# amazon swords...



## mykil73g (Aug 28, 2004)

I've had one huge amazon sword that i've had for quite some time and have been able to get several plants from this one. i've recently set up another tank ( it was running before ,just tore it down and re-did it.) i pulled several swords from other tanks and put them in . its been a week and they seem to be getting translucent? it seems all the green ( clorophyl?) is slowly fading. tank is about a foot deeper than the others (wictch are 55's) same temp ( 84*) the difference is some added sand and more lighting (no idea what ,two bright ass flourescents,one by zoomed and the other by coralife?) no fish in the tank yet. what gives? no nutrients?


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

mykil73g said:


> I've had one huge amazon sword that i've had for quite some time and have been able to get several plants from this one. i've recently set up another tank ( it was running before ,just tore it down and re-did it.) i pulled several swords from other tanks and put them in . its been a week and they seem to be getting translucent? it seems all the green ( clorophyl?) is slowly fading. tank is about a foot deeper than the others (wictch are 55's) same temp ( 84*) the difference is some added sand and more lighting (no idea what ,two bright ass flourescents,one by zoomed and the other by coralife?) no fish in the tank yet. what gives? no nutrients?


Hi mykil73g,

Well this needs more info to be solved.
I see the pic from the suffering sword and yeah it is dying all right. All the tissue of the leaves going necrotis.

But i also see healthy looking plants in there. Have they been there longer or shorter time than the dying sword? Have you measured pH from both of the tanks?

Also i noticed your fluorescent lights are very blueish, like they were 10.000 K or something. If they are, get rid of them and use wide range bulbs (about 4.000 - 6.000 K). They are better for plants and they show more natural colors.

*Here is some more:*

The 10.000K fluorescent bulb is very commonly sold in Finnish lfs and in common stores for aquarium purposes. These are labelled as FLORA, FLORALUX, TROPICAL etc. and from the brands like SERA, OSRAM, SYLVANIA etc.

The light they emit is claimed to promoto photosynthesis. It has greater amount of blue and red light compared to green.
It has been shown that green chlorophyl absorbs red and blue light much more than green light. This has led to a conclusion that a 10.000K light is best for photosynthesis.

BUT. Few things have been forgotten.
1) Plants (and waterplants as well) do have other pigments also than green chlorophyl. They have yellow and red pigments as well. These pigments need more yellow and green (red pigment) or green (yellow pigment) than blue or red to manage photosynthesis.
2) Take a look at power output of a 10.000K fluorescent bulb. Lets say the input (power consumption) is 36W (which is a 4' or 120cm bulb).
In OSRAM
the basic-type (white 4.500K) output is 2.800 lumen;
the flora-type (10.000K) output is 2.000 lumen;
the comfort-type (warm 6.000K) output 3.350 lumen.
It is very easy to see that the red-blue color has been done by only reducing the green light. The bulb does not emit more red or blue light than the basic-type or comfort-type bulb.

As a whole, the reason to use a wide spectrum light (near white, 5000K-6000K) is very simple one. The plants on earth and in water have evolved during hundreds of millions of years to get best use from the sunlight (5.600K).

If one claims that his plants grow better with a 10.000K bulb, he also states that his plants qrow better than those in nature with sunlight!

BTW. A fluorescent bulb basically emits three main types (wavelengths) of light:
red, green and blue (RGB light).
A human eye sees the light as white when all three are emitted similar to daylight.
A green leaf is green (as a human sees it) because it does not absorb the green light as well as other wavelengths and thus it emits green more. But it does not emit back all the green light!

PS. I have tried using 10.000K lights many times as a primary light source in aquarium. Each time especially green brush algae takes advantage of this, but the higher plants seems to slow down compared to wide spectrum lights. I believe that one should try 10.000K lights but only when combined with wide spectrum lights. And it is better to use only the latter ones.

Regards,


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## mykil73g (Aug 28, 2004)

right on Harry! thanks very much for the help...the healthier ones have started to die as well. i'll switch out the light and see what happens. should i trim off all the dead dying leaves? again, thanks.


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

it is likely that you prloblem lies with your new tank, as there probably isint enough waste/nutrients that have been absorbed in to the gravel bed to give the plants the proper amount of nutirents


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## spree_rider (Mar 20, 2004)

you need some ferts in there, swords going clear is usually a sign that you are iron deficient, so go buy a bottle of trace ferts that includes iron, if you dont have fish you will probably need to get a macro fert as well as the micro.


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## mykil73g (Aug 28, 2004)

do you think some flora-pride will help??thnx for the info...


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## CTREDBELLY (Apr 8, 2005)

i actually like flora pride since i started using that all the plant bulbs i burried have grown my swords sprouted new swords that i am now using in my 30 and 20 gal tansk and growing new 1s for the 75gal.

the pic in my sig the plant front and center was a BULB 30days ago and was under the sand for 2 weeks prior once i started using flora pride it grew to that size in under a week


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

My swords looked *a bit like that* when I had no nitrAtes, and no phosphate in the water... That is a new tank, correct? Try potassium nitrate, get it up to about 10ppm. And mono potassium phosphate @ at least .5, and up to 2ppm. it fixed my problem... IMO, that is a lack of nutrient problem.. I've had healthy amazon swords with 1wpg t12 flurescent. Eh, I'll get slack for this, but this works for me EVERY TIME.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

well, ditto to what spree, and ctred said too. You are probably lacking all nutrients. Again, amazon swords do great in low lighting


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## mykil73g (Aug 28, 2004)

damn, those eggs look hella good! how 'bout some floating plants to help shade the swords? I dropped in a spotted metynis(?) and he's doing just fine, some emerald cory's are going in today. I think i'm gonna replant in a few weeks...thanks again for all the info, it's greatly appreciated.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

ya, gotta love eggs..







no need to shade the swords, I have an amazon sword in 3wpg power compact lighting, and they r doing great. Definately get some food fer yer plants... don't go a day without it if you replant ..especially if you have alot of light.


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## piranha98 (Jun 15, 2005)

try gettin some tablets and getsome nitrates in there good luck


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## daaaaaan (Oct 27, 2004)

little off topic, but is that just a tree branch in your tank?


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## Susp3nc3 (Jan 27, 2005)

ban the spammer


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

Susp3nc3 said:


> ban the spammer
> [snapback]1094865[/snapback]​


Job done...troll killed....


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