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Echinodorus bleheri (Amazon Sword) help

MoneyMitch

Seedling
Joined
28 Oct 2009
Messages
8
Hey guys back with another question but im gunna warn this is gunna be a long post due to alot of explaining and info for yall. so ive had this guy for about maybe two months or so now and have had trouble with leaves yellowing. i posted on the other forum and they said it could be due to the plant being raised above water and shedding those leaves to adapt to the underwater environment and that i should use some type of fert. so i went out and got flourish root tabs you can find the specs on it here http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=4867. anyways i put one of those right next to the thing and still had trouble with the leafs but they said that they would all have to die off and as long as new leafs were forming from the mid all would be well. fast forward about a month or so and i still have the same problem but now i have diatoms growing on some of the leafs and all over the baby plant on the flowering stem or w/e. it comes off when i rub the leafs and all but it always reappears. ive cut maybe 15-20 brown/yellowing leafs off the thing since ive had it and have only now finally went to ask about whats going on. one of my fish the other day dug a giant crater next to the thing and exposed some CRAZY roots that went at least 6-7 inches away from the crown. some leafs are starting to twist and there are still new leafs coming from the center of the crown. the way my lighting is set up is i have two fixtures that house 1 18 inch bulb on both sides of the tank. the side that the sword is on the lighting is as follows 15w 18,000 kelvin powerglow tube.

now for my tank specs,

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20-30
GH: 13 Drops
KH: 12 Drops
Temp: 78-79
Lighting schedule: 12/12
Fert: Flourish Root Tab

The GH/KH test is the API liquid brand i lost the instructions to decifer the test but the color doesnt change untill after those many drops.

now lets see if i can post the pictures correctly,

44131747@N05


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ok so that didnt work heres the link to the pictures. http://www.flickr.com/photos/44131747@N05/

Thanks for your time everyone im at a total loss of what to do here so any help is of course helpful!
Mitch

MOD EDIT : I've edited your post to insert the images inline. ceg4048 :wave:
 

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Here is a quick quote form the Tabs hard sell.

"Tabs contain no phosphate or nitrate that would promote algae proliferation"

Good old Seachem. We musn`t supply our plants with nitrates or phosphates. Oh sorry, yes we must, via Seachem Nitrogen and Phosphorus. I sometimes wonder how any planted tanks ever succeed.

The leaf die off may well be due to the plant adapting to immersed growth, but this can be avoided with good CO2. The diatoms are the result of the unhealthy leaves leaching ammonia, causing sufficiently elevated local levels of ammonia that will trigger the diatoms.

Supplying all the elements required by plants is easy, with the possible exception of carbon. Yours doesn`t seem to be a high light tank, but dosing Flourish Excel may well be the answer. I am not sure how good your nitrate test kit is, but your plants may be lacking in nitrogen or phosphorus. Do you know what is in the tap water?

With a more complete dosing regime incorporating a carbon supplement, your plants should pick up. The tabs you are using are just trace elements. If you are finding that leaves are disintegrating and dissolving, it would be an idea to look at the macros or, most likely, carbon, which supplies the building blocks for the plant structure.

Dave.
 
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