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#1
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amazon sword sizing
I have a few swords that I bought quite a while back, nicely large leafed,
etc. The shouts have sprouted off, and I've snipped months ago, but they're growing different to the parent plants. They're more shrubby. One plant has 20-30 leaves and only 4" high. Do I have to prune leaves to get the others to grow larger? I use a standard aquarium .15-0-0 enriched fertilizer. (BTW, how often is a person supposed to add the fertilizer?) Also, how much light do they need? I currently give them 6-10 hours power-glo lighting, 6 or so hours darkness, the rest of lighting comes from indirect sunlight, ambiant from room lighting. Thanks. |
#2
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amazon sword sizing
"D&M" wrote in message ... I have a few swords that I bought quite a while back, nicely large leafed, etc. The shouts have sprouted off, and I've snipped months ago, but they're growing different to the parent plants. They're more shrubby. One plant has 20-30 leaves and only 4" high. Do I have to prune leaves to get the others to grow larger? I use a standard aquarium .15-0-0 enriched fertilizer. (BTW, how often is a person supposed to add the fertilizer?) Your 15-0-0 provides potassium and, I suppose, iron and trace elements. Depending on fish load you might need to supplement nitrates also. For an amazon sword this might be furnished in the form of root spikes, such as Jobe's for palms and ferns (16-2-6), which will also provide some more potassium (16%) and even some phosphates (2%). You need to add enough fertilizer to get 0.1ppm of iron in the water column, or nor much more. But you might not be getting enough potassium that way. That's another reason for the root spikes. But really these recommendations might be way off. What is your tank size? What is the lighting wattage? What are the other plants? What sort of substrate is in there? What is the fish load? I don't suppose you are injecting CO2? Also, how much light do they need? I currently give them 6-10 hours power-glo lighting, 6 or so hours darkness, the rest of lighting comes from indirect sunlight, ambiant from room lighting. Thanks. |
#3
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amazon sword sizing
Your 15-0-0 provides potassium and, I suppose, iron and trace elements. I use "Plant-Gro" -0.15% nitogen -0.26% iron -0.05% manganese -0.003% zinc -0.0005% boron -0.0005% copper -0.0007% molybdate treatment is 5ml/10g... no instruction on how often to add, so I add every couple weeks after I do a 25% water change. What is your tank size? 90g What is the lighting wattage? 42" 40w Power-Glo Flourescent. What are the other plants? No idea what the names of the other plants are, here's a pictu http://www.execulink.com/~sharp01/plants.jpg The fern like one I've called "fish food". Can't keep it alive in the tank, all the fish eat it. Put in all the suplements (wafers, etc.) I want, but the fish prefer the real thing. What's labelled in the picture as an amazon is not the amazons I'm working with. It's actually some other type of sword I bought a while back that resembles an amazon, but slimmer leaves, sold under a different name as well. If you have names for the other plants, feel free to fill in the blanks. I'm just starting to get into aquaplants, really adds to the appearance of the tank, and would love to learn about the plants I keep. What sort of substrate is in there? I'm still using designer gravel, haven't grown up enough to move to sand (to lazy to change over is more like it) What is the fish load? 4 med. bala's, 12 tiger barbs (reg&greeny's), 1 pim. cat, 8 loaches (3 clowns, 2 yoyo's, 2 zebra, 1 "tiger"), 7 assorted cory's (pandas, peppered, albino), 7 otos, 1 clown pleco, 4 serpae tetras I don't suppose you are injecting CO2? Not yet, looking into a good system as I got fairly high pH, kill two birds with one stone, so to say. What I'd really like to know is how to make the "Big" leaves like the parent amazon plants have. Do I have to prune some of the leaves off to encourage larger ones to grow? |
#4
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amazon sword sizing
btw, the plant in the middle of the picture, whatever it is, the red tailed
shark LOVES it the most. He's chewed most the leaves off that one. Eventually hoping I can get enoguh plants loaded into the tank that the fish damage will lower as they won't keep eating the same one. |
#5
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amazon sword sizing
"D&M" wrote in message ... Your 15-0-0 provides potassium and, I suppose, iron and trace elements. I use "Plant-Gro" -0.15% nitogen -0.26% iron -0.05% manganese -0.003% zinc -0.0005% boron -0.0005% copper -0.0007% molybdate Oh! Then I was mixing up the numbers for nitrate and potassium. (This means that Jobe's spikes for ferns and palms are actually 16% nitrate, 2% phosphate, and 6% potassium) The nitrogen in Plant-Gro is only used as a chelating agent for the traces. So it's "0.15"-0-0 which is not the same as 15-0-0. It is essentially 0-0-0. treatment is 5ml/10g... no instruction on how often to add, so I add every couple weeks after I do a 25% water change. The recommended dosage amounts to adding 0.3ppm (=0.3mg/liter) of iron. That may be a bit much. 0.1ppm is usually recommended here as a target. (Much more than this can lead to algae problems, especially if there is also an excess nitrate.) Assuming zero iron intake you'd need to add 1/12 of that doze after each water change to maintain 0.1ppm but that's an unrealistic lower bound. If you add 0.1ppm after each water change (1/3 the recommended dose) then, (still assuming zero intake,) your iron concentration will stabilize at 0.4ppm which is not catastrophic. So you could safely start with that and monitor your plants for signs of iron deficiency. Check this useful article on Chuck Gadd's page for a table of nutrient deficiency symptoms: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm What is your tank size? 90g What is the lighting wattage? 42" 40w Power-Glo Flourescent. What are the other plants? No idea what the names of the other plants are, here's a pictu http://www.execulink.com/~sharp01/plants.jpg This might be elodea densa or hydrilla verticillata on the left, I am unsure. The other one : hygrophila? ludwigia? Both seem to be fast growing stem plants that would normally need a steady source of macronutrients (K, NO3, PO4) to do well but you lighting is very low. So maybe your fish load (+Plant-Gro) is sufficient to provide all they need. You could also burry half a spike or root tab, deep in the substrate, bellow each bunch of stem plants, every two months or so. I'm still using designer gravel, haven't grown up enough to move to sand (to lazy to change over is more like it) So am I. I only fertilize the water column and use a few spikes. However I have high lighting and CO2 injection. One drawback of a poor substrate in these conditions is that stem plants produce lots of roots at the nodes to get nutrients from the water column and this is somewhat unaesthetic. What is the fish load? 4 med. bala's, 12 tiger barbs (reg&greeny's), 1 pim. cat, 8 loaches (3 clowns, 2 yoyo's, 2 zebra, 1 "tiger"), 7 assorted cory's (pandas, peppered, albino), 7 otos, 1 clown pleco, 4 serpae tetras Under your lighting conditions this is probably sufficient to provide enough nitrate for your plants. It is certainly sufficient to provide enough phosphate. If you see pinholes appearing in the older leaves of your plants then you will have to supplement potassium, which is the most likely macronutrient to become depleted in a fish tank, even under low light. The target for this is 20ppm and it does not promote algae growth. I don't suppose you are injecting CO2? Not yet, looking into a good system as I got fairly high pH, kill two birds with one stone, so to say. You might want to look into improving your lighting, also, if you want to seriously get into plants. It is frustrating to put care into this only to see them slowly whither away and disappear into fish and snail. What I'd really like to know is how to make the "Big" leaves like the parent amazon plants have. Do I have to prune some of the leaves off to encourage larger ones to grow? I'll let people who are more knowledgeable about amazons answer this. |
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