Amazon Sword problem

I bought a Amazon Sword from my lfs yesterday. It is one pf the best specimens i have ever seen. It is bery green with tons of leaves, and even has 6-7 small runners ready to be planted. Turns out that i was not as ready as i thought. My gravel is too big (pea sized) and i have no fertalizer. My uncle (20+ years of experience) told me to get a fine gravel and the fertalizer sticks that you stick into the dirt for potted land plants. What brand of fertalizer should i get? And where can i get that size gravel without spending 40 or so dollars?

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Permalink Reply by Chris R on February 18, 2012 at 2:10pm

Nice looking plant. You can buy pretty much any substrate for amazon swords. They seem to grow in pretty much anything. Hardy Low-Light is written all over it on every site I've been to. Fertilizer and high light shouldn't be necessary unless you want it to grow bigger, propagate, etc.

Substrate doesn't really matter all that much either on hardy low light plants. If you want a nutrient rich and good sized gravel, you're going to spend 20 bucks for a 25 pound bag. I bit the bullet and bought 3 bags for my tank. It was a little overkill, but I have extra for if/when I want to have a plant only tank(maybe a 20 long?).

Some people go with "pea gravel" that you can get at your local hardware store. 5ish bucks for 50 lbs.

Keep in mind, if you're going to start using fertilizer, you're probably going to start thinking about lighting. Once you get the lighting and are dosing fertilizer, you'll probably start looking into Co2, too. Don't go big on one thing and lack in another. Your plants will not like it

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Permalink Reply by Nick's Wet World (0_o) on February 18, 2012 at 10:57pm

I second what Chris R has said. Amazon are strong feeder but dont require alot of attention. I have a secimen in my low lighted tank , no substrate, to be frank " its not even rooted into the substrate". It has blasted and have put out some runner, I was shocked to see that it was doing so good in low lighting and still doing fantastic, it's not even planted!. It has send roots all over the play sand and I can tell you, when I remove this plant the roots structure will be amazing. Your plant looks super healthy your bioload will be enough to feed your sword if you have a few fish in there and running on low light. As Chris said, more ferts will equal more light then you will have to supplement he plants with co2 if you decide to have high lights.