Plants turning brown

[fishtonic1]

Hello all,

My planted 13.5-gallon tank is currently fishless cycling.
I have some pennyworth, wisteria, and an anubia plant in the tank. Some of the of leaves of the anubia are kinda deteriorating, and the wisteria is turning brown. The anubia is starting to slowly turn brown too. I have been cycling for about a week now. I add fertiliser as per its instructions. The plants are sitting in sand with no root tabs. Could this be a lighting issue possibly?

Also a few small snails have appeared.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Commercially grown plants are cultivated “emersed” rather than “submerged”. This way the plants can easily get their carbon requirement from atmospheric CO2. They can be grown quicker which makes the operation much more commercially viable. You take that plant, put it in your aquarium, cut off its source of CO2 and the plant goes into survival mode. It starts to use up its stored carbon and the leafs melt. You may lose all your original growth to melt but new leafs will have a structure more suited to its new environment and get its carbon from the water. Plant melt is a normal stage in aquarium plant growth. To judge the health of a plant look for new growth rather than what might be happening to the original growth, and judge it over extended periods of time. If you are still having problems in a couple of months with no new healthy growth that's the time to look for causes.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Also, remove dead and dying leaves so the plant can focus its resources on new growth.