red sword plants

peter

Errr, they should be green, not crimson - what is happeningand what can I do about it??

Thanks much in advance,
Peter
58 gal start-up tank
3 spotted cats, 2 clown loaches, 2 ple, plecas,...2 of those ugly algea eating sucker fishes!

Hope to add discus once the tank is established. Why is one of my swords turning red??

thewebpop

Peter, The "Red Rubin" sword will have a crimson color to it, If that is the type sword you have? I do not know alot about plants, I just looked a few up. Maybe Jay or someone else will jump in and give you more information, Later, Pop's

Jay

Hi Peter...Welcome to the forum

To answer your question we need to know what the plant is.
What is your substrate?
Is the tank Cycled?
pH, KH, GH, Nitrate, PO4
How much light, what kind, and how long each day
How heavily planted is the tank?
CO2 injection?
Chemical Fertilizers added?
Fish Load?

Otherwise it would be just a guess why it is that color.

Regards,
Jay

peter

Thanks Jay:
Here's what I know:

I bought the plant as a large Amazon Sword (nothing else indicated) and it was green when I bought; all the lower leaves have now turned red. The other plants in the tank are doing OK, not great, but steady, slow growth.

substrate is plain ole coarse sand (perportedly for aquariums) with no addidives;

tank has been set up for about 6 weeks, so I think it has cycled already;

PH, hardness, nitrate are all within acceptable ranges (according to the directions);

I had been using a 2-strip flourecent light, and have just added a third bulb (so now 3) - don't know the wattage;

No CO2,but I have used a liquid fertalizer and Iron supplement according to the directions.

7 fish at the moment as listed in my original post.

Thanks again for your help,
Peter

Jay

OK

You need to look at the light tubes and tell me what the watts are.

Stop using the Iron. We can talk about that later.

Tell me the name of the plant fertilizer you are using.

If you are going to continue with plants we will need to rethink the substrate, but for now it is fine.

The plant is telling you it is going to die, I need to know about the light and the fertilizer to see if we can turn this around.

Regards,
Jay