Live plants always die!

[Fenwaybarks]

I've bought many live plants over the years however ive never had success keeping them alive. I just have the basic lighting that i bought with the 10 gallon tank starter kit but it seems bright enough so i dont think thats the problem. Tips about growing and keeping live plants alive in an aquarium would be appreciated!

 

[Jeremy S.]

I've had great success using simple CO2 setups. Also just because you think the light is bright enough doesn't mean the plants are getting the right amount of lighting. I would definitely recommend a t5 hood or atleast t8 plant bulbs.

 

[Fenwaybarks]

Thanks for answering! But ive never heard of a CO2 setup would you mind explaining how id do that?

 

[Reygan2]

I've bought many live plants over the years however ive never had success keeping them alive. I just have the basic lighting that i bought with the 10 gallon tank starter kit but it seems bright enough so i dont think thats the problem. Tips about growing and keeping live plants alive in an aquarium would be appreciated!

There are several factors to consider, such as the type of plants you've purchased, ferts, and of course lighting. I've had lots of success growing low light plants such as anubias, wisteria, java fern, and others in my 10g tanks. In one I only have the stock T8 that came with it, and the other I replaced the 2 incandescent lights with 10 watt cfl's. I dose the 1st with excel every few days, a little less than the recommended amount. I don't dose the 2nd one at all.
What type of substrate do you have? Do you have the single T8 fixture or 2 screw in bulbs? I do not inject C02 in mine but it's an option if you need it.

 

[Jeremy S.]

I used a cheap co2 kit from Petsmart for a while then moved up the a Fluval Pressurized Co2 kit.

Here's the fluval kit.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3747+23680&pcatid=23680

 

[Fenwaybarks]

There are several factors to consider, such as the type of plants you've purchased, ferts, and of course lighting. I've had lots of success growing low light plants such as anubias, wisteria, java fern, and others in my 10g tanks. In one I only have the stock T8 that came with it, and the other I replaced the 2 incandescent lights with 10 watt cfl's. I dose the 1st with excel every few days, a little less than the recommended amount. I don't dose the 2nd one at all.
What type of substrate do you have? Do you have the single T8 fixture or 2 screw in bulbs? I do not inject C02 in mine but it's an option if you need it.

In the tank i have a gravel substrate, with 2 screw in bulbs do you think the substrate could be the issue?

 

[Reygan2]

In the tank i have a gravel substrate, with 2 screw in bulbs do you think the substrate could be the issue?

Gravel is fine, but you would benefit from replacing those bulbs with 2 10w cfl's. I bought mine at the fish section at Walmart. They grow low light plants nicely without algae issues. I think they were $6 or $7 each.

 

[Reygan2]

Of course the lighting you choose will depend on the plants you want to keep.

 

[Cichlid Kid]

I wouldn't worry to much about co2 unless you happen to purchase dual t-5 ho lighting or the equivalent. If you decide to go with 10-13w daylight cfl's, root tabs and some macro-micro nutrients package imo you'd be set for low to medium light plants.

I started this setup similar to what i described, then upped the lighting for the hair grass "even though i didn't have to" My point is, all the crypts,ferns and swords grew great with cfl's

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Gravel is fine, but you would benefit from replacing those bulbs with 2 10w cfl's. I bought mine at the fish section at Walmart. They grow low light plants nicely without algae issues. I think they were $6 or $7 each.

This is the key. Those screw in incandescent bulbs won't do a thing for your plants. The daylight bulbs Reygan is talking about are perfect. Many of us here have used them at some point to grow plenty of healthy plants.

I'd also recommend Seachem Flourish comprehensive liquid fertilizer. You only need to add a little once a week to help your column feeding plants stay healthy. Seachem Excell works double duty to help your plants and also work to suppress algae. For root feeding plants using a few root tabs is a big help.

 

[Reygan2]

I forgot to mention my crypts!! They're one of my favs and they do wonderfully in my 10g tanks with those lights.

 

[Rivercats]

One other thing is you might be trying to grow plants that are not appropate for your tank. For you type set up plants like Crypts, wisteria or water sprite, narrowleaf temple, dwarf sag, and ambulia are all suitable for planting in your substrate, then you can use anubia's, java ferns (regualar and Wendilov), and bolbitus for attaching onto DW. Then as mentioned above using a good fert such as Flourish Comprehensive weekly after a WC, then daily dosing with Excel, API CO2 Booster, or Glutaraldehyde will aid your plants with photosynthesis and growth, and using root tabs will all aid in the sucessful growth of plants. Also remember you only need to run lights about 8 hours a day. Running them longer periods of time will encourage algae growth.

 

[tamtam]

you've gotten some great advice so far.

As mentioned a light being bright doesn't really mean much. Humans see different waves lengths of light than plants use to grow. So while a light may seem nice and bright to us it very well may not have the proper spectrum to promote photosynthesis. Incandescent bulbs won't work. As mentioned you'll want florescent or something else that will offer full spectrum lighting.

Adding CO2 is great but unless you have proper lighting no amount of additions will grow your plants. Stock hoods are rarely ever sufficient for growing plants.

Some of these have been mentioned but some great low light plants are water sprite, wisteria, crypts, anubias, amazon sword, java fern and java moss. Some of these grow planted in your substrate and with gravel you will need to provide root tabs to give it some "food". Others float or can be attached to decor and adding liquid ferts to your water will support these. Some basic plants with a bit of ferts and the lighting mentioned and you should be smiling. No need to go high tech unless you want to and in a 10 gallon I prob wouldn't want to worry too much about trimming down plants.

 

[Paxdaddy]

If you do get cfl bulbs you just need to make sure they are daylight bulbs as others have said. You want a 6500k rating. If you look at the box they will usually say the kelvin rating.