Plants Going Brown At Tips, Generally Not Growing.

[moochy13]

i recently set a tank up and just chucked a few plants in to give the fish a bit more cover and generally look better. now ive finished my fish stocking, i want to move on to making the plants look better. i brought a few different things, im nor great with names though. my main problem however is amazon swords that are going brown at the tips and slowly getting worse.

i only have a single 35w t5 bulb in a 130L tank, and no room to fit another bulb. i could buy a bigger bulb, but i'd rather avoid spending anymore money for the time being at least. i dont feed the plants or anything, they just do what they do in the tank.

in that pic in the back corner were java fern cuttings, but they seemed rubbish and wouldnt stay in the sand, so i binned them. the grassy stuff ive been told probably isnt aquatic, but perversely does seem to be growing, its been in over a month now, as have all plants. the other 2 broad leaved plants are what im referring to as swords, and at the back is something, i dont know what but its going a bit ropey aswell.

the other end of the tank, more 'swords' and that bushy thing at the filter, which as you can see is shooting a little bit. this goes a little bit brown, but generally stays in one piece and isnt dying, obviously. heres a picture showing the brown tips

thats happening to pretty much all the swords. i think part of my problem is being cheap and not buying potted plants with roots, instead they were all cuttings bunched together, or is this not a problem ?

so do i have a mixture of problems being not enough light, no food and cheap cuttings ?

once i have established what im doing wrong id like to do the plants properly. is there an online plant shop or anything where i can get exactly what i want, as till now ive been at the mercy of the LFS's stock. and with them im chancing getting snails in my plants which i dont want in my tank.

ideally id like something a bit bushy in each corner, something tall and wavy all along the back, some grassy stuff like what i have and then the odd java or sword or similar dotted about. i also have a bit of wood with xmas moss on it that i havnt found a good place for yet.

apologies for the long post, my plants depress me at the moment though

 

[roadmaster]

Were it me,, I might consider root tabs once every couple months placed near the bottom under the sword plant's which are heavy root feeder's.
Might also consider a product such as Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive plant supplement which contains Iron, as well as trace minerals that the plants could benefit from.
In my limited expierience,once the tips of the leaves on sword plant's go brown,,they don't recover and the affected leaves can be removed.

 

[ian]

newly planted swords can do this. As most are grown out of water, when they are submersed they often die off. They will grow back. If they have been planted for a while, then they are missing something. They do look recently planted though?

 

[moochy13]

thanks, all plants are a month old at most.

so if i trim off the dying bits will they grow back better ? may be a stupid question, but does pruning to make plants bigger and bushier apply to aquatic plants aswell ? for example, its nice that the bushy plant near the filter is growing, but its just spindly bits that look a bit pants.

 

[roadmaster]

You can either cut the brown parts off at an angle, or remove the leaf by pulling it away from the rhizone (base), which should be just above the substrate as opposed to being buried completely.New growth will appear from the center of the plant after a few weeks of being planted if nutrient's are available.
Pruning will help plant's from getting too leggy and encourage bushier plant's as opposed to tall spindly ones.