Why People Struggle with Swords (I did, too!)

Amazon swords, (Echinodorus spp.) are sold everywhere as beginner friendly plants, yet many people struggle with them including seasoned planted tank owners, and I did as well. They are said to not require CO2, not require high lighting and tolerate a variety of water conditions. They are also said to be root-hungry, so perhaps it's not enough fertilizer? Nope, I have fertilized 2 of them to death. Most other times I have tried them though, they've just slowly declined to nothing. Maybe my water really is just too hard. I got lucky once a couple years ago and grew one really large, but the tank had some kind of disease in it and when I sterilized it, I threw all the plants away just to be safe. That sword was just an outlier, or so I thought.

I kept trying with swords and planted an Atlandsberg sword in a high-tech tank with high lighting and injected CO2. It started doing really well, flourishing even, I thought maybe they do need CO2, at least in my situation. So I bought an Ozelot sword and planted it in a different high tech tank. I planted the Ozelot in a back corner expecting it to get pretty tall, but it never did. Despite fertilizer and being right next to the diffuser, it just sort of existed and remained small while the other plants began to take over the tank. After about a year, I decided to rearrange the tank, and I moved the Ozelot to front and center as I wanted something about that height there. That's when it took off.

Meanwhile, I decided that I no longer wanted to run CO2 in the tank with the Atlandsberg and disconnected it, fully expecting to lose this plant. I kept the light. The light on both tanks is a twinstar E-series, full spectrum, 2400 lumens for the 29gal the Atlandsberg is in and 1850 for the 20gal the Ozelot is in. I did not lose the Atlandsberg sword, in fact it looks better than ever a year after I disconnected the CO2.

The Atlandsberg sword in the tank without CO2 after about a year.
The new leaves emerge pink and slowly turn green. However, without
the CO2, I've noticed that it is keeping the pink coloration longer.

The Ozelot in it's new spot with full light began to absolutely taking over the 20gal and I needed to move it. Since the Atlandsberg was doing so well, I put it opposite of it in the same 29gal tank. After about a month, it seemed unbothered. After about 6 months, it had consumed at least 1/3 of the left side of the tank.

The Ozelot sword after about 6 mos., the newer leaves are redder and
the oldest ones are a little ratty.(The thin leaves are crypts.) This is shown
from substrate level (about 2 inches deep) to the water line, which I kept about an inch below
the very top edge. The pic on the right shows it from the side of the tank,
which measures 19 inches tall and 12.25 inches wide, making the Ozelot about 16 inches tall
and it is approx 13-14 wide from the front view of the tank.

All of this made me think back to that one outlier sword from a couple years ago. That tank had no CO2 at any point, and had a cheaply made Aqueon Opti-bright that stopped responding to it's remote control about a year after I got it. I don't know the specs on that light, but it was not as powerful as the twinstars. That's also the only tank I ever had that had entirely white gravel in it. The white bottom of that somewhat sparsely planted tank refected light and made it a brighter environment than another tank I had at the time with the same light with black gravel.

So That's it: light. It's not your water or your fertilizer--hell, I can't remember the last time I fertilized those swords. I know for the Altandsberg it's been at least a year because it just doesn't need it and I've never used an active substrate in my life, just gravel and accumulated mulm (fish waste and detritus). If you have been losing your swords, give them more light, I think you'll be pleased with the results.