New amazon sword leaves HUGE -- good or bad?

[tfish]

I got a good sized amazon sword about a month ago. The leaves on the plant are about 2" across and 3-4" long. Now that the plant is more settled, I've gotten some new leaves growing in on the plant and they are huge! They are about the same width across but are 2-2 1/2 times as long! These new leaves aren't done growing yet either. If the stems grow in the same proportion as the leaves do, this thing is going to be poking out of my 55 in no time! Is this indicative of good/bad water quality? Too many or too little nutrients? Just curious. I mean, the new leaves just look so drastically different than the old leaves.

Thanks for tolerating this and many of my other newbie questions! You guys are such a great help!

 

[Sumpin'fishy]

Sounds like your feeding them Meat and Potatoes. Don't be surprised if they get a little hair on their chest!

Seriously, though, The plant seems to be thriving, but this doesn't mean that your fish are thriving. Although, I would usually say that if you take care of the plants, they will take care of your fish. This is a generalization, and we would probably need to know your water parameters and fertilizer habits to get any accurate assumptions.

Basically I don't think your missing any nutrients if they are doing that well, but you may have to give it time to see if you are over-doing it. Algae will usually let you know with time

 

[tfish]

Okay! Here's some info on water parameters and fert habits if it helps:

temp: ~76F
pH: 7.0 (working towards 6.8 if I can get DIY CO2 to cooperate)
KH: 5
GH: 11 degrees
nitrates: ~10ppm
ammonia: 0

ferts: seachem flourish as directed on bottle (started yesterday), and addition of KNO3 as of last week

You said that algea would let me know if there were any problems -- well it's already rearing its ugly head. I've always had a bit of hair algea but it stayed pretty much just on my driftwood and a little bit on a java fern I have. Last month, I upgraded the lights from the 30 that the tank come with to 110. That is when the algea started spreading! I checked my nitrates and found them to be <5ppm. My pH was also high at 8.2 (indicating low CO2) due to excess surfuce agitation from my filter. I've changed filters and have added DIY CO2 and have gotten the pH down to 7.0. I am working on bringing it a bit more down. I have also added some KNO3. The spreading has seemed to stop and is looking better. I hope it will cease soon.

 

[djlen]

tfish, you need to dose PO4 and and K2SO4. Also, Flourish Traces would be good idea twice a week. The plants need that stuff to keep up with the algae. PN&K are absolutely necessary in the right amounts to balance your tank, along with weekly 50% water changes, IMO.
Len

 

[Sumpin'fishy]

I'm not an experienced green-thumb, but I'm getting started and have read alot for months before I started. Anyways, I agree with Len, to an extent, if it's true that the algae has gone into remission. I have heard countless times by experienced aquatic green-thumbs that if you feed the plants, they will become dominant and keep algae in check instead of vice-versa.

One question I have is, How heavily planted is your tank? I heard you mention your Swords, but haven't mentioned whether you have a heavily planted aquarium, or just a few plants. If you have a bunch of plants, then probably adding certain ferts is the way to go from here, but do 50% water changes weekly before re-dosing them all again. This should keep the ferts at manageable levels for the plants. I have no experience or great understanding of fert addition, yet. I am letting my tank settle before I start adding Flourish and Flourish Potassium. I don't know if I'll need any other stuff....I hope not, I have Flourite Red mixed 50/50 with sand to provide extra iron. Flourish should add some additional to the water.

 

[tfish]

Sumpin Fishy -- My tank is fairly "heavily planted" I guess. I have one large sword, ~8 plantlets from the mother sword, 4 bunches of rotala rotundifola, 4 bunches of moneywort, 8 corkscrew val, 7 giant sag, ~6 giant hairgrass, ~ 5 bunches of microsword, ~4 crypt wendtii, 5 java fern

50% water change, huh? That sounds like a lot. I do 30% now and I thought that was pretty good.

I am guessing that I definitely do need to add more nutrients. My plants pearl like crazy the day I do the water change and for the next few days, but the pearling eventually stops until the next change. I am thinking that they are pearling because of the trace elements in my tap water. Then maybe after they use them all up, that is when they stop pearling. I don't know.

Oh well, thanks for the advice! Oh, and I will try adding those other ferts, as soon as I figure out how....and get that silly DIY CO2 under control.