help I don't know what I'm doin?!

[dudeofrude]

I decided that real plants would be nicer than fake ones so I went to my lfs and bought 7 of the so called easiest plants to look after and was told everything would be fine. Well a week or so later the ones with the big leaves have gone transparent and brownish? Am I meant to feed them with anything? I've got a standard light that came with my tank and I was assured that if I had it on for eight hours a day, that would be good enough? I haven't got a clue what type of plants I have but I can take some photos tomorrow if I need to? Anyways any tips for successful plant keeping would be great thanks

[dudeofrude]

Here's a couple of pics I took the day I put them in so you can see which type I have

[Lawngnome]

Try building a DIY co2 feeder, there are plenty of threads on this site about how to do it and it's super easy.

[Fishies86]

Well, the green and White variegated plant looks suspiciously like Dracaena. Interestingly, this is in one of my fish books as an aquatic plant. It's not.
I work in a garden centre and we sell dracaena as a house plant. Oddly enough, they don't need very much water, and are quite easy to kill if you overwater them, so being immersed is going to kill them very quickly, which is just gonna foul up your tank.

[fort384]

Unfortunately Fishies is right. All of those plants are not aquatic. It won't matter what you do to them as long as they are submerged, they are going to rot and die and pollute your tank.

[mfdrookie516]

I'm guessing you got these from a plastic tube? I think a lot of us have made that mistake in the past. Those 'aquatic' plants are really non aquatic. About the only ones you'll actually get to grow in water are anubias and wisteria.

[dudeofrude]

A plastic tube? No I got them from the aquarium at my lfs? How do they get away with selling none aquatic plants.... seriously!?

[Fishies86]

I know! It's ridiculous! There should be a rule to stop them doing it. A lot of them don't even know themselves that they've got non-aquatics in there! It's so frustrating working with plants everyday, I have to know what I'm talking about or refer people to someone who does. I'm not allowed to sell a houseplant as aquatic, so why are they?

[dudeofrude]

So these are the other plants I've got in there, I'm pretty sure these are aquatic but I thought is ask u guys to check. My fish really like these as a place to hide etc. Since I'm gonna have to get rid if the others, can anyone suggest some nice leafy one that are easily to maintain? Or maybe post some pics so I can look out for um?

[Fishies86]

Yep, that's Elodea. That IS a properly aquatic plant very fast growing

[dudeofrude]

That's a bludy result then, at least 2 out of the 8 plants I've bought in total were actually aquatic lol

[dudeofrude]

You were spot on fishies86, just been on plantgeek.net and looked up my plants, theres the dracaena like you said, I'm not sure what the little one is but I think the other ones are Brazilian swords, what do you think?

[dudeofrude]

Possibly pineapple plant ( dracena compacts) ?? The little one I mean.

[Fishies86]

I'm not sure what the one on the left is, but I don't think it's a sword (if you mean Echinodorus).
Swords have three midribs, this only has one (the line in the middle).
The one on the right is Dracaena again

[dudeofrude]

Shows what I know I thought they were both the same lol how long do ya think these will last? I'm gonna replace them I just wanna know how long I've got?