[p2002]

When I first bring home the Amazon Swords they were gorgeous. The seller had them in high-tech co2 tank with lots of light and fertilization.

After spending 3-4 days in my tank, the Amazon Swords start to show some clear/brown holes.

After a couple of weeks the Amazon Sword got even worse.

Here's another one that turned completely clear.

Here's a picture of my Thin Val which is developing holes. None of my Thin Vals are growing taller. They've all stopped growing taller, though they have sent out some runners.

None of the plants in my tank are growing well. I don't see them growing taller or propagating (except for a few Val runners). My plants are on a petco black sand substrate but I have put lots of Seachem tabs into them (more details see my signature)

What's wrong with my tank?

 

[Straight shooter]

Anyone else waiting for a certain someone to claim this is a micro toxicity?

 

[burr740]

Swords are not typically susceptible to high micros.

A lot of that looks mechanical. Got plecos?

 

[Straight shooter]

The swords are still in the very early stages of adapting following replanting. Moving from a high tech CO2 enriched environment with lots of light to a low tech setup is a bit jarring for the plant. Heavy root feeders are also the most grumpy when moved. They'll appreciate the root tabs. They're prone to iron deficiency but Seachem tabs contain ferrous gluconate (iron) and you dose iron so you should be okay. The thing Seachem tabs don't contain is nitrate and phosphate. I see your nitrates sit about 10-20 so your only remaining variable is phosphate. To correct this, just add a little more fish food at feeding time - it contains ample phosphate.

So you seem to have most bases covered fert wise. How long ago did you add the root tabs?

For quick reference Seachem root tabs contain: potassium chloride, calcium sulfate, copper sulfate, magnesium chloride, ferrous gluconate, cobalt sulfate, magnesium sulfate, manganese sulfate, boric acid, sodium molybdate, zinc sulfate, and protein hydrolyzates.

 

[Greggz]

Anyone else waiting for a certain someone to claim this is a micro toxicity?

You're a brave man. You could be the star of a 20 page thread with a comment like that!:surprise:

I have noticed a shift recently. Instead of suspecting it is micro toxicity" now it is "100%" certainty based on one picture and little description of the tank.

But back to the OP, like mentioned above, give it some time to settle in. Should adjust and bounce back.

 

[touch of sky]

I agree with the two previous posters. Your plants are settling in to your tank and will need time to adjust. I would trim off the severely damaged and dying leaves from the sword plant to encourage the plant to put its energy into growing new leaves rather than keeping the old ones alive.

Also, you could slowly increase the amount of Excel you are adding to your tank. It is a 60 gallon, so taking into account decorations and substrate, you have around 50 gallons of water. The daily recommended dose for 50 gallons is 5 ml. I have Vals in all my tanks and they do well with Excel at the recommended dose once acclimated to it. I have the opposite problem with mine and they grow to about three feet long if I let them. I have to cut them at the surface to keep them under control

I have had Amazon sword plants do what yours are doing when newly added to a low tech tank and they have bounced back and done beautifully.

Give them a few weeks to settle in and you will most likely see an improvement.

 

[p2002]

Anyone else waiting for a certain someone to claim this is a micro toxicity?

Ha ha is this part of some inside joke? I'm new! Thank you for your reply.

But related to this, I should mention I do a 30% water change every week in case that helps the diagnosis.

A lot of that looks mechanical. Got plecos?

Thank you for the reply. I don't have a pleco, but I do have a thick lipped gourami that seems to peck away at plants quite often. I also have some mollies that always look like they are sucking off something on the plants, but I think they are eating biofilm/algae.

Also, the swords are right under my Aquclear 110 filter's waterfall. So there's a lot of downward current that knocks the leafe around a bit. Does that cause leaf damage?

Either way, that would not explain why all the plants in my tank are not growing. None of them have gotten taller since I got them.

To correct this, just add a little more fish food at feeding time - it contains ample phosphate.

Thank you for such a thorough answer! My fish don't get a ton of food from me. Generally I feed them once a day, and only enough food they can finish in 20 seconds (as opposed to the 1-3 minutes some fish food labels talk about). Maybe this under feeding is causing a phosphate deficiency. Good to know!

Also I have Purigen in my filter. Wonder if that strips away anything.

I got my root tabs in about 1.5 months ago. How often should I add them?

But back to the OP, like mentioned above, give it some time to settle in. Should adjust and bounce back.

Thank you for your thoughts Greggz. How long do you think it will take?

I would trim off the severely damaged and dying leaves from the sword plant to encourage the plant to put its energy into growing new leaves rather than keeping the old ones alive.

Also, you could slowly increase the amount of Excel you are adding to your tank. It is a 60 gallon, so taking into account decorations and substrate, you have around 50 gallons of water.

Thank you for the great tips Sky. Where should I cut the leaves of the Amazon Swords? Right where the stem meets the leaf, or all the way down where the substrate meets the stem?

Also, should I also cut off the Val leaves that are not doing too well?

I asked Seachem customer support about acclimating Vals, and they recommend 1 ML per day for a week, and then next week move on to 2 ML per day, so on and so forth. Is that similar to the acclimation you did for your plants?

 

[cjp999]

I asked Seachem customer support about acclimating Vals, and they recommend 1 ML per day for a week, and then next week move on to 2 ML per day, so on and so forth. Is that similar to the acclimation you did for your plants?

For your 60g tank (probably 50g after subtracting for hardscape), a normal dose of Excel would be 5ml per day, and most people probably dose twice that. Starting of at 1ml per day for the first week and adding 1ml more each week certainly sounds like a slow safe schedule. I'll be adapting some of my own vals for the first time. I'll start off with lower doses, but I'm not quite that patient. :grin2:

 

[touch of sky]

Cut the dead and damaged sword plant leaves where the substrate meets the stem. The same with the Vals.

I think I was a little faster than that with the Excel. I started with a half dose for a couple of weeks, then moved up to a full dose.

 

[sohankpatel]

Ha ha is this part of some inside joke? I'm new!

I think that he was annoyed at a specific member that would always say that it is micro toxicity, I have seen confrontations in a few threads here.

 

[philipraposo1982]

Lol...

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[Darkblade48]

I think that he was annoyed at a specific member that would always say that it is micro toxicity, I have seen confrontations in a few threads here.

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