swords and emersed leaves.....

[WD]

I understand that many aquatic plants are grown out of water, and these
leaves will die, being replaced with new. I recently bought 3 large amazon
swords, and the leaves are yellowing. At what point should I worry? What can
I do to ensure their survival?
75 US gallon
20 gallon sump, standard overflow
40x4 flourescent, timed, 11 or so hours per day
heavy fish load (barbs, tetras, loaches)
moderately planted, java fern, java moss,anubias, anacharis, amazon swords.
Using seachem florish, seachem trace according to package directions.
ph 7.1-7.2
temp 78f
nitrite0
ammonia 0
nitrate 80ppm+

Yeah, I did each test as I wrote this. The nitrate results surprised,
shocked, and horrified me. Water change scheduled. Like 10 minutes from
now.<g>

tia

Billy

[Bob Alston]

Looks like your sword is flowering. Great fun for you. Watch for the stalk
end getting too close to the light - especially if you use CFs or Medal
Halide (e.g. HOT) lights. I ultimately opened up the glass cover, jury
rigges one of the strip lights to still be on top of that. The bloom stalk
on mine branched at the water line. Then some of the branches branched
also. I got about 4 nice plants before I gave away the mother plant. I
found that pushing the stem with plant back to the water level seemed to
enhance the root growth although those growing in the air also put out
roots.

My sword took over more than 1/2 my 55 gal and had huge leaves - 18 inches
long and 4 inches wide - when it bloomed. How large is yours?

Bob
"WD" > wrote in message
news:SFg2a.78633$vm2.45115@rwcrnsc54...
>
> "Bob Alston" > wrote in message
> ...
> > My swords like iron at their roots. I use Root Tabs plus Iron,
available
> at
> > many LFS. I notice a big improvement from doing just this, along with 3
> > watts per gallon light. One sword plant bloomed recently in my 55
gallon
> > tank!
> >
> > Agree with prior post, if new leaves are coming in and look right, then
> > don't worry. If new leaves and old ones look the same (shape) but the
> older
> > ones are yellow, suggest the iron. Anyway, you can't hurt by adding the
> > iron root tabs.
> >
> > Bob
>
> Put in root tabs when I planted them. All my plants are doing well,
> (excepting an unidentified reddish plant with narrow leaves, it was given
to
> me, and has never thrived.)
> 1 of the 3 swords has shot up a long stem, and it seems to be producing
> small leaves at the nodes, which appear healthy.
> Thanks for the input.
>
>

[Dave M. Picklyk]

I had the same thing start to happen to my red rubin swords. LeighMo
suggested, like you said, that the leaves that come with the plant have been
grown out of the water and to cut the yellow and dying ones off. I then had
different shaped new leaves pop out of the plant. The new submerged leaves
will indeed be a different shape and more fragile.

It is also a good idea to use root tabs or jobe's fern spikes :)

"WD" > wrote in message
news:7M_1a.68512$vm2.40781@rwcrnsc54...
> I understand that many aquatic plants are grown out of water, and these
> leaves will die, being replaced with new. I recently bought 3 large amazon
> swords, and the leaves are yellowing. At what point should I worry? What
can
> I do to ensure their survival?
> 75 US gallon
> 20 gallon sump, standard overflow
> 40x4 flourescent, timed, 11 or so hours per day
> heavy fish load (barbs, tetras, loaches)
> moderately planted, java fern, java moss,anubias, anacharis, amazon
swords.
> Using seachem florish, seachem trace according to package directions.
> ph 7.1-7.2
> temp 78f
> nitrite0
> ammonia 0
> nitrate 80ppm+
>
> Yeah, I did each test as I wrote this. The nitrate results surprised,
> shocked, and horrified me. Water change scheduled. Like 10 minutes from
> now.<g>
>
> tia
>
> Billy
>
>