Plant nutrient problem help needed!

[JKKD]

I've had aquariums for 35 + years but only my second time trying plants.  Garden plants are a struggle so aquarium plants are going to be a challenge. The Amazon sword, crypt parva and some of the vallisneria have been planted 5 weeks.  The sword hasn't grown any new leaves yet and has developed some brown tips.  It has grown quite a few new roots. The crypt doesn't appear to have done anything except get darker green.  The Anubis Barteri, Monte Carlo and the rest of the Vallisneria have been planted for 3 weeks.  All the older Vallisneria growth has developed a gold colored ribbon in the center.  The new growth starts out dark green but after a few days looks like the old growth with the addition of little black dots. The Anubis leaves have gotten droopy and one of them looks like possibly a magnesium deficiency. The Monte Carlo just looks sick with a fair amount of brown. My local pet shop suggested removing the glass aquarium top to increase lighting intensity. My test strips showed 25 parts nitrate, 0 nitrite & ammonia. I dosed the 35 gal aquarium Monday with three Squirts of easy green liquid and gave two more squirts on Thursday. Friday, the pet shop test showed zero nitrate after No water changes for 2 weeks. I gave three more shots of easy green last night and today my test strip shows 30 on the nitrate and 2 on phosphate. Also did another full round of root tabs yesterday 3 weeks after the first round. My typical routine has been three shots of liquid easy green once a week. Sorry for the long post but lots of info. Any help appreciated!

[Mmiller2001]

Go to 9 squirts a week and stop or lighten up on the root tabs. I recommend 50% water changes a week but to each their own. If you do less water changes, and Nitrates get too high, back off one squirt a week until it hold around 20ppm.

You can dose the 9 squirts over 6 days however you want. 3 squirts 3 times a week every other day is a good schedule.