There's Something Wrong With My Amazon Sword

For about a month now I've noticed my Amazon Sword deteriorating. It used to be really beautiful and vibrant and then I noticed the leaves starting to thin out and holes were appearing causing it to look kind of lacy. I thought maybe my fish were snacking on it but I watched them and they would poke around at the roots sometimes but for the most part, left the plants alone.
 
Then we thought maybe it was because the air tube/wand I had in the tank was too close to its root system so I just got a straight bubble wand for the back of the tank and got rid of the flexible one but the problem hasn't gotten any better. I don't have a grow light on it, it just gets natural light from the window during the day when I have my curtains open, and then regular LED light the rest of the time.
 
I have a few other plants in the tank but that's the one I'm most concerned about, and I'm hoping I don't have to get rid of it, as I've had it for almost a year now first in a 10 gal and now in my 20 gal and at one time it was really thriving.
 
Any help would be appreciated

Do you use root tabs? Swords are heavy root feeders, and don't last for terribly long without getting some fertilizer.

Agree swords need ferts.
I use liquid and mine are thriving. But may go with some tabsas they are getting huge.

I haven't used anything except I was adding some Flourish Excel to the tank in the past couple of weeks. I suppose I've just been lucky with them so far? I did pull them up and separate them into two bunches because I thought maybe there were too many of them too close together. Their roots are huge and had really burrowed into the substrate. I don't know if there is a direct correlation or not but the day after the initial dose of Excel there was a massive algae bloom in my tank which I thought was odd because I'd read that Flourish Excel can actually help control algae.

I used liquid ferts only for a bit as well...Was getting about 8-9 months of good leaves, then they started getting lacy like yours. I switched to root ferts, and the plants shed the lacy leaves and regrew nice bright green ones. Haven't had a problem since.

I will have to try using the tabs then and hopefully that will take care of it. Any suggestions on a brand?

100% fert or co2 difficiancy if you look in my picture below there are two swords one on the left one on the right, one had ferts and co2 the other only had co2, and that's ferts to the roots try both had ferts from the water, and you can see that the one on the right is huge and you can't see the one on the left with brands I would go with seachems I used them and they helped but if you can get some under gravel ferts they are way better

Zikofski your tank is really amazing, I couldn't imagine doing anything like that. Maybe one day I will definitely get some fertilizer for my plants, especially since eventually I do want to add some more plants. It is only 20 gal though so I'm not sure what would be optimal with the number of fish I have.

I get mine from bamaplants.com. I use three different tabs, dolomite, potash and red clay that he sells. The plants showed new growth within less than a week

CO2 deficiency - Add liquid carbon / Inject CO2 / Reduce your lighting.


IMO

^^^ he's bang on the money???looks like quastradas, and they do tend to melt off a little in low c02 environments.

Ps swords aren't 'heavy root feeders'.

I've been adding liquid carbon for a couple of weeks. I was dosing it daily because that's what the instructions said to do, but when I didn't see any noticeable difference in the way my plants look, I stopped putting it in. I was using Seachem Flourish Excel.

Hollyweb said:

I've been adding liquid carbon for a couple of weeks. I was dosing it daily because that's what the instructions said to do, but when I didn't see any noticeable difference in the way my plants look, I stopped putting it in. I was using Seachem Flourish Excel.

Click to expand...

You need to make sure you've got the nutrients in place to support the growth - beyond that, if you're lighting is still to high you'd have to overdose the excel before there was enough of it to support the growth stimulated by the light.

Chances are the window light + the LEDs are too much for the levels of CO2/liquid carbon.

IMO

So maybe I could try turning off the LED's during the day when I have the curtains open and see if that helps? I'm going to order some ferts but I have to wait until Friday when I get paid.

Just remember if you go with flourish excel for CO2 don't ovetdose. This will melt your leaves. You're actually better off statting with a half dose and slowly increasing. This is esp. important for vals but any plant can br killed by too much excel.