Plants Keep Dieing

[San O Fisher]

I have a 55 gallon tank with about an inch and a half of sand. My plants, mostly swords keep dieing. My lights are on about 10-12 hours per day and I feed plant food to the water about 2-3 times per week. any advice, I like real plants but after a while I am getting sick of replacing them.

Thanks

 

[Ian H]

how much light have you got? ie: 2 x 24watt or whatever? what plant food are you using? any root tabs or ferts in the sand?

 

[San O Fisher]

The light is the normal that came with the tank. It is one bar accross on two different fixtures, and i am using a generic plant food. I have nothing in the substrate but sand. If i need some hardier plants I could go that route too, I just want to sort this out.

Should I get some more wattage bulbs? put anything in the substrate? - dont want to do that as much b/c it would probably be a hassle

 

[Ian H]

how many watts is the bulb? and what make is the plant food?