amazon sword up not out

[<gordon2 at dimension-x_net>]

I'm looking for tips on how to coax my amazon swords to grow "up" rather
than "out"

I'm not sure what species they are, I bought three from Meijer about a year
ago.

Of the three I bought, two are still alive (the third was eaten by
goldfish), however, they insist on growing on a horizontal plane, rather
then vertically as seen in most pictures of them.

Tank is a 29 gallon, ~90 watts of 5000k light, very hard water, diy yeast
co2 fed into diy co2 pump powered reactor, black medium grade 'store brand'
gravel on top of fine white sand, filtration is via fluval 404 full of lava
rocks and filter floss (no carbon).

Ph is around 7.2 even with the co2, don't know what any of the other
variables are at.

The two swords used to have the tank to themselves (except for sharing it
with some anarchris), but I recently added more plants, and the swords
tendencies to cover the substrate I fear will shadow out the other plants,
not giving them fair chance to 'grow in'.

Any thoughts are appreciated!


Gordon