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Micro Sword Deficiency?

2484 Views 5 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  Zapins, 
A
I have a 10g tank that I am trying to get a carpet of micro swords to grow in. Unfortunetly they seem to be melting and not doing so great. I thought it was just acclimating to the new tank, but it has been a month and they still look rather sickly.

Tank details:

10 gallons
20" Finnex Planted Plus LED light 3 inches above tank (8 hour photoperiod)
2" Eco-Complete substrate with root tabs
EI dosing Alternating Macros and Micros Monday through Saturday
50% water changes Sunday
API CO2 booster 2ml daily


The leaves seem to be yellowing and every day I find a few blades on the swords floating at the top of the tank like they just detached from their roots.

I thought with Excel and medium light from my LED I would be able to grow them, but they don't seem to be doing so well.
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Zapins
What do your other plants look like? Any problems with them?

Two possibilities that cause yellowing, a lack of lighting, excel damage.

You can test these out separately and see if lowering the lights down, or adding different lights helps, and then try stopping the excel and seeing it that helps.
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A
most of the other plants look good, they are taller though. I have one stem that is yellowing as well, but it has new growth that looks good.

I will try lowering the lights and see if that helps.
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Zapins
Post photos of the other plant that is yellowing. It may be a symptom of another problem. Though the fact that the micro-sword is low down to the substrate as you mentioned may very well explain the yellow appearance of the plant.
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4
Here are some of the other plants in the tank as well as the tank as a whole:

Other yellowing plant, new growth looks good, stem in the back is yellowing, was hard to get a picture of it, it's the out of focus one in the back:


Crypt has a few leaves with holes in them, though most of the crypt looks great:


Right side of the tank looks pretty good growth wise:


Tank overall:
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Zapins
The plants are looking ok from what I can see (no obvious nutrient deficiencies). Lowering the lights closer to the tank (increasing the brightness) will probably help the micro swords grow more green.
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