Struggling Amazon Sword and Dwarf Sagatarius

**agoerzen** · 03-14-2013, 06:05 PM

I have a heavily planted 100g aquarium where all plants (e.g., hygrophila, anubias, java fern, giant valesneria) are doing very well--good colour, lots of growth. But my Amazon Swords and Dwarf Sagataria are both struggling. The leaves of the Sagataria are lime green rather than dark as they should be and the Swords' leaves are also light green and many have developed tiny pinholes. Neither plants are growing at all. I do fertilize regularly and my lighting seems to be OK (at least, for the other plants). Please let me know if you have a suggestion.

**funkman262** · 03-14-2013, 06:18 PM

What are you dosing? How much and how often? Pinholes are indicative of potassium deficiency. Keep in mind that amazon swords are heavy root-feeders and do best with root tabs instead of column fertilizers. Some pictures would also help to diagnose the problem. More details of the setup would be nice too. I've had plants showing various nutrient deficiencies, but it turned out to be lack of CO2 which can pretty much mimic all other nutrient deficiencies.

**genocidex** · 03-14-2013, 06:30 PM

+1 To the above. The reason co2 deficiency can cause nutrient deficiency is because the plants need co2 to use the nutrients...

**korith** · 03-14-2013, 07:30 PM

Sword plants are heavy root feeders funkman262 mentioned. Adding some fertilizer tablets near the roots of plants will help.
For the dwarf sag I just add ferts to the water.

100g tank, I'm going to guess it's a bit of a tall tank. That height of the tank can make it challenging for enough light to reach the plants. What type of lighting fixture are you using? How long are you leaving the lights on for?

**agoerzen** · 03-18-2013, 12:30 PM

Sorry for the silence—I couldn’t logon for some computer/website reason. I am using Seachem Flourish fertilizer. I put 5 ml in with every 10 g water change once/week. I also use API's StressZyme+ and StressCoat+ in the same quantity. I can't seem to post photos but I'll try to figure that out. Also, to start at the beginning, the tank is less than a year old and, when I started it up with neglected plants that were given to me, I was overrun with hair algae (which is now under control although not 100% gone). The D Sagitaria were hit hard at that time by the hair algae but I never used any chemicals (just some Flag Fish, shrimp, and mollies which seemed to do the trick over a few months). Initially, the Swords were doing very well (as well as a sword-like red-leafed plant that I don’t know the name of) but both took a downward turn rather suddenly (maybe when I planted the Java Fern?) and haven’t recovered. I've just started CO2.

Originally Posted by funkman262

What are you dosing? How much and how often? Pinholes are indicative of potassium deficiency. Keep in mind that amazon swords are heavy root-feeders and do best with root tabs instead of column fertilizers. Some pictures would also help to diagnose the problem. More details of the setup would be nice too. I've had plants showing various nutrient deficiencies, but it turned out to be lack of CO2 which can pretty much mimic all other nutrient deficiencies.

**agoerzen** · 03-18-2013, 12:32 PM

Thanks. I've just started CO2 using bakers yeast and sugar in a wine-making carboy. How do you know how much CO2 is good? And do you have a sugar/yeast recipe? The website instructions don't seem to indicate proportions.

**agoerzen** · 03-18-2013, 12:35 PM

My old tank was 18" but the new one I just got this weekend is 24" (125g). I have two 4' fluorescent fixtures (i.e., 4 tubes of 4' each @ 40 watts each). I have been using 2 PowerGlo and 2 AquaGlo but I'd like to switch to 4 AquaGlo.

**agoerzen** · 03-18-2013, 01:39 PM

Thanks. I've just started CO2 using bakers yeast and sugar in a wine-making carboy. How do you know how much CO2 is good? And do you have a sugar/yeast recipe? The website instructions don't seem to indicate proportions.

Originally Posted by genocidex

+1 To the above. The reason co2 deficiency can cause nutrient deficiency is because the plants need co2 to use the nutrients...

**agoerzen** · 03-18-2013, 01:40 PM

My old tank was 18" but the new one I just got this weekend is 24" (125g). I have two 4' fluorescent fixtures (i.e., 4 tubes of 4' each @ 40 watts each). I have been using 2 PowerGlo and 2 AquaGlo but I'd like to switch to 4 AquaGlo. I've been leaving the lights on for around 12 hours using a timer.

Originally Posted by korith

Sword plants are heavy root feeders funkman262 mentioned. Adding some fertilizer tablets near the roots of plants will help.
For the dwarf sag I just add ferts to the water.

100g tank, I'm going to guess it's a bit of a tall tank. That height of the tank can make it challenging for enough light to reach the plants. What type of lighting fixture are you using? How long are you leaving the lights on for?

**~firefly~** · 03-18-2013, 09:42 PM

I have a heavily planted tank and I found my amazon sword to be the fussiest plant to grow. I had similar symptoms to yours. Light greeny/yellow, almost transparent leaves at times. Very poor growth. I basically doubled the root tabs I was using (Sera Florenette-A). One tab at the root every 4 days, and I upped my lighting a bit so that I had low-medium lighting (instead of very low-low). Now it is growing and looking greener and bushier.

I don't know why they are plugged as low-light, easy-care plants. They aren't in my care!