia levels to, Ive found myself having to do more water changes.
And my plants are benifiting yellow leafs going, and the swords lok stonger, I can notice a difference in a week.

[B-rad]

I just recently found out from my LPS that temperatures in discus tanks ( about 85 deg F) are too hot for live plants... their suggestion was to lower the temp to about 82 83 (which discus can tolerate) but it's still pot luck... the best temp for live plants is about 75 deg F

[Merrilyn]

Depends on the type of plants you want to grow Brad. Have a look at some of the photos of member's tanks. They are still growing a variety of plants, and even at the higher temperatures.

[B-rad]

hmmm well I just put 3 swords in my tank and the temp is around 84...and it looks like they're still getting cooked.. What kind of plants does anyone recommend??

[chris]

Hey B-rad my swords are doing fine at the minute, but the sword nearest to the filter did look like it was getting cooked but with my recent nitrate prob, thus doing more water changes it has cured it.
The sword furtherist from the heater is cranking, big leaf loooks good.
My tank sits on 30degrees.

[duck]

Plants use nitrate, i add more to my tank.
All my tanks sit on 30c and no problem.

[waterflash]

The yellowing in the leaves often makes your plants look like they are being cooked. I have a 250ltr tank that is heavily planted and I stopped the yellowing and the breaking down of leaves by adding some iron chelate 13% soluble . Don't go to the local fish shop, this you can buy from a garden centre and pay about $6 for 250g which will last you a lifetime. I only need to disolve about 1/2 a teaspoon into the 250lts and it lasts for about 2-3 weeks. I have iron tested the water and the dose appears to be about right. If you are not sure get an iron test kit and ad very small amounts at first and test after every 2 hours. I took the time to research what the aquarium suppliers are selling and believe me they are just ripping us all off with plant food formula. The manufactures (of the iron chelate 13% soluble Fe as a complex of EDTA) that I use are Manutec Garden Care Products.

Try it it has worked fine for me. Just be careful as I was warned there are two types of iron, the other will kill your fish.

[DR.V]

look at a couple of threads down in this section. I had the same problem, and lots of answers and ideas there :P argg i want GREEN tank

[kalebjarrod]

waterflash

on the back of every fert packet it contains a N:P:K ratio and trace elemnt formulation

can you take a pic of this on the back please?

[Blue]

Amazon Swords are a very greedy plant that absorb many nutrients and basic elements from the water.
They also need feriliser to the roots as well so some tablets may help here.
Regular water changes are a must to replace basic elements back into the tank for this plant.
Remember when tanks had steel reinforcing them and plants just grew like mad. It was because of the condensation dripping back into the tank full of iron.

Barry