What Single Improvement Should I Make For The Plants' Health

[xoedusk]

So we have a 20 US gallon long with a nearly full stock of fish and two bunches of amazon swords, which are our only real plant. They are growing, though slowly. Some of the leaves of the smaller bunch are turning transparent. Another is turning brown.

Now, some more tank stats. 20 gallon long, which has the same height as a normal 10 gallon I believe. The lighting is one 18 watt fluorescent bulb, so just shy of 1 watt per gallon. The light is built in to the Aquatic Gardens hood. We do not fertilize. Nitrates in the tank (NO3) are kept below 20 ppm usually. No CO2 injection. Airstones going.

My question is, what single improvement to the tank can help the long term health of the amazon sword? More light? Iron in the substrate? CO2? Daily fertilizers? I would like the plant to live a long, healthy life because it looks 10 times better than our fake plants.

 

[nry]

Are they old or new plants? When I put swords in my tank the original leaves pretty much died off then new ones grew.

If it is just for your swords, I would look for some relevant tablets to push into the gravel near the roots.

 

[Themuleous]

IMHO the most important item you could add is a decent plant substrate, eco-complete would be ideal, or tetra plantbase or the tropica base layer. Any of the 'complete' substrates would be good. Things like laterite are ok but are only really a source of iron and dont provide much of anything else.

Swords tend to get lots of their nutrients from their roots so a decent substrate is almost a must. You could use root tabs I guess but these can be more expensive and need replacing ever 6months or so.

I would add that less than 1wpg is not very much like, I have grown swords in that much but it tends to be very slow. If you could get it to more like 1.5wpg it would help, you'd also have better luck with other types of plants, as Im sure you'll want to get some different ones soon!

Sam

 

[Underwurlde]

In this recent thread that is along the lines of your question..
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=168322
..I included a table showing signs of deficiencies...

may be of help

Andy