Newly Added Plants Turning Brown

[redstar7t]

So I'm in the process of cycling my 55 gallon tank with Tetra SafeStart and 6 Cherry Barbs. The Cherry Barbs are doing great, but the plants not so much.
So half my plants (Moneywort, Amazon Sword, Rotala Rotundifolia) I got from Meijer (which is like a Walmart in the Midwest) and they were perfectly green and healthy in the tank at the store, and now in my tank (which definitely has better lighting than the tanks at Meijer) they're turning brown. The Moneywort is in the worst shape, it was fine for a few days and now (a week after adding) 50% of the leaves have turned brown. The Amazon Sword is also starting to turn brown, and the Rotala doesn't look in the best shape either.

The other plants I couldn't find in a store so I bought online, and they were in pretty bad shape to begin with when they arrived, but they aren't getting any better. (Crinum Natan, Ludwigia Repens, Hygrophila Rosenverg)

I also have some plants that are doing fine (Anubias Nana on driftwood and Microsword)

My tank has the Coralife two ht5 lamp with two 54 watt bulbs (10000k and 6500k) so that's 2 watts per gallon. The lights are on for 8 hours a day.
I've dosed liquid fertilizer and liquid CO2 twice in the week that I've had them.
Tank has sand substrate with plenty of root tabs, especially around the Sword.
Temp: 78F, pH: 7.8, soft water, ~.10 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate

I'm wondering if this is normal for new plants but I want to make sure before they just completely die

Thanks in advance

 

[ImACoolguy]

I would guess nitrate deficiency. Optimally you want to hover around 5-10ppm.

Other then that, it's possible they are melting. Many stores buy the plants that were grown submerged and they must melt and come back adapted to aquatic life.


Caleb

 

[jessipanda]

I agree with Caleb. Most likely nitrate deficiency. The plants feed on nitrates, so if there are none present your plants are essentially starving to death. It's better to add plants once the cycling process has at least begun to show nitrates. Best once the tank has already cycled. I just started cycling my 55g a couple weeks ago. Once the nitrates were above 10ppm I added 3 amazon swords and a banana and they are thriving.

If you actually do have nitrates in the water, then I would suggest they are melting as Caleb also stated. The best way to deal with that would be to trim the plants down to near their bases to help reduce the amount of effort it takes them to replenish. They should grow back more full too this way. That doesn't sound like your problem though since you have no nitrates and would ultimately do no good for your plants if they are suffering from nitrate deficiency.

My suggestion would be to remove them if possible and place them in a tank that is already cycled. If yo youi don't have a cycled tank, perhaps a friend does or perhaps your LFS would temporarily house them for you until your tank is showing nitrates.

Best of luck
Jessi