I've had 2 sword plants for over a year. They look pitiful. I have 1 amazon sword and 1 melon sword. They haven't grown a bit since I bought them. I've put them under 100W of light (T5HO lighting) and they're in with flourite substrate. I've also tried fertilizer tabs and liquid fertilizer. Why do these plants refuse to grow?
Sword Plant Trouble
- Thread starter KYeasting
- Start date
Temp? What size and depth of tank? Kelvin rating (color spectrum) of your 100w light?
Pics? Are the plants turning green, yellow, or brown? The more detail you provide the more accurate and helpful any help will be.
Pics? Are the plants turning green, yellow, or brown? The more detail you provide the more accurate and helpful any help will be.
I have very hard water. The tank depth ranged from 21" to 12". The tank temp hovers around 81 deg. F. I actually have 2 lights that combine to 100 W. 85W of the 100W comes from a T5HO Nova Extreme light w/ one 10K and one 460nm actinic bulb. The other 15W comes from a plain old fluorescent light fixture (standard shop-type bulb). The tank sizes range from 34 gal (21" deep) to 55 gallon (12" deep). The plants are green. They have no yellow or brown on them at all. They're just stunted plants! When I pulled them up to move them around, they both had fantastic root structure. The amazon sword had roots with about a 6" radius!
when you say your water is hard, how hard is it? you must remember that amazon waters are mainly around 6.0 to neutral.
I would say it has to be your hard water. I have six amazon swords in regular play sand, with the regular 55 gallon light fixture and a plant bulb in it. In the middle of moving tanks, we moved it upstairs because we were building the pond and had no room for it, and its only inhabitant is an oversized feeder minnow. I never fertilize, and the tank hasn't even been cleaned in six months. The lights are on a timer, about 12 hours per day. There is no extra CO2 going into the tank. I'm doing everything "wrong," and they're growing like crazy, but I have really soft water. So, since you seem to be doing everything right, I'd have to say it's the hard water.
My swords have exploded in growth since I quite messing wioth them all the time.
I used to inject co2 and add dry ferts every day on the IE scale and test for all kinds of stuff and add buffers to try to get my hard water to soften.
And sinc e i have stopped all of that they have finally started to grow like mad. I think they only thing amazon swords need is a good light source.
I would suggest the OP stop using any addatives and get some new bulbs for your lights with a kelvin around 6700K to 8000k.
The first and last pics are a tank I planted with just the babies from the older planted tank in the last year. And the middle ones are my older planted tank with no addatives for the past year. That big sword is about 18" wide and 18-20" tall and its the motrher to all of them seen in the pics.
My ph in both tanks is 8-8.2 and i can't remember any kh dh reading but my area is known for hard water.
I used to inject co2 and add dry ferts every day on the IE scale and test for all kinds of stuff and add buffers to try to get my hard water to soften.
And sinc e i have stopped all of that they have finally started to grow like mad. I think they only thing amazon swords need is a good light source.
I would suggest the OP stop using any addatives and get some new bulbs for your lights with a kelvin around 6700K to 8000k.
The first and last pics are a tank I planted with just the babies from the older planted tank in the last year. And the middle ones are my older planted tank with no addatives for the past year. That big sword is about 18" wide and 18-20" tall and its the motrher to all of them seen in the pics.
My ph in both tanks is 8-8.2 and i can't remember any kh dh reading but my area is known for hard water.
Well, I do not have a water hardness tester, but I've tested the water at school. Tampa's water is incredibly hard. It comes in as "very hard" (I don't recall the hardness number). I haven't added any fertilizers in over 6 months and I haven't touched them in over 3 months. Before the move, I hadn't touched them in over a year. I'm resisting the urge to throw them away. I will not start messing with the water chemistry just for the plants. I know I will destroy my tank due to the fact that I'm a horrible chemist at any level. I'll just leave them to do their thing until it's time to move again.