Hi

I too, just bought some live plants for my new tank and tehy arent doing that well

I got two amazon sword plants, one tall one with very thin leaves and another with little leaves. I am still fishless cycling, have nitrates of 10 and have added plant fertiliser to it but they are stil going brown.......can youhelp...EMMA!

They are turning brown because of the excess nitrates and fertilizer... algae is growing on them. Aquatic plants uptake ammonia as Nitrogen source. Do more water changes to keep the nitrate and phosphate levels down. How much light are they getting (hours per day, watts per gallon)?

Here is some info on Amazon swords...

Scientific name: Echinodorus amazonicus

Care: does not tolerate well hard water; stunted with high levels of carbonate hardness despite good fertilization. Loose bottom material and iron-containing fertilizer are important for this plant to thrive.

Light: 2 watts per gallon

Temperature: 72-82F

pH: 6.5 - 7.2

dCH: 2°-12° (degrees carbonate hardness)

I must admit, I've never had much success with Amazon Swords, but I think it's because my water is to hard and the pH too high (8 - 8.2). Mine go brown quite quickly. As Kingyo suggested, test the GH, KH and pH of the tank and see if you do have suitable conditions for them.

oh well,

if thats the case Kingyo and Emma then game over!!!! my pH is always 8.0-8.2 and I am still fishless cycling.......my water os rock hard so I guess Iwait for them to die???

What plants are easy???

Java Fern tolerates just about anything (thank God!), as do Elodea, Hornwort and most of the Cryptocorynes. You can also try green Cabomba if you've got good light - mine just wouldn't STOP growing, so it obviously likes hard water and high pH.

And Vallisneria grew well in my tank too... until the brown algae colonised it and made it go all manky, grrrr. :angry:

You know I have very hard water were I live too.....300ppms here My amazons are doing great.

What I did is have a light system on there thats 130 watts for a 36 gal tank 3.6 watts a gal.

My nitrates are always 5-10ppms
I use Florish Excel
and I use TETRA BLACKWATER EXTRACT to soften the water a bit.

I have alittle bit of brown algae but I also have an oto in there to keep it down.

That lighting system could make dead plants grow

I am sorry to take on Scousersharon's thread... but I am dying to ask Koko a couple of Qs...

Does the Black water extract reduce GH and KH?
How many otos do you need to do the work? I have one in my tropical tank (15g planted) and the green algae is growing faster than he can take it. I am also thinking about getting some for the goldfish tank 'cause the Java ferns are getting covered by green algae.

I find that my amazon swords do ok in my tank despite high pH and kH (before I moved 8.4 and 425ppm, now 7.6 and 425ppm ) but they do get stunted. They never grow as tall and beautiful as other people's swords! That said, they're happy little things and they produce lots of dumpy little leaves for the fish to play with. And right now lots of baby swords...I'm still inundated.

well I wont give up hope just yet.....then

It helps to reduce it. Peatmoss is what does it and this stuff is liquid peatmoss, I add it to my tank everytime I do a water change with the Florish Excel.

Otto I have one in the 36 gal tank and One rubber nose. The ruber nose likes the Green algae and the otto works on both.

Hmmm, well I dont know what I am doing, but other than now being browm with an algae bloom, my amazon swordsa are blooming. They are having babies left right and center which I am cutting off and planting in the gravel and they are growing too.....so seems my plants like a pH of 8.0