Sword Plant Dying

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TonyN

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Mar 31, 2004
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I have a sword plant that is slowly dying. The last two days in a row one big leaf has turned brown each day, and some of the other leaves look like they've been chewed on . The leaves that are not affected are nice and green and healthy. This doesnt seem to make sense.
I have 3 wattts per gallon, and the plant is planted in Florite, and I have added Flourite tabs on either side of it. I also use the whole line of Flourish products, and I'm injecting Co2 and getting about 20 ppm. Also I do 50% water change every week.
Could I be overdosing fertilizers? I dont get it. I thought I was doing everything right and this dumb sword plant is dying in front of my eyes.
Can somebody help me save this guy?
 
Here's a picture of the Sword Plant. Notice the brown leaf in the middle. Yesterday it was perfectly ok. Also you can see some of the leaves look chewed up.

email pic 3.jpg
 
Maybe there's a reason you're doing 50% every week because you have plants...but normally, you shouldn't have to do more than 20% every two weeks.
 
Not sure in your case but it is possible to over dose ferts. I did this to my crypts once by increasing the frequency of root tabs and they started melting away.
 
Ok - I hadn't thought of that. The plant is new, I've only had it for about a week.
Is there any way to tell if it is emersed growth?
 
I understand exactly what you mean. These leaves look pretty wide and spearshaped to me. But not having anything else to compare them to, its hard to say.
I hope you are right about the emersed thing, but just in case I checked all my parameters today. I was a little low on phosphates, so I added some Fleet Enema. Unfortunately, I seem to have over done it, cause now it reads 3 or 4 ppm. Oh well, I'm due for the weekly water change tomorrow, so I'll see what happens then,
Thanks for your help, we'll just have to wait and see. I paid $15.00 for the thing, so I hope I can save it.
 
I can't tell for sure from your pic, but I think it might be an Aponogeton. It would make sense then, because these plants go through dormant periods, where the plant dies back at a very fast rate, often soon after flowering. You can't really stop this, just hope it will resprout in a few months. Since you just got it, it may have flowered in the store, which I've seen before. The fast yellowing and ragged-looking leaves would fit with this.
Otherwise it seems that you're doing everything right. If you're following the directions on the bottles and doing 50% water changes, then you're not overdosing for sure, esp. since you have a good amount of CO2.
 
Well, I was told it was an "Amazon Sword Plant" Is that an Aponogeton? I dont know.
Its going to be a bummer if the thing completley goes dormant. I'm going to have a big hole in my background untill it decides to wake up:(
 
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