Amazon sword - immersed to submereged

[tamtam]

I'm currently having some issues with my Amazon sword. This is my first go at plants so I'm trouble shooting my issues.

It's a 30 gallon tank, 16 inches deep, I have 5 small amazon sword and 1 Java fern wendilov. I got them all at the same time 10 days ago. I use a Marineland double bright LED light set up. I use Seachems root tabs and will be adding some excel when I get out to buy some.

Now when I decided to purchase the light I doubted it's effectiveness for growing plants. I asked around a lot and got a lot of feed back that it was possible to do low light plants, not much growth but they did do ok. This is basically what I am looking for so I went with it.

My java fern seems to be doing well. It looks about the same as when I put it in so I'm taking this as a good sign. The swords though are in miserable shape. I had basically given up hope and was honestly planning on pulling them out. I did my weekly water change today though and decided to trim off the major dead leaves. When I was doing this I noticed I have a few smaller leaves at the base that are in good shape. Nice and green, the biggest are about an inch. The larger leaves are turning clear and browning, some were falling apart. I trimmed off the worst of them and decided to leave them be and see how it goes.

The swords were grown immersed and I submerged them when I got them home. Could this die off be that transition? I know there is an adjustment for this but honestly didn't expect it to be so bad. Almost all of my larger leaves are dying. Perhaps these small ones will fallow suit after the others all die but so far they look nice. Vibrant even.

Do I still have hope? How long does the adjustment period last and should I try and take any special care? I trimmed off a lot of leaves and there are still some that I'm sure own't make it but I didn't know if I should take it easy with the trimming or not. I'm hoping to upgrade my lighting and move this one to the 20, it's shorter so I'm hoping that maybe the light will have better penetration through the water and will maybe be more successful if this doesn't work out.

 

[Rivercats]

Do you mean the swords were grown emmersed? As in grown out of water? If so trasition periods can be a pain and depending on the light in a new tank, which you know is always going to be lower than anything with leaves growing above the water, there can be significant die off depending on the plant. I've never had emmersed swords to deal with but I have two stem plants that were grown emmersed and while one is in the process of transitioning to its immersed form it's doing so quite nicely and quickly. On the other hand I added some Neasea Golden back in July that was grown emmersed and it is finally looking like it has made the trasition totally to immersed and is now finally showing signs that it is going to grow now. So it's taken 5 months to trasition. But if your seeing new growth that looks healthy I would absolutely leave them alone. Just be patient and I think you'll be rewarded with nice healthy growth that is acclimated to your tank.

 

[tamtam]

I guess emmersed might not be the word I'm looking for...

They were grown in water but not planted. Just floating in a tank. There were a lot of plants in this tank so some were sticking out of the water but mostly they had a lot/most of the plant in the water.

Should I trim off the dead leaves as they show no hope for improving? I just want to be sure that it doesn't get to a point where the breaking down will effect my water quality.

 

[Rivercats]

I would clip them off, I clip off any sword leaves that are decaying as close to the base as possible. Swords are amazing in that they can just throw out new leaves like crazy. I actually have to trim a large number of my sword leaves every month to keep them in the size/area I want them. Yours also are having to adjust to having their roots planted since they were just being floated. But since you have new growth they will be fine IMO.

 

[tamtam]

I would clip them off, I clip off any sword leaves that are decaying as close to the base as possible. Swords are amazing in that they can just throw out new leaves like crazy. I actually have to trim a large number of my sword leaves every month to keep them in the size/area I want them. Yours also are having to adjust to having their roots planted since they were just being floated. But since you have new growth they will be fine IMO.

oh I hope you are right.

I'm not certain if it's new growth completely since being in my tank. Would the leaves be this large in just 10 days? I'll remain hopeful that I will see further growth/improvement and keep the trimming of dead leaves up.

 

[Rivercats]

oh I hope you are right.

I'm not certain if it's new growth completely since being in my tank. Would the leaves be this large in just 10 days? I'll remain hopeful that I will see further growth/improvement and keep the trimming of dead leaves up.

When I added my 2 amazon swords they were about 12" tall and in about 2 weeks they were touching the surface of my water, which is about 28" from the substrate to the water line. Under the right circumstances they can grow incredibly fast.

 

[bigbanker]

Swords tend to be fairly resilient. Trim off dying leaves so that the plant can use its energy on new growth. One of my sword off spring grew about five inches while I was a

 

[tamtam]

thanks guys. I'll keep at it and hope it turns around. These are just small 3-6 inch swords. I got about 5 of them and only had to pay for 3 @ a buck a piece. lol. If they make it it would be pretty awesome.

 

[jetajockey]

Emersed basically means growth above the water line, so you are spot on. Good advice from above on how to deal with it.