[jeffkrol]

I don't know what happened to it.. One week healthy, though it had slowed in growth so i trimmed some leaves.. Today.. mush..

I've just started some CO2 but until the whole system is set up I only "bled" some in here and there..

Tank had, for some reason, clouded up the last few days and I've done small water changes to alleviate it somewhat.. Was clear today, and decided to trim back some crazy Christmas moss when I noticed it was just mush in the background..

all the other plants (w/ the exception of the Myrio which dies, grows a bit, dies) are growing like weeds, esp. the W. Wysteria

pH went up a bit and can be @6.2 or so..

Not sure what to make of it.. doesn't seem to have known sensitives to anything but copper.. I did add a capful of of Excel to the tank near some x-mas moss that looked like it was getting some hair algea.. but that was a week ago.. I just removed a large clump of it as I said above.. Grew like crazy over a week..

nitrates are a bit high, but always are. Guppy, guppy, guppy,,,,,,,,lots of guppies. I've been waiting for better weather to "render" some to Petco for "recycling"..

I did accidentally leave the heaters off for a day and the tank did cool quite a bit before I noticed it but it was @ about 69 degrees F.. Hmm maybe that was it. It's placement is close to a window so that side could have gotten chilled..

any chance it just went dormant and melted???

Hole on l side is where it was..

 

[jeffkrol]

Nobody have this happen???

 

[sowNreap]

Can't really answer your question just relay my experience with this plant. When I first got it, it was about 12" tall and planted around springtime in my 75 gal lowish light tank. It grew some new leaves & was doing pretty good. The tank is an unheated tank in the basement & winter temps got down to 58-60 degrees. It didn't turn to mush or die but it didn't grow much either, as expected. I didn't realize when I bought it but it's a moderate to high light Sword plant so figured it wasn't enough light for it & the low temps didn't help either. It was in my 75 for little over 1 year into early summer. Still wasn't doing much. Then my fish shredded the leaves &/or leaf tips so cut a bunch off & it ended up being about 6-8" tall. It sent out new leaves but they never grew longer than about 6-8". Finally decided it move it.

It went into my 20 gal heated tank, again with low-low/medium light although it wasn't in the best position for the highest light but thought it was higher light than my 75gal. Temps kept around 72-75 degrees. It grew more leaves but they still didn't get any longer (or grow up) and was mostly greenish. Again figured not enough light.

About 1 month ago, I moved that tank & lowered the hanging lights to give the tank more light. I've now got it directly under the light bulb. I'm finally starting to see the leaves getting reddish and hoping it finally starts growing UP/longer leaves. Tank temp now is 78 degrees.

In all places it was planted, I put either root tabs or Osmocote caps around it. And all the times I've uprooted it, it never had much of a root system that I'd heard swords are famous for.

I've dosed Excel/glut in each tank it's been in with no melting. I now dose modified EI low light ferts once/week. Trace 1x/week & Glut 3x/week (when I first got the plant was dosing ferts 3x/week & Excel daily). Still using Osmocote caps around it.

So to sum it up .. I've never had it turn to mush in very low temps, drastic cutting of leaves or use of Excel/Glut. Although my low temps were gradual changes not drastic like happened to you which might have caused it. ????

Hope someone with more knowledge will respond to say what might have happened as this is the best I can do.

 

[jeffkrol]

Thanks... BTW: It looks like I'm getting some new leaves out of the brown core.. I'll have to see what happens...they are tiny right now.... but reddish..

 

[sowNreap]

That's great news! Glad it appears to be coming back & hope it continues to do so. Wish I knew what happened to it .. thought someone might have some opinion to offer why it did that .. guess not.

 

[jeffkrol]

That's great news! Glad it appears to be coming back & hope it continues to do so. Wish I knew what happened to it .. thought someone might have some opinion to offer why it did that .. guess not.

UPDATE: After a few months of slow recovery it is now "dying back" ..Again..

since I got a new "toy" (gh/kh test kit) I've found out I have a high gH(14???? note: about same as tap water) , low kH(2) and a pH of 6.4...
Nitrates are high due to the never ending guppy breeding..
but all these parameters are relatively stable.. Only "add on" has been CO2,which has been fluctuating due to "parts problems" but never high doses..

Don't do much fert additions besides occasionally dosing trace nutrients..

Whatever is causing it it does not impact the other plants, but my Hygro is now being out competed by the compata I suspect.

My "jungle version" tank..

I do know I had much better luck when my pH was initially higher..Tap water is about 7..


Red flame is behind large compata right side.. where it has always been..
40B tank btw..