What do my plants need?

[PurpleSmurf]

I'm running a 30w incandescent over my lightly planted 10gal, but I'm not sure if it's enough since none of the plants will grow and I see browning after about a week inside the tank. My plan is to purchase 4x25w bulbs and use a 15w plus a 25w in each tank.

Now, I'm not sure if my plants are dying because they are starved for nutrition (cycle is not complete so there is no nitrate in the water yet) or for light, so should I add some liquid fertalizer (is there anyway to add CO2 to the water without a diffuser?) to my shopping list or just go with the lights?

Edit: Forgot to add that whatever I need to get should be from BigAl's as that's where I'm ordering the lights.

Will these help? Big Al's Multi-Purpose Plant Food Supplement Seachem Flourish Seachem Flourish Excell

 

[Stefanie]

If you want to up your light, you could easily get screw in compact fluorescent bulbs... check this out: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28901;category_id=1857;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

To add CO2 without diffusor or "gas" you could try Flourish Excel. I heard that it was OK for smaller tanks. On larger tanks it would be too expensive.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28605;category_id=3141;pcid1=3349;pcid2=

I hope this helps you a bit... I am totally new to plants and learning myself.

 

[Blinky]

Agreed, the easiest solution would be to replace your incandescent bulbs (which produce very little light per watt) with spiral compact fluorescents. Look for something marked 'daylight', Philips makes a nice 6500K daylight bulb that works well for my plants. Avoid 'warm white' bulbs if you can, they're very heavy on the red end of the light spectrum.
Flourish Excel is great stuff IMO. If you put 2-15W spirals over the tank you'll have a nice 'medium' level of light. The new bulbs, along with Excel, a trace mix and the nitrogen and phosphates produced by the fish, should give your plants what they need succeed

 

[PurpleSmurf]

Swiped two 14w spiral flourescents from around the house and "Wow!" is the only way I can describe the difference. I'll go out and price check the 15w-daylight version this week; I'd like to buy the compact flourescents, but $20 for lighting is a bit much for me right now.

Will the 500ml bottles I plan on buying be adequate for caring for two 10gal tanks? The Flourish Excell should last 250 doses....

Thanks guys