Amazon Sword leaves turning brown.

Byron

A photo would help. But at 30ppm the GH is very soft. I had to raise mine from the tap level of about 7ppm (wich is about half of 1 dGH) up to 5 or 6 dGH (90 to 107 ppm). In my case, the larger swords developed brown blotches on the leaves which became larger and larger until the entire leaf was dead. This was due to an excess of iron which replaces calcium when this is insufficient. And calcium is the major "hard" mineral, along with magnesium. Calcium is essential in cell formation and development in plants.

I agree the light sounds adequate. As for duration, algae is usually the detrmininant; I can only run my lights 8 hours daily or brush algae begins to increase. This means that up to 8 hours, the plants have sufficient nutrients to out-compete the algae. I started at 10 or so hours, and worked back to the point where algae stopped increasing.

You didn't answer about the Flourish, is it once or twice weekly? And at the recommended dose (in a 75g this would be about one teaspoon at each dose)? Which water conditioner, and how often are water changes done?

Byron.

Stoke88

Here's a photo. You can see the tip starting to brown and just below that its yellowish. The leaf is greener then it appears in this photo but not as green as the new growth floating in front of it. Each plant as one or two leaves like this.

Flourish is twice weekly ( Monday and Thursday), Currently using Aqua Safe conditioner but also have Prime and water changed every Sunday.

Byron

So you're not adding anything to increase the GH, correct? That is likely the issue. In my case, the iron deposits prevailed because calcium was basically nil. You have some with the GH at 30, so here it is general leaf decay. Calcium as I think I mentioned previously is essential for cell tissue building, so in my opinion the symptoms here are compatible with not sufficient hard minerals (calcium and magnesium primarily, potassium less). I would look into something like Equilibrium. I use this to raise my GH to 5 or 6 dGH, and the swords exploded with increased growth, size and several inflorescences.

Flourish twice is fine. Light as I said before is fine. I would try the Equilibrium, or a similar product. Seachem also have a new one out, Aqua Vitro I think, only available in select stores. And Brightwell Aquatics have a hard mineral supplement. I use the Equilibrium only because I can buy it online in bulk and save a lot of money; but if money wasn't the problem, I would be using one of the other mentioned products because they are liquid and easier to dose than E which is a powder.

AquaSafe is fine. Presumably you don't have ammonia/nitrite/nitrate issues so don't use Prime unless one of these is a problem at some point, or in a new setup.

Byron.

Stoke88

I will most definitely look into an Equilibrium type product. The Equilibrium might be my only option as well. I'll do some looking on the web to see what some prices are. Now should I add this to all my tanks? Not all have Swords but if its going to benefit the plants then its well worth it IMO. Also do I replace what is lost in a water change? Will this affect my fish by changing the GH all of a sudden?

Byron

You don't need to raise the GH much. Walstad says 4 dGH is the minimum for plants; mine was less than 1, so I raise it to 5 or 6 dGH [one tank I keep at 6, the others at 5] and this made quite a difference in just a few weeks. In your case, at 30ppm [1.6 dGH] raising it to 5 dGH should be sufficient. At with such a low GH to start with, I have seen no issues with my wild caught soft water fish.

It takes some experimenting to get the dose correct, and yes you need to add it at every water change. One tablespoon raises the GH by 3 dGH per 20 gallons [Seachem's advice]. Start low and slowly build until 5 is reached when tested prior to the next water change; then depending upon the volume of the WC, add maybe one level tablespoon and test the following week. If you are consistent with water changes like I am, changing the same volume (half the tank) every week, it is quite easy to pin this down. As I posted in another thread yesterday, a week of tests showed that my GH in the 115g is 6 dGH prior to the WC, then it is halved to 3 right after, the next day it is back to 6 and it remains there for the week. The plants are using the calcium and magnesium obviously, but not so much as to make a difference with the API test kit.

All the plants will benefit, but if the plants in one tank seem fine now, I wouldn't mess with all this. The fish if soft water don't need it.

Stoke88

What do you use to test your GH? Like I said before I'm using the API strips which can get a little expenisve. Is there an alternative?
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Byron

I don't use strips, but the API liquid test. The GH and KH test (both come together) is not that expensive, I get it for around $10 online here in Canada; the other day someone in the US mentioned $7. Once you get the rate down, you needn't test much if at all. I started this a year ago, in Dec 2011, and I think it took me maybe 4 or 5 weeks to sort out the dose. I tested a few weeks longer, just prior to each water change, and it was always the same. Then last week I decided to check this again, and the numbers were bang on.