Am I doing something wrong?

[skjl47]

Hello; With the tag, a good comparison and the tell tale reddish color of new growth I also have more confidence it is an echinodorus barthii.

With my amazons I from time to time trim off the outer leaves as they show damage. Even if I do nothing the outer leaves eventually get in bad shape and sometimes sort of rot away.
If I neglect a plant too long and the mature leaves get ratty I will insert some sort of root tab fert and wait until some new leaves start to emerge. I then trim away the worst of the old leaves, wait a week or two until sure the new growth is robust and then trim away any old leaf not in good condition.

Looks like you have at least two new leaves emerging. I would wait until the new leaf unfolds and takes a nice shape then trim the two old leaves with holes in them.

Not sure what the root tab schedule ought to be. When I am paying attention I tend to replace when I note new growth slowing down. At least once every three to four months seems to keep the plant OK. I have gone longer and also shorter. Some will depend on other factors so you may want to try a variety of schedules.
My guess is no more often that once a month, at least I have never fed more often than that. Not really sure if you can over do the root tabs but I know you can burn house and garden plants with too much ferts.

Good picture by the way

 

[MrsE88]

Hello; With the tag, a good comparison and the tell tale reddish color of new growth I also have more confidence it is an echinodorus barthii.

With my amazons I from time to time trim off the outer leaves as they show damage. Even if I do nothing the outer leaves eventually get in bad shape and sometimes sort of rot away.
If I neglect a plant too long and the mature leaves get ratty I will insert some sort of root tab fert and wait until some new leaves start to emerge. I then trim away the worst of the old leaves, wait a week or two until sure the new growth is robust and then trim away any old leaf not in good condition.

Looks like you have at least two new leaves emerging. I would wait until the new leaf unfolds and takes a nice shape then trim the two old leaves with holes in them.

Not sure what the root tab schedule ought to be. When I am paying attention I tend to replace when I note new growth slowing down. At least once every three to four months seems to keep the plant OK. I have gone longer and also shorter. Some will depend on other factors so you may want to try a variety of schedules.
My guess is no more often that once a month, at least I have never fed more often than that. Not really sure if you can over do the root tabs but I know you can burn house and garden plants with too much ferts.

Good picture by the way

Thank you very much for looking it over. And for the advice. I put a root tab under it yesterday, so I’ll set a reminder for maybe a month and a half out. Then I’ll evaluate if I should add it then or go a bit longer.
And I’ll definitely trim off those damaged leaves once the new ones open up. So far I’ve gotten 3 new leaves since adding it to the tank. So it seems to be a fairly fast grower.

 

[skjl47]

I put a root tab under it yesterday, so I’ll set a reminder for maybe a month and a half out. Then I’ll evaluate if I should add it then or go a bit longer.

Hello; That you have been getting new growth before the plant tabs might mean the plant is finding already existing nutrition in the substrate. I am guessing thee tank has been established for a while. You may get a lot of new growth for a while and it might be many months before such growth slows down.
I trim and remove damaged leaves from my plants so they do not rot in the tank. My thinking being the leaves are in part made of nitrates and removing them before they rot does not allow those bound nitrates back into a closed system.

I have a nice "rubens sword" with burgundy colors. If your plant gets full and develops the nice colors I would like to see a picture of that.

 

[MrsE88]

Hello; That you have been getting new growth before the plant tabs might mean the plant is finding already existing nutrition in the substrate. I am guessing thee tank has been established for a while. You may get a lot of new growth for a while and it might be many months before such growth slows down.
I trim and remove damaged leaves from my plants so they do not rot in the tank. My thinking being the leaves are in part made of nitrates and removing them before they rot does not allow those bound nitrates back into a closed system.

I have a nice "rubens sword" with burgundy colors. If your plant gets full and develops the nice colors I would like to see a picture of that.

Yes the tank has been up and running for over 2yrs.
I do try to stay on top of removing dead leaves. I do agree with your reasoning on why removing them is important.
And I’ll be sure to get a picture after a few months when the plants has really started to get going.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; The only other thing I can think to add is about the light. Swords like lots of light. If you keep getting new growth then you likely can keep on keeping on. I generally try different lengths of on/off light rather than changing light intensity. My rule of thumb is if lights are on more than 14 hours and growth is still slow then I consider changing intensity. W
With the fluorescent tubes that usually meant just a new bulb. Some report these tubes need changing about once a year. I often went longer but could tell when a new tube is installed.

I now use LED lights so am not yet sure if they grow weaker over time. They do not seem to. They do not however last as long as advertised. By that I mean several of my LED bulbs have simply just failed. Most have endured but I am only into LED's for less than a decade I believe.

 

[MrsE88]

Hello; The only other thing I can think to add is about the light. Swords like lots of light. If you keep getting new growth then you likely can keep on keeping on. I generally try different lengths of on/off light rather than changing light intensity. My rule of thumb is if lights are on more than 14 hours and growth is still slow then I consider changing intensity. W
With the fluorescent tubes that usually meant just a new bulb. Some report these tubes need changing about once a year. I often went longer but could tell when a new tube is installed.

I now use LED lights so am not yet sure if they grow weaker over time. They do not seem to. They do not however last as long as advertised. By that I mean several of my LED bulbs have simply just failed. Most have endured but I am only into LED's for less than a decade I believe.

I have full spectrum leds on my tanks. The ones with plants also get sunlight all day. Direct and indirect.
Since I’ve never had any other lights I can’t say how they compare, but I did just replace an led light that was only 1 1/2yrs old. It was flickering and made the tank look like it was storming out. Lol

 

[MrsE88]

Just thought I’d update. I snapped this during the water change today. I hadn’t noticed how many new leaves have been coming in till now.
(This way taken before I trimmed off the damaged ones.)

I put another tab in too. This would be the third tab I’ve put in since first posting about it.