Swords doing badly

[rusticdr]

Hi everyone.. I have two sword plants which were doing very well until recently. First my co2 was down for about a week during which they developed some bba but once I restarted co2 that was solved. But after that they both have shown a downhill course. These r my tank specs..
100 gallon 48x24x21
Filters : eheim 2217 and sunsun 303b
Lights: 4x 54 watts (6500 k and 4500 k)
Period: total of 6 hrs per day with only 2 x 54 as I have cladophora issues too.
Ferts: EI method
Co2: in line Ista reactor. On with the 6 hrs of lighting period. 3bps with green drop checker.
Soil.. ada amazonia
Other plants: rotala, limnophila aromatica(not doing well), ludwigia ovalis (not doing well) crypts, flame and Christmas Moss, echinodorus major, microtenellus, anubias nana.
Is it the light? Shud I increase it to all four.. will add root tabs today but the tank is only 3 months old.
(There is also a sunsun jvp 101 wavemaker for the flow.)
Please anyone shed some light..

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[G H Nelson]

Hi
Could be predation....what fish inhabitants do you have?

 

[Mick.Dk]

defenitely predation - be it fish, snail or shrimp.
Be aware, though, that predation usually take place on leaves allready weakened. At least such leaves are attacked first.
This relates very well to the fact, that your CO2 supply was off (=drastic change of environment !!). This will surely have weakened the leaves, when they were used to access to easy CO2, now having to "work harder" to get it.
Ech. bleheri (=Swords) are very often the first to be attacked, and I have experienced both Otto's, Ramshorn snail and Amano shrimp predate on Ech. bleheri if leaves were weakened.The Ancistrus is well known, for possible predation on Ech. bleheri, too.
Ech. bleheri can actually adapt to grow in extreemely low light, ex. the standard "Starter set" (= lowest end of possible plant growth, like Crypts and Anubias), which have surprised me at several ocations .

 

[rusticdr]

Hmm.. that cud be the answer. These changes started becoming more noticeable after I introduced the Otos. I am guessing this will not affect any new leaves and that the plant survives this. Even the limnophila has lost most of its leaves which was never the case. Will post those pics Tom. Thanks guys.

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[rusticdr]

Fishes..
25 cardinals
13 rummy noses
12 henglei rasbora
9 pencil fish
1 neon gourami
5 Otos
3 bn plecos
2 sae
3 rcs

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[dw1305]

Hi all,

The Ancistrus is well known, for possible predation on Ech. bleheri, too.

3 bn plecos

Definitely the plecs, if you feed them some vegetables they may leave your Swords alone.

cheers Darrel

 

[rusticdr]

These are the limnophila aromatica.. they were prospering once with livid purple colors. They have lost their purple and now the bottom and mid level leave have gone.
The plecos have been there from the inception of this tank. I have not seen this kind of picture before.
Apart from predation is there any mineral or flow related improvements I can make? Can't understand. Some plants r doing well like rotala, flame Moss, crypts and hygrophila.

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[dw1305]

Hi all,

The plecos have been there from the inception of this tank. I have not seen this kind of picture before

It is definitely damage from "grazing", but the leaves may have all ready been unhealthy, which attracted the grazers.

These are the limnophila aromatica.. they were prospering once with livid purple colors. They have lost their purple and now the bottom and mid level leave have gone.

Looking at the picture of the leaves it looks like you have a deficiency in at least one nutrient. Because you dose EI it is most likely to be a micro-nutrient, and often micro-nutrient deficiencies relate to ratios of elements rather than total amounts. We have had a <"couple of threads lately"> which have shown deficiencies, that may be iron, while using EI.

If the tips of the Limnophila shoots are very pale yellow? Iron deficiency is a distinct option. If your water is hard (high dKH)? That also makes iron deficiency more likely.

Have a look at <"Iron deficiency in Limnophila">.

cheers Darrel

 

[rusticdr]

Sorry for the late feedback.. just figuring out wat happened. Bn plecos definitely had a hay day with my swords. But the stem plants like limnophila seem to have died due to overdosing of ferts. My nitrates and phosphates were off the chart. Cut down on the ferts now. Planted some fresh limnophila aromatica and swords. Will post pics soon.

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