# Echinodorus Aflame Purple Knight Care?



## MissCris (Mar 7, 2016)

I ordered a "bunch of E. aflame purple knight" the other day, and my order arrived this afternoon. I hadn't given the care much thought since I have 5 other types of swords in my tank that grow fine. I was trying to find the mature size of the plants to help decide position, and to see if they would fit in my smaller tanks too (I ordered 1 and got a bundle of 4! Yay!), but info is pretty sparse.

Anyone here have 1st-hand experience with these?

I found a couple really old (circa 2009) discussions of "aflame" that indicates it grows slow, apparently stays reasonably small, and is hard as heck to grow, but little in the way of specifics of how to grow it. Also not sure if "purple knight" and "aflame" are the same cultivar, or if purple knight was bred from the original aflame.

Also curious if emmersed leaves are the same purple-black as submerged ones. Mine came in deep purple, but it's hard to tell if they were emmersed grown due to the size.

Currently I have the little babies (they are about 6 leaves each, 4" tall, obviously plantlets cut from a mother plant) sort of just planted in an open patch in my 60g where they can get good light and good substrate until I decide permanent spots for them. Tank is high light, ecocomplete substrate, dosed Excel daily, Flourish 2x weekly. Nitrates tend to sit around 10-20.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

There are a ton of E. cultivars out there. I have like 4, all with fancy names, but I personally can hardly tell them appart.
So, as with any sword in innert substrate, I would use root tabs when first planted and then once in a while and let it be (they dont handle replanting too well).


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## MissCris (Mar 7, 2016)

Lol, I tend to pick distinctive swords, so I can sure tell mine apart. Swords were my first foray into colorful plants.

My EcoComplete (actually mixed with FloraMax) is only a year and a half old, and got a refresh with an additional 20lb when I relocated the tank 3 months ago and decided to build up the back slope, so I haven't started adding tabs yet, though I know that will come.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Eco-Complete is an innert substrate, regardless of what it says on the bag. It has no nutrients your swords need.


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

If your other swords are growing fine, the new one should be okay... But with all the swords I've ever grown, they are the first plants to tell me my root tabs are no longer doing the job and it's time for more. Because you're only dosing flourish and excel, you should look into some sort of tab with at least P and K. Don't bother with expensive planted tank tabs, they work great, but for the same cost you can have 100+ diy tabs that work fairly well. If you have access to mono-ammonium phosphate and muriate of potash you can make some decent tabs up. If not, find some osmocote plus and some size 00 gel capsules. With eco comp and only flourish/fish waste those swords are bound to be asking for more....


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## MissCris (Mar 7, 2016)

I can actually get osmacote gel tabs, and have been considering getting some since I've been planting a lot more heavy root feeders this past few months. I went from 3 small swords to 8, and two of the new ones will get reasonably large, plus the val stand is humongous.

Do I just do 1 capsule per sword?


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## Edub (Mar 23, 2011)

I kept "aflame" for several years and it looked awesome in my tank. I found that with higher light and co2 the colors really intensified and the leaves got a bit bigger. I never gave it root ferts, just EI dosing in the water column. I also had eco-complete/flourite sand mix for a substrate. It was never a difficult plant for me to keep, but seemed to really prefer a high tech setup.
Unfortunately I had to break down my tank for a move and gave my plants to a friend for safekeeping... none of them survived. When I get back into aquariums this will be the first plant I look for, it's absolutely stunning when happy.


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