My amazon swords are turning brown -help!

[dmac]

I have two amazon swords that have been in the tank for about 6 weeks............They were doing ok, but recently they have been turning brown and don't look healthy...........The only thing I do is put in some capfuls of plantgrow once a week or so.................What am I doing wrong?

Not enough light, too much light? Not enough chemicals?

[JDogg]

first do/can you get a picture?

what are the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and Ph of your tank?
how much light do you have in your tank? i.e. watts of light per gallon? is the light fluorescent bulbs or incandescent bulbs?

1. you will probably need to dose potassium
2. swords are root feeders so you will need root tabs
3. I have 1.5 watts of light per gallon of water in my tank, my swords grow slow but they do well without added CO2

[Lonewolfblue]

Most importantly, swords are heavy root feeders. All you may need are root tabs. I place a root tab under my swords once every other month. Place them directly under the roots by pushing them into the gravel, then under the roots.

[Jchillin]

I had this happen to one of mine...started dosing potassium and it cleared up and rejuvenated the sword. I use root tabs too, which has helped all of my heavy root feeders.

[mrzap]

Same here, potassium really made my swords green again.

[dmac]

I'll have to research root tabs


latest water test as of right now

Nitrates 20
Nitrates 0
Hardness GH 150 "Hard water"
Total Alkalinity KH 100
pH 6.5


Temp is 77 degrees

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by dmac

I'll have to research root tabs


latest water test as of right now

Nitrates 20
Nitrates 0
Hardness GH 150 "Hard water"
Total Alkalinity KH 100
pH 6.5


Temp is 77 degrees

i assume ammonia = 0 too, if not you should look into this

i like Seachem's flourish tab for my root tabs, most lfs i find have them in stock regularly.

also as already mentioned look into getting so potassium

Example: Seachem's Flourish K (though i have found this can raise your Nitrate, at least it did mine, so i have switch to Kent's Botanica K+)

Flourish is KNO3 where as the Kent is K2oh

HTH

[JDogg]

Double post

[Lonewolfblue]

Originally Posted by JDogg

i assume ammonia = 0 too, if not you should look into this

i like Seachem's flourish tab for my root tabs, most lfs i find have them in stock regularly.

also as already mentioned look into getting so potassium

Example: Seachem's Flourish K (though i have found this can raise your Nitrate, at least it did mine, so i have switch to Kent's Botanica K+)

Flourish is KNO3 where as the Kent is K2oh

HTH

Could get Flourish Potassium. It won't raise the nitrate levels, as it's just Potassium. Then Flourish Tabs work wonders as well for heavy root feeders.

[dmac]

the above stats should say NITRITES 0......I made a typo

[JustOneMore20]

How much light is over the tank and how big is it?

[dmac]

its a 30g tall hex with a wimpy 16" light strip....I might add a second strip to brighten it up.



So I got the root tabs, do I just bury these in the gravel next to the plant?

[rich311k]

Yes push the tab down in the gravel under the roots. How many watts is the light?

[dmac]

120V 40W