What Nutrient Difficiency Causes This?

[xoedusk]

Here is a picture of one of our amazon sword plants. Note the lack of green on the edge of the leaf. It looks almost like an exoskeleton.

Here is a full view of the tank with its lighting. Ugly, I know. But it's what we got. It's really not as dark as the picture would lead you to believe.. I just didn't want the lighting to washout everything else.

Now here is close up of the amazon that is direclty under the light. Slow growth, albiet growth.

So do you think it's a nutrient deficiency or a lack of light? Each of those bulbs are rated 25 Watts. Probably more like 10 each when you take in to account the distance.

Thanks for your ideas!

 

[xoedusk]

I see. I see.

Do they make hoods with fixtures for long-type tanks? The one shown in the pic is the 20 gallon long.

 

[GRINYA]

About light..hmmm( you are in seattle,well i know the guy in Salem, he owns the store there (Coral Reef Pet center) His Name is Jason Sullivan Store..503-378-7333 or Cell 503-932-3341, he can give you a good deal on lightning,any size, plus he can ship it to you too,Tell him Greg send you from Russian mob, Thats how he calls me. cause your light does look yellow.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh looks like a lack of lighting or poor light quality.

Sam

 

[MoreCoffee]

I'd agree with getting your lighting sorted out and unless you alread use them, I'd also seriously consider some root tabs in the substrate around the roots of the swords.

 

[xoedusk]

Thank you all. Went out and got a proper hood with an 18 watt light (I think that's what it is). Will get a pic a bit later. And i'll also look in to getting some fertilizer for the swords.

 

[xoedusk]

Here are some new pictures. This tank now has a 15 watt flourecent for 0.75 WPG.

The leaf is getting worse.

 

[xoedusk]

Does this sound likely?

Iron deficiency: Yellowing leaves starting from the tip then become transparent
http/www.algone.com/plant_health.php

I'm color blind so can't really tell if the leaves are yellowing.

 

[xoedusk]

Thank you. Should I rip the whole leaf and stem ensemble off? Or get out our knife and give the leaf/stem connection a slice?

Also, how do you add fertilizer? Can I just add Miracle Grow directly to the water? I can't seem to find a complete newbie's guide to fertilizing aquarium plants.

 

[nry]

Stay away from garden plant fertiliser. From my own suggestion, if you are simply wanting to add a general fertiliser for your plants (and not go down the whole route of EI), then any decent aquarium/fish shop should sell a liquid fertiliser which will tell you how much and how often to dose on the bottle.