How do I keep my Plants alive?

[capisderf]

Okay, I will provide as much info as I can. Basically I have a 75 gallon tank with a Rena XP3 Canister filter, intake on the left, veritical, and out on the right horizontal, an aquarium heater in between the two that keeps the tank about 78 to 80 degrees. I have gravel substrate, 1 piece of real driftwood on the right about 10 high and 8 wide. I also have about 5 fake aquarium items for decoration and hiding. I have bought from the pet stores the aquarium bulbs that usually contain a lilly bulb, onion bulb, aponogeton bulb, and I have some other bulb that I don't remember what type it is. I have about 2 to 3 bulbs per type in the tank. I have two catfish, two plecos, 3 mollies, 3 giant danios, and 3 rainbowfish. It seems like the bulbs do okay for awhile and then seem to die within a year. I feed the tank once a day. The light tends to be on four at least 12 hours. I have started adding some liquid plant fertilizer to the tank once a week per the directions. It was bought specially for aquariums and won't harm the fish (it smells like molasses and is dark brown). I don't remeber what the wattage of the hood's light is but there is only one tube. Is there something easy or fairly inexpensive I can do to make the plants live longer, better? Am I picking the wrong type? The lilly bulbes did flower in the spring summer but are growing less and quite smaller now with the leaves and stems (they used to grow to the top with leaves at least 3 inches wide). Is this just the dormant season until spring? I would like to have some live vegetation but I don't need a huge full tank. I just want some plants to sort of fill out the space on the right side of the tank so my smaller fish have some variety. Please advise!!!!!!!!!

 

[Fdsh5]

You definitely need more light. You either have a 32 or 40 watt bulb depending if it is T8 or T12. That would be my first thing to change. Fertilizer is always good so keep that up. Just my two cents. That would be a start

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[capisderf]

So does more light mean that I get a different type of bulb or get a different hood? Right now I have the glass top with a hinge in the middle depending on whether you want to open the back or front. There of two of the these tops with a divider in the middle. The light just sits on top of that.

 

[mfdrookie516]

You're going to need a new fixture. A single bulb fluorescent bulb is not going to give your plants the light that they need. If you really want to do plants, you're going to need to upgrade. A 2x54w T5HO fixture would give you planty of light for several different plants, but wouldn't put you to the point of having to do Co2.