The veins are turning brown on my aquatic Amazonian sword plant’s leaves, making them crinkle. However, the leaves are a lovely shade of green and seem more or less healthy. Is there not enough light? Because I only have a normal output fluorescent bulb.
I use root tabs for iron supplement and fertilizer. The roots are healthy, and the leaves seem to have plenty of chlorophyll. The CO2 is sufficient. My tank isn’t overcrowded (3 swordtail fish and 2 angel fish) nor is anything else unhealthy. No snails.
My tap water has medium-high pH, a good buffer (high alkalinity–not related to pH), and high hardness. I mix this 50/50 with reverse-osmosis water, which has any dissolved materials filtered out.
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Everything is ok except for the lighting which needs to be at least 2 watts per gallon
To grow it perfectly healthy you might need another light fixture which sucks because they are very expensive (at least where i live)
Mine only get brown veins as they begin to grow but turn dark green when they fully grow in
Hope your plant makes it!
The Amazon sword plant prefers a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. You can use aquarium pH chemicals if the pH needs adjustment.
Iron-rich fertilizer should have been used at the time of planting . You can also add a chelated iron aquarium plant fertilizer if the plant turns yellow in color later, as this is a sign of low iron.
The right amount of light for the Amazon sword plant is a minimum of 2 watts of full-spectrum lighting per gallon of aquarium water. It sounds like you may not have enough light (full spectrum) for your tank. I would go to the pet store and get a plant friendly bulb for your tank. It should have a rating between 5000-7000k. The clerk can help you with selecting that.
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