New tank, new plants, advice?

[Alerin]

Here's my new 10gal setup. I forgot the names of the plants in the back, but I do know that the 2 smaller plants I have up front are Micro Swords. I burried all the plants in the Flourite substrate that I have completely covering the bottom. Was I supposed to bury all the plants? I'm in a fishless cycle right now and I have the temp up to about 83F. Is that too hot for the plants? Do I need to add anything to the tank to help the plants? I have a full spectrum flouresent light in the hood and I'm running an aquaclear mini with a sponge and biomax filter. I took the carbon out because I was told I didn't need it in there with the plants. So.... what am I doing wrong so far?

http://www.geocities.com/dto_ram/PICT0640.jpg

Oh yeah sorry for the crappy image quality...

[Otocinclus]

I could be wrong, but Im pretty sure that the plants on the sides are 'frill' and the plants in the middle back is 'wisteria' These 2 plants are actually pretty good for the beginner. The grass in the front is much more picky, and needs a lot more light. I don’t think it will do well.

83F is definitely not optimal temp for those plants. 10 degrees cooler (73) would be much better.

Its hard to tell how much light you have, but it doesnt look like very much. Its likely that your plants would do much better with more light. Do you know how many watts your hood is? Also how long do you leave the lights on each day?

[Alerin]

Alright.. I'll turn the heater down.. I just had it up so the bacteria would grow faster. The light is a single 15W light and I have the light on a timer that gives the tank 14 hours of light a day.

[phanmc]

I think Oto got it right, it looks like Myriophyllum hippuroides (milfoil or frill) on the sides and either wisteria or water sprite in the middle.

You're definately going to need more light (2watts or more per gallon) for the microsword and the frill if that's what it is. wisteria will also do better with a little more light.

drop the temp and cut the light period down to 8-10 hrs. You're gonna have a heck of an algae problem with the light being on 14 hrs.

The plants are going to take a week or two to acclimate and won't grow until they do, the leaves may die off as well. If your plants are not growing after 3 weeks, you need more light.

[geoffgarcia]

I think it'll be a struggle to keep any of those plants alive.
You just dont have enough light, plus any co2 that happens to occur in your tank is gonna leak out from all that surface turbulance.

I've never seen anyone keep microswords alive for more than a few weeks, I've been told in the past that some of the shops that sell it just go out in the back yard and rip up a chunk of normal grass and sell it as an aquatic "micro sword" which could explain why they die super fast.
Those "frill" or possible cabomba are picky about water quality, but they should hang on a little longer than the micro swords, eventually they will thin out and their needles will fall off, then the Wysteria leaves will curl in, turn brown, and wither up.

I'd get another 15 watter on there, you can get the fixture and bulb for about 15$ at walmart. I wouldn't invest much more in the lighting on such a small tank though.