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Re: Huge Amazon sword
Bridget,
> I've been growing a pet amazon sword in a 10g for many years now and it has
> outgrown the tank.
I've done the same thing on several occasions, the worst part is when you take
it out, expect to pretty much trash your tank. The roots will more than likely
have covered the bottem of the tank and also be wraped around with the roots of
the other plants. I just pulled a really huge one out of a 10 that had been in
it for several years. There weren't many other plants left in the tank as the
sword kept it pretty dark in there from the leaves covering the top. Pulling it
out made such a mess that I just gave up and redid the tank. I've been
transfering my big swords to 55s.
> Also, I am planning on getting rid of it but once gone, any suggestions on
> how to keep the tank from regressing to algae city without the main
> nutrient consumer of the tank present.
I would recommend some fast growing plants at first and then trading them in for
what you want to put in the tank. It also might be advantagous for a while to
put some sort of floating plant on the top, as I would imagine your sword kept
a lot of light from getting under it. Your val and crypts should start growing
noticable better now that they will be getting more light. :)
Another consideration to help cut down on algae, first even if you don't redo
the tank from the ground up now might be a good time to really clean out the
gravel with a suction hose, some have nice pythons, I live in the dark ages and
still use a clear plastic hose, when I clean the gravel out I attatch a sawed
off gatoraid bottle to it. You can make one pretty easily with most any plastic
bottle. Cut it off about 4 or 5 inches from the top, throw out the bottom and
make a hole in the lid to fit your hose through.
Also I would consider making sure you have some algae eating fish/inverts in
your tank. I like mollies and ghost shrimp. If you can get a culture of gammaras
and have only small fish you should be able to get those going too, they are
great for getting rid of hair algae, the only problem is they also munch Java
moss, but that is the only plant I've had trouble with them with. They will also
eat any decaying plant matter, pretty handy little critters actually.
Hope this helps,
Rhonda
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