Re: [APD] Ideal water conditions for Amazon Swords

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Echinodorus bleheri is not all that picky about water
conditions. The are hardy and tolerant plants. And given
light and food, will grow quickly. The enjoy lots of light
(over 2 watts per gallon) but will subsist, growing slowly,
with moderate lighting (close to but less than 2 wpg).

They enjoy lots of nutrients, especially if you have lots
of light and add CO2. 

For them, it's best to have about 2 wpg or more, added CO2
(at least 20 ppm), and try to dose the nitrates up to about
10 ppm as often as three times per week -- they suck up a
lot of nutrients when they get going. For phosphate, aim
for about a tenth as much as nitrate, roughly 1 ppm. A nice
trace mix, like Tropica Master Grow, or if you like lots of
iron, Flourish, is a good idea -- dose thrice weekly.

They can grow in any normal range of pH, say around the low
6s to about 8 without any apparent difficulty. They don't
insist on lots of GH but if your GH and KH are less than
about 4 or 5, then you might not have enough calcium, which
can show up as holes in the leaves.

A rich substrate is nice but I've grown them floating so
it's not a necessity. Certainly, they are not as picky
about this as some of the Cryptocoryne species.

They seem to do best in temps from about 70 to 82F. Outside
of that range, their growth slows.

good luck, good fun,
Scott H. 

--- Sam Zaydel <szaydel at pacbell_net> wrote:
> It seems everybody has different water parameters, and
> different quantities of chemicals to supply necessary
> nutrients to their plants. I was wondering if somebody
> could give me a good idea as to the quality of the
> water people had success with. I am most curious about
> the temperature, the substrate, GH, KH, Phosphate,
> other dissolved minerals. Also, if anybody had any
> success with water conditioners like Equilibrium,
> which supposedly sets any water to proper balance of
> everything to support plant growth, (I find it hard to
> believe).
> 
> Thanks everybody,
> Sam.
> 
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> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
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> 


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