indian red sword stems rotting???

[fishman793]

i have an indian red sword in my tank and i have a problem. for some reason the stems of the new leaves are rotting. but only the stems of new growth are rotting. the leaves that were there when i bought it have thick green stems. the new growth's stems are brown and eventually rot. please help!!!

 

[Rivercats]

We need some information about your set up. Tank size, what type lighting, what type substrate, do you use ferts, do you use liquid carbon (Excel) or CO2?

 

[fishman793]

30 gallon tall
1T5 HO zoomed ultra sun 24 watts
1T5 HO zoomed flora sun 24 watts
substrate-dirt capped with gravel
Ferts-seachem iron, flourish and excel
also use root tabs in the substrate for swords

 

[Rivercats]

The problem could be that you have the crown buried too deep. You should be able to see the crown of the plant where the leaves grow out from. If you just have leaves growing out of the substrate and can't see where they are growing from then it's buried too deep. The other thing I noticed is your not dosing any macro nutrients.... nitrates, phosphates, and potassium. This could also be attributing to the problem.

 

[fishman793]

Does this look good for crown height?

 

[fishman793]

i was planning to start dosing those three actually. yesterday i was on aquariumfertilizers.com looking at dosing and such. i want to do dry ferts since they are much cheaper. i want to eventually do all dry ferts except for excel. i am in 9th grade and i have a limited budget so that is why i want to switch to dry ferts. but i have not yet gone to chemistry class so i dont really know what i am doing. i am planning to start another thread about this so someone might help me.

 

[Rivercats]

Yes the crown height looks good. Dry ferts are easy and cheap and so is using glutaraldehyde instead of Excel. Don't know if your parents would order it but a gallon is around $20 and you can either mix it with RO or use a much lower dose than excel and use it straight from the bottle.

 

[fishman793]

where do you get your glutaraldehyde from? since i have not done this before i would like to know a good source.

 

[Rivercats]

This is what I buy, Metricide 14 Day Solution ... Glutaraldehyde Cold Sterilization Solution 14 day 1 Gallon: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific. Right now Amazon is out but if you do some serious looking you can find other places that carry it for around $20 a gallon. Watch as some places charge up to $40 a gallon. Found my last batch at a medical supplier but had to buy a case which actually was fine because even with shipping added in it came to like $18 a bottle and I'm set for awhile.

If you go this route you have to throw away the activator bottle that comes with the gallon of Glut. Never use it. Then you mix 1 gallon of Glut to 1-1/2 gallons of RO water to make 2-1/2 gallons the equilivant of Excel. Also Glut must always ge stored in complete light blocking opaque containers as light breaks down Glut and renders it useless in about 24 hours.

 

[fishman793]

how long does a gallon usually last if you mix it with RO water? do you just do the dosing on the excel bottle since you said it was the equivalent of excel?

 

[Rivercats]

On a 30 gallon tank you'd use at least 3ml daily so 2-1/2 gallons will last a LONG time. I know they also sell Metricide 14 in quart bottles so mixed you'd get 2-1/2 quarts which would still last you a long time.

Also when using liquid carbon sometimes when you get into higher lighting and or have alot and I mean alot of plants you have to increase your daily dosage. It even states this on the Excel bottle.