Amazon Swords

[scottca]

Hi All,

Hope you can help me, nearly all of my plants are flourishing apart from the swords!

I have a 180litre well planted tank, running pressurised Co2 (constant 30ppm). The tank has 2x 24Watt T5 Lights which are on for approx 8 Hours a day before they switch over to the Moon Lighting.

I use API Root Tabs and push them under the sword into its root mass, however the leaves are still turning brown and eventually dying off. I have been reading up on this problem and know it means its dificient of something! Would this be mainly iron? I was under the impression the root tabs would solve that one?

Any idea's on what I can do to bring them back to healthy looking? I was thinking about going down the EI route but it seems quite a bit of work...

Thanks,

Craig

 

[aaronnorth]

Are you dosing any liquid or powder fertilisers? Any easier way of EI is to dose Tropica Plant Nutrition+. This supplys everything that EI does but it is an all in one product. You can dose this daily at 1ml per 20l

 

[Wolfenrook]

48 watts of T5 over a 180 litre tank would actually seem to me to be a bit low really, not least as 24 watt T5 tubes are probably a fair bit shorter than the full length of most 180litre tanks. It could well be that even though swords will usually tolerate low light levels, that they aren't getting enough light. Assuming that your tank is 36 inches or longer I'd be wanting to use 2 39 watt T5HO tubes really (I actually run 4, but that's because my set up is high light), which would allow you to grow the majority of plants happily.

I'd also consider dumping the root tabs, and just going with a liquid fert to be honest. I never found root tab fertilisers all that brilliant really.

Ade

 

[Renate]

Could you post a picture?

I had a amazon plant in 10 gallon, which I rarely turned the light on and it started turning yellow. In tank that is lit with low light it just lived like a plastic plant. Been told they can grow big big roots.

 

[scottca]

Thanks for your replys

aaronnorth - No Im not dosing any liquid or powder fertilisers, I will definatley look into it though if its not too expensive

Wolfenrock - Im using a Fluval Vicenza 180, your correct in that the lights are short for the length of the tank, however I cant really change them without quite a bit of work (and expense!). I'm sure I read somewhere that if your using T5 HO's then you double what the wpg is ? so IE my wpg is 1.2 but its actually just over 2wpg because of the T5 HO Lights?

Renate, Ill try and grab a pic tomorrow, the leaves are turning yellow / brown - its only recently though, when I first added root tabs it flourised and the leaves were bright green, then it just kind of wore off, no matter if I re-added a root tab or not!

Thanks for you help, if you have any other suggestions please let me know!

Cheers,

Craig

p.s - Aaronn, I noticed you had a fluval vicenza 180 tank in another post, how are you finding the standard lighting?

 

[scottca]

Aaronn, just another quick question regarding the Tropica Plant Nutrition+ - I have on avergae 40ppm Nitrate in my tank (tap water is bad!) - Will this still be ok adding Tropica Plant Nutrition+ - Does the tropica add Nitrate to the tank or am I misreading the information completely?

Does the Tropica Plant Nutrition+ also contain iron and all of the other required trace elements etc?

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Nick16]

tropica plant nutrition is good and actually works.

when amazon swords grow new plantlets how far away from the mother plant do they appear becuase i have never been sure of this. will the pop up 2cm away or 20cm away?

 

[aaronnorth]

the fluval lighting is ok, just plant lower light plants, and if possible rossette or hizome plants as stems grow to the middle! I was able to grow any plants under the vicenza lighting, so no trouble there. I would call it 2WPG. It doesnt double it, just raises the rule.

Aaronn, just another quick question regarding the Tropica Plant Nutrition+ - I have on avergae 40ppm Nitrate in my tank (tap water is bad!) - Will this still be ok adding Tropica Plant Nutrition+ - Does the tropica add Nitrate to the tank or am I misreading the information completely?

Does the Tropica Plant Nutrition+ also contain iron and all of the other required trace elements etc

Just dose the TPN (not the plus version) this contaoins pottasium & trace.

It contains all the trace elemnt syou will find in any fert, boron, magnesium etc

 

[scottca]

Thanks Aaron, ill get some TPN Then... AE instructions say to dose this weekly, should I do this or should I dose daily?

Thanks,

Craig

 

[aaronnorth]

daily is better. Dose 8ml a day to start off with then adjust this as necassary. I am sure this will cure the problem. Ade will tell you that be careful not to dose to much incase you havehigh copper levels in your water.

 

[scottca]

ahh ok, 8ml a day it is - is it possible to make up your own TPN solution using dry ferts? thought it may be cheaper etc?

 

[aaronnorth]

see here

http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/allinone.htm

 

[scottca]

Wow... that confused me lol - Maybe ill just buy the Tropica Stuff!

 

[aaronnorth]

lol. What do you find confusing?

 

[scottca]

Just re-read a few times, makes sense now! sometimes I just dont take stuff in lol - Think ill still go for the premade stuff, its not that expensive and a bottle will last just over 2 months.

Just a quick question - Trace Elements, what exactly makes up trace elements?

On top of my difficiencies my co2 bottle run out today for the first time so its at an lfs getting refilled. They have said they will need it overnight so they can freeze it before filling it - is this usual?

Thanks,

Craig