Any tips or ticks on growing micro sword

[Gabriel3303]

Everything online is so back an forth on this plant anyone have good or bad luck with it ?

 

[Gabriel3303]

An how important is it for me to get fish in the tank to naturally fertilize ?

 

[bud29]

I know it likes medium-high light, and good root fertilizer. As for fish, you can keep them in plant-only tanks. In medium-high light planted fish tanks, you normally have to dose additional fertilizer anyway. As far as I know, fish waste only produces ammonia which is turned into nitrates - which plants do like. However I don't believe fish waste contains all the compounds used in NPK+Trace fertilizer dosing.

 

[Gabriel3303]

K im only adding excel right now but was gonna get leaf zone soon an start using it too

 

[bud29]

K im only adding excel right now but was gonna get leaf zone soon an start using it too

I also recommend getting some type of root tab, as swords are heavy root feeders.

 

[Gabriel3303]

Awesome thanks

 

[ktomminello]

Lighting and fertilizers make all the difference in the world. I've had good and bad experiences- noticed my fluval spec 5 did really well with eco complete substrate and liquid ferts and flourish tabs for micro swords, crypt Wendtii 'tropical'... Worst failure I've had was in a betta bow 5 with fluorite mixed with river sand and an incandescent colormax replacement bulb.... Hope that helps a little with your research

 

[bud29]

Lighting and fertilizers make all the difference in the world. I've had good and bad experiences- noticed my fluval spec 5 did really well with eco complete substrate and liquid ferts and flourish tabs for micro swords, crypt Wendtii 'tropical'... Worst failure I've had was in a betta bow 5 with fluorite mixed with river sand and an incandescent colormax replacement bulb.... Hope that helps a little with your research

Incandescent bulbs are never good for growing plants. You always want to stick to full-spectrum lighting.

 

[Rivercats]

The API Leaf Zone is good but also using Seachems Flourish Comprehensive along with the Leaf Zone will give you a much better all around fertilizer dosing. My Micro Swords were always slow growers even in a higher light tank so be patient. Also if you get a few plants the split them into 1/2" to 1" sections and plant each section in a checkerboard pattern you can get an area to fill in a tad bit faster. It's still slow but I found doing this yielded better results.

 

[Gabriel3303]

K ill pick some of that up too i wasn't too worried bout it going crazy cuase i have my dwarf pennywort coming too. 2 5x6 sheets kinda wanted to have two types of ground cover an let the two fill the low levels i did notice when i got the swords i added them an there now is a bunch of small round green things floating particles in my tank are they type of plants thats gonna grow? But here's the start so far

 

[ktomminello]

Incandescent bulbs are never good for growing plants. You always want to stick to full-spectrum lighting.

Lol, you can grow java moss if you use plant substrate, flourish tabs, rooting tabs and weekly dose of excel... I agree, though, incandescent are worthless. I got lucky and a thrift store in my area area were selling zoo medics 6500K self ballasted compact florescent bulbs for $3 a piece- they work great as spotlights for high intensity lighting plants in low light aquariums when used with bendable desk lamps/ clip lamps and it gives some more options, another type of bulb I've found works pretty well in this situation is full daylight LED lightbulb, but I started getting algae if I left it on for more than 8 hours.

 

[ktomminello]

The API Leaf Zone is good but also using Seachems Flourish Comprehensive along with the Leaf Zone will give you a much better all around fertilizer dosing. My Micro Swords were always slow growers even in a higher light tank so be patient. Also if you get a few plants the split them into 1/2" to 1" sections and plant each section in a checkerboard pattern you can get an area to fill in a tad bit faster. It's still slow but I found doing this yielded better results.

hi rivercats!! First off I 100% agree with seachem flourish comprehensive plus a fert like leaf zone or nutrafin grow...

I'm not going to float off topic here, but if you get a chance I have a post about biotope tank build upgrade sizes and tank shapes that I would love to get your (+ anybody who thinks they can help) opinion on- if/whenever you can. Thanks, and good luck

 

[adammorrill]

For a cheaper substitute for root tabs, you can get some red clay. Thats what I use and my plants love it. It has a high iron content.