Plants not so happy...

[chabelita]

Sooo, I'm a brand-new to this experience...I have 13 neon tetra and 6 ottos in my tank. The problem is that some of my plants have lost their color and are dying. I know that neons love to have lots of plants. What type of plants should I buy next? ...should I take out the dead plants??

[Veloth]

:welcome: to AC. If the plants are dying you should definitely remove the dead leaves. My tanks are planted tanks, sometimes when I add a new plant it will die back but the plant will make a comeback. I too new at this to ID your plant but you should maybe give the plant a chance before you pull the whole plant out. What type of setup do you have?

[KarlTh]

How much light have you got?

[chabelita]

Setup?! Mmmm...
- 60 liter tank and it came with a filter, heater and light. The filter looks like a waterfall and it has balls at the bottom of it.
- Timer for the light so that they can have light 13 hours out of the day.
- Light colored sand, a fake rock on one side with lots of holes and little caves. A planted log and planted 10 different plants.
- Water is usually at 75 degrees
- Nitrate and nitrite levels are at 0
- pH 7.6
Am I forgeting something?

[KarlTh]

Yes. How powerful the light is.

[chabelita]

It looks like 15 watts...

[paperdragon]

Is the light fluorescent or incandescent? I know some hoods come with incandescents which don't work for planted tanks.

[chabelita]

It is a fluorescent tube.

[amosf]

1.5 'watts per gallon' is usually a good easy level with plants. and you need some fertilizer. baance there is important.

You want low light plants, anubias, java moss, even wisteria - easy stuff...

In some ways plants are harder to keep than fish :)

[V1xIII]

Do you put salt in your tank? If so that could be the problem. Salt tends to damage, stunt, or totally destroy many plants.

[jpappy789]

Looks like a dwarf sag or pygmy chain sword...hard to tell with all the brown ;)

In my experience both need higher lighting than 1 wpg, which is where you are at right now.

Also possibly a small val...what other plants are in your tank? I see moneywort for sure.

Posting in the planted forum will give you more responses.

[jm1212]

it sounds like you need more light to me also. consider a CFL setup.

also, consider adding ferts to the water. this will not supplement for the light situation, though.

[gmh]

With your lighting you need to focus on strictly low light plants such as anubias, crypts, java fern and moss.

[inkyjenn]

you can upgrade lights cheaply by going to home depot and using plexiglass to keep water from getting too close to the lights. its better than spending $$$ if you dont have it

[jpappy789]

you can upgrade lights cheaply by going to home depot and using plexiglass to keep water from getting too close to the lights. its better than spending $$$ if you dont have it
Huh? The op will need a new fixture if they want to upgrade or they could retrofit. Otherwise stick to low light plants as suggested.

[yourchoice]

Any plant with the prefix Hydro is a weed and should grow tall with those lights.

[jpappy789]

Any plant with the prefix Hydro is a weed and should grow tall with those lights.
Do you mean hygro?

[chabelita]

Thank you so much. Now I know what to do next. = )

[Cory Keeper]

Yeah, I agree, more light. Retrofit kit or new fixture all together.

[avionics30]

Hello and welcome! There are a few issues with your approach to plants. One issue is with you light. It should be at least double what it is now. Your tank ias about 16 gallons at 2 watts per gallon (average lighting) you should have at least 30 watts of "daylight" lighting. There are several different types of bulbs. A full spectrum would probably suit you best. You may have to add a second light to achieve this. If you are going to invest in another light, target a total of 40 - 45 watts of light total.

Now, for your water. Is it tap water? Tap water typically contains enough macro nutrients for a lightly planted tank assuming that you perform weekly 25% plus water changes. If you are using reverse osmosis water, then you will have to add the macro and micro nutrients. This may all sound very overwhelming, but it is rather simple once you get it all going. Macro nutrients consist of nitrogen (nitrates) Phosphorous (phosphates) and potassium. These can be purchased as bulk dry on line or ready to use liquids from your pet store. Along with the macros are the micros or trace elements an example of traces would be a product such as seachem flourish. This is a basic micro but is rather low in Iron and magnesium but will show a huge difference in your tank. Now, with all of that said, once you supply your plants with the "food" that they need, you will enjoy beautiful, lush growth with little effort and your tank health will increase ten fold.

[Cory Keeper]

Avionics, few things, watts as a measurement of light is useless. the WPG rule is also useless on tanks smaller than 20g and larger than say 55g.

That said, two 18w Power Compact bulbs should provide enough light to get you a good start. www.ahsupply.com offers retrofit kits. a 10K and 6700K bulb should give you a nice coloration, or you could go 2 6700K.

Second, there is an easier solution than reconstructing RO/DI water, its called using the tap. Unless you have an insane amount of phosphates in your tap, its fine.