My first tank

[nbirdsong]

Ok, so my very first tank has been running for 3 weeks now. I did a water change this morning which was preceded by a water test. The test showed no ammonia, .25 ppm of nitrites and 1.0 ppm of nitrates.

This is a 10 gallon aquarium. I have 2 15w incandescent lights that are far brighter than the regular 15w lights I started with. The tank is currently populated by 1 Beta and 3 Zebra Danios to get it through the cycle.

Here is my problem. My plants seem to be dieing. Not all of them, mainly just the small, thick clumps of grass. I am posting pictures of the tank and the plants. I have dosed the water with Flora Pride by Tetra Plant according to the instructions (2 tsp when the tank was first started and then 1 tsp with each water change).

Any clue as to what i going on with the plants. The grass is turning brown but the others don't exactly look healthy either. I can't remember the names of the plants, I know that I have some java fern, that is about it. Any help or suggestions would be great.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

You don't have enough light for the grass. You need florescents, not incandescents. That grass is high-light plants. Mine is doing rather well in my tank with very high lighting. My recommendation is that if it's possible, use a florescent plant bulb or bulbs. What kind of tank is it. What kind of hood?

 

[Meredith]

Those plants in the first pic, if they are what I had, Japanese fan or something like that, Those are not true aquarium plants. The blades need to be out of the water. I had two of those in my tank and the blades started getting mushy. i had to take them out.

here are some articles
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/plants/Finlayson_Acorus gramineus.html
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=795&N=0

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Those in the first pic look like some of the vals I have. If they are vals, you are fine. If they are Japanese fans, could have problems down the road. But to me, they look more like vals.

 

[Purrbox]

The plant in the second picture is some type of crypt and the plant in the fourth picture looks to be some type of Sagittaria (if it's under 6" it's probably the dwarf variety).

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Cryptocoryne beckettii ''Petchii'' I believe. (Mine has a very very deep brown colour that looks amazing (and it's definately not dead.)

The grass looks like Eleocharis acicularis or dwarf hairgrass, cut off all the dead grass and hope for a recovery, tho it has a pretty high light requirement.

Sagittaria subulata is what the sag. looks like.

Looks like they are all Tropica species.. (right size too)

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

You can look up the names I mentioned above for pictures and information about the plant.

 

[nbirdsong]

Thanks for the tips all. I will keep working on it. I am enjoying the tank so far and the cycle is almost done so I can add a couple more fish!

 

[travis simonson]

With the light you've got you can likely keep the Cryptocoryne (2nd picture), Sagittaria (4th picture, and the Java fern (5th picture), but unless you get more light (fluorescent will be necessary, incandescent just doesn't put out enough light per watt to do the trick), the grass will almost certainly die. You can get cheap fluorescent fixtures that screw into incandescent sockets at Walmart and Home Depot. They will improve your lighting situation tremendously. You might also consider adding some CO2. There is a great sticky here in the Plants forum explaining how to do it. It's cheap and easy and your plants will love it