Craig Brye wrote:

I've been raising aquatic plants now for almost 1 1/2 years (the first half
was raising algae ), but I'm experiencing some new difficulties.

Problem 1.

My E. Osiris plant has been growing for great for about 9 months in my 29
gal. tank (takes up half the tank, new leaves are very red and slowly fade
to a medium-dark green).

Even when everything else grows like gangbusters, my older sword leaves lose
flesh and develop holes. The solution is root tabs-swords are heavy root
feeders. I use the Jobs Spikes for Lush Ferns and Palms that are recommended so
often on this list. 1 spike per sword plant, broken in half, both halves
inserted under the plant once per month.

Problem 2.

My snails are dieing again! The only thing I can think of here is the 0.10%
of Copper my trace mix contains, or the pH value which is around the 6.8
level. The snails never get really big, always staying pretty young before
they die!

Snails need calcium for their shells. Do the shells have holes, or have
irregular whitish areas? What's your GH?