Aqarium Plant Problem

Question
Hi, Im not sure if you can help me with my aquarium plant problem but I thought I would give it a shot.  I have a 45 gallon freshwater tank with 3 angel fish, 12 seprae tetras and 5 black neon tetras.  My fish are doing well for the time being but now my plants are suffering.  I only have two amazon swords in my tank but they both are very small and the leaves that are the biggest always die.  A couple of months ago when I only had one amazon sword it was doing wonderfully.  Then when I added the other plant, the older one's large leaves died and it became a small plant.  Now they only have small leaves coming from the center.  Do you know if there is anything I can do to help them grow into the beautiful plants I see in pictures.  Thank You.  

Answer
Hi Brent! Thank you for your question!

This is an less-frequent problem with aquatic plants but it does happen. When plants are going along great and then suddenly seem to stop growing then they have probably run out of the nutrient they need. Some plants are more sensitive about their needs than others. It is a relatively easy problem to fix. Please make sure you're doing regular water changes----the replacement tap water contains trace minerals that many aquatic plants need. You don't neccesarily have to add fertilizers a        grow good plants. If you do think you need aquarium plant fertilizers, only use the recommended dosage. If the plants' growth slows doing a lot between doses and water changes, you will need to preform more frequent water changes and even a bit more fertilizer.
It could also be that your bulbs might have lost some of their intensity of light. If you haven't changed your bulbs in 6 months or more then this could also contribute to the slow growth problem. Remember that is is nice to have plants that look great, but don't grow all that fast. less work with pruning!

I hope this helps! If you have anymore questions, feel free to email me as you wish!

I wish you the best!
Happy fishkeeping!
Karen~