plant problem

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serafino

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 27, 2008
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An octopuses's garden in the sea
www.theserafino.com
I bought a bunch of amazon swords from a LFS and they did well for the first month or so. Then after that the edges started to fade and it went downhill fast from their. My substrate is sand I do not know if that could be the problem. What could have caused this I really enjoy having plants in my tank but am pretty much a newb to plants. Do I need to add a different substrate? You tell me.
Thanks,
Serafino
 
If you could provide more information about your tank it would be helpful. Water parameters and lighting, specifically watts per gallon. Sounds like you don't add fertilizers so how old is the tank more importantly how old is the sand.

I would say you definitely need to get some root tabs for the swords because they are such heavy root feeders. Flourish makes a great one.
 
Swords are generally sold with emersed growth, which will die off given a couple month of growth time in a submerged setting. New growth should appear as the old dies back, but the leaves will be different. Sand is fine for swords, just make sure to have nutrients getting to the roots.
 
Ok as for tank setup
150 gallon
plenty of filtration including a home made filter with refugium with a flow rate of at least 500 gph
I check my water quality weekly sometimes more often if I make a recent change. Ammonia always in check same with nitrates and nitrites, everything is always where I want it to be. The temp in the tank fluctuates from 76 degrees at night to 78 during the day. I have two large fluorescent light strips at the top and plan to add some more and replace it with one large one the two I believe together is around 300 the one strip I will put will be about 400 but it will hang over 2 tanks one saltwater(10g) one freshwater(150g). I have an air pump to oxygenate the water for my babies which includes (Tiger Oscar, Albino Tiger Oscar, Jack Dempsey, Plecostomus, Green Terror, Gold Clown Knife, Peacock eel) I plan to move the Gold Clown knife and Plecostomus to a pond this year the plecostomus is getting pretty big and the knife will be big by the time I get the pond up and going. The others are moderate size not full grown yet but good sized. The sand bed is an average of 2 inches thick I like the wavy look so its uneven. I have not used any fertilizers I hate using any chemicals in my tank. So does that help at all?
Thanks for your input,
Serafino
 
Fertilizers aren't chemicals that aren't naturally in your tank and in nature. They aren't your "chemicals" that should be used sparingly. You need to specify your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates, as being where you want them, and being where they should be is not necessarily the same. I recommend you read the sticky on plants, as that will help clear up quite a bit for you. The biggest piece of missing info is your lighting. What type of lighting, what kind of bulbs, how many watts, and how deep is the tank?
 
I have as said fluorescent bulbs 30 watts each and I have 10 of them. The produce white light. I have a 20 watt bulb which is purple to provide red and clue wavelength light for my old plants. My ammonia is low I can't tell you exactly what it is since I monitor it with this http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/AmmoniaAlert.html
and it is always yellow which indicates low ammonia levels. I test it every 3 months to check the accuracy using the method that was in the instructions. My Nitrate level is approximately 20 ppm. My Nitrite level is around 0 ppm.
Which is where I want them, oh and the ph stays pretty neutral.
That help out more sorry.
 
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