Why Is My Amazon Sword Plant Dieing?

[JollieMollie]

Hello all,

I have an established 29 gal. aquarium with a salinity level of one tablespoon per five gallons of water. I recently purchased an amazon sword plant and a small bunch of a grassy plant; I don't recall if it was called mondo grass or hair grass. It has thicker leaves than I believe hair grass has. Anyway, that plant's doing fine. The amazon however is dieing... the leaves are turning brown and it doesn't look too go. It's floating because I haven't had the chance to plant it yet (I have to clean the tank at the same time and deal with the floating box of fry, and it's finals week! ergh) so it's floating on the surface. Because of that I assume it's not a lack of light that is troubling it? Also, I had believed that the amazon was a tough plant when it came to salt and would have no problems. Am I wrong and this is a freshwater plant, or what could be wrong?

In the tank I have three swordtails, five mollies, two guppies, and about four or five misc. small fish. I have a few snails as well, but not very many and they are rarely on the swordplant.



Finally, I was wondering about lighting issues. I think I need more light in there, as some plants like my moneywort and one of those green fluffy shedding types grow stringy and towards the light instead of densly where they are, and the moneywort lost all of its lower leaves. I can't afford a new lighting fixture; is it likely taht I could just get a new bulb? I don't know much about it, I just know I have the type of aquarium hood that covers the entire tank with a hinged lid over the front half, and a florescant bulb. Is there a particular (cheap, please....) bulb you would recommend that would improve my lighting conditions ?If you need more information, please be specific as to what I should look for and I will get back to you.




Thanks for the help!


EDIT: Oh, and I do not have water parameters for you. I use all natural methods of breaking in the tank and such (no fishless cycling with chemicals, though I don't have anything against that) and all I can tell you is that I have hard water. I can't afford a parameter measuring kit. So....... no parameters, sorry!

 

[PortWash]

I also have a 29g and started with stock hood/ light 18". although my hood was 24" the light was only 18" t-8 generally produces 15watts. Changing the stock bulb to common plant bulb from petco about 11$ will help. with a similar set up i was able to have success with java fern and amazon sword. stick to the darker green plants and you should be ok. I would also recommend using EI (adding nutrients to the water). I think that may be the problem with your amazon sword, however not certain. I would also take the time to plant it as it is a root driven plant, that may help. Look into the EI pinned thread but as a college student that may be mroe than you are looking for as it would have been for me at that time. You could just use trace such as plant flourish which can be purchased from your lfs. For any real success with live plants you will need to upgrade your lighting system to achieve something over 2wpg thus 58watts.

 

[JollieMollie]

::bump:: Any more suggestions? I hope to plant it this weekend, but it's not looking too good....

PW, thanks for the information. (-:

 

[Dave Spencer]

I don`t know about Amazons and salt, but they are considered to be root feeders, so you will be better off planting it and feeding it by adding root tabs directly to its root system.

Dave.