Amazon Sword Care

[Arget]

How advanced are Amazon Sword plants? Do they need anything fancy like fertilizers or CO2? Or are they fine with just being planted in the sand? Are they okay in newly setup tanks? How does the required care compare to Vallisneria americana?



I'll be setting up a South American Blackwater Biotope soon, and Amazon Swords and Vallisneria are the only Biotope plants. I've had Jungle Val before, but it overgrew the top of the tank, and I've heard that Amazon Swords are similar, just a lot smaller.

 

[TheAvs21]

I don't have too much experience with them but I have had them do very good in just gravel with a root tab every few months just grew very slow. And I have 1 in a tank with aquasoil and fertilizers, no CO2, and just seems to grow a little faster.

 

[dcutl002]

How advanced are Amazon Sword plants? Do they need anything fancy like fertilizers or CO2? Or are they fine with just being planted in the sand? Are they okay in newly setup tanks? How does the required care compare to Vallisneria americana?



I'll be setting up a South American Blackwater Biotope soon, and Amazon Swords and Vallisneria are the only Biotope plants. I've had Jungle Val before, but it overgrew the top of the tank, and I've heard that Amazon Swords are similar, just a lot smaller.

Amazon Swords will get along with Vals just fine and will do fine in sand. I have tried all kinds of sand ranging from the expensive, fine grained stuff all the way down to play sand. What I found that works best, at least for me, is pool filter sand or black diamond blasting sand. It really depends on your color preference: light or black. These two sands I have found have the right size grain for the water to trickle down to the roots. Fine grained sand from the pet store really compacts over time and the swords cannot feed. Play sand in my opinion is "yucky" and not as good as pool filter sand.

Swords are heavy root feeders and will need fertilizers like root tabs, but do not necessarily need Injected CO2. You will have to prune your plants as they mature, so invest in a nice pair of pruning scissors. Don't be afraid to trim the plants back either because swords and vals are pretty hardy. my 2 cents.

 

[Arget]

Black Diamond blasting sand gets everywhere, clogs filters, and it can be really, really hard. It's too light. One time when I was redoing a tank, I had to use a knife to loosen the sand enough to get it out. It's also a hazard. When you get it on you, you have to rinse it off, any scrubbing, or even trying to lightly brush it off, and you get scratched.

 

[Arget]

I've already got the tank setup and ready, I just need to know if I'll need root tabs, or if it's similar in care to Vallisneria. I had some Vallisneria, Spiralis according to my LFS. I added some to a 60g Tanganyika tank, and it grew so long it was floating on the surface, and prevented me from feeding the fish. I didn't have any algae problems, and enough light was reaching the fish. I didn't do anything to the Vallisneria, just planted it, fed the fish, and did regular water changes. I took all of it out recently, and had more than enough Vallisneria to fill a 5g bucket full.