Why do my plants die?

[Chaz]

I am sure this is in another thread but, all the real plants in my tank die they cost so much and then the die. I use all the "leaf growth" and "root growth' meds but they all still end up as seethrough bits of wast my water is perfect, as this drives me mad

 

[houndour]

hi,

what lighting do you have? If you can find out the wattage and kelvins.

what size is your tank?

do you have CO2?

What kind of filtration do you have?

 

[Nospherith]

There's something wrong then. Tank specs could help, but I would guess that it could be due to not enough light for the plants you're keeping (generally you'd want at least 1.5 watts/g of 6500K full spectrum light or 3 watts/g for an aquascaped tank), nutrient deficiencies, terrestrial plants sold as aquatics, or a combination of these.

 

[houndour]

hi,

what lighting do you have? If you can find out the wattage and kelvins.

what size is your tank?

do you have CO2?

What kind of filtration do you have?

//edit
sorry didnt mean to post twice. I got an error first time.

 

[Chaz]

sorry do not know wattage but the tank seens almost very bright but we have no alge probls the tank is a 58 litre tank with an internal filter that suckes in air from outside the tank plus an air pump with one of those air discs. If the name of the lamp makes any difference it is an original tropical lamp

 

[houndour]

well light is quite important. You need the right Kelvin range and the general rule of thumb is 3 watts per gallon of water. Although for a smaller tank I believe the rule of thumb doesnt count as much. Or is it the other way around? someone help me there?!

One thing that certainly won't be helping the plants is the air bubble thing. Plants take in CO2 during the day for photosynthesis and give off O2. The oxygen bubbles will expel any CO2 in the water.

 

[jimbooo]

One thing that certainly won't be helping the plants is the air bubble thing. Plants take in CO2 during the day for photosynthesis and give off O2. The oxygen bubbles will expel any CO2 in the water.

quite correct hondour's right there, loose the airstone if you want plants to grow. or stick to Java fern, java moss or anubias. these will grow in your current tank, just very slowly. they wont die unless something drastic happens.

if you want good growth you'll need at least 2.5 WPG.

at a guess i'd say you have one tube over your tank and you need two but i cant confirm that unless you state the wattage of your current tubes (on the tube itself and the packaging) dont go and buy another tube on that basis though, get the wattage info back to us first.