Re: CO2
I almost hate to mention this, because if you refuse to do the work involved you're just going to kill fish, but the problem you might be having could be related to CO2.
Most of the plants you can buy for an aquarium are actuallly marginal or emersed plants, they grow with their roots in the water and can do well or at least tolerate being under water. The problem is that they need Co2. You remember from 5th grade science that plants take in CO2 and give off Oxygen. Plants in mud get a lot of CO2 from the billions of bacteria per gram of mud working on decomposing crud. In our nice clean tanks, where we don't like the skunky smell of decomposing mud, we don't have that sort of CO2 level unless you work at adding it. For the 10 gallon tank, the Hagen/Nutrafin CO2 unit is the easiest. Over 20 gallons, you need either DIY or pressurized CO2.
Light, Co2, fertilizers.
Start with the light, get it up to 2.0 watts per gallon if you can. There are ushaped flourescent tubes that screw into the incandescent hoods that grow nice plants. see Wal-Mart.
Got it. Ordered a CS 20" 28w Aqualight PC strip light from Big Al's on Monday. Should be here on Friday or Monday.
Then get a Hagen CO2 system, $17 online or $30 in the local store.
Ordered it at the same time.
Then get some basic plant food made for aquariums.
Ditto
Invest in a real test kit, include nitrate. Then use it -- weekly, while you are doing a 30 to 50% water change.
Bought one today
If you don't want to do the work, get plastic plants and plastic floating fish. There are some that run on batteries.
But really, planted tanks are probably harder than fish only tanks. If you haven't done a good job with the small tank, why even invest the big bucks in a bigger tank? You're going to spend something like $10 to $30 per gallon to set up a new planted tank.
Are you really interested enough to do it?
Define "good job". I will admit that I don't (generally) follow the "rules" but I've never had a problem keeping any fish I wanted in there. I actually cycled the tank with Discus one time because I got a really good deal on some baby turquoise and I had nowhere else to put them. The discus not only survived, but did extremely well. I sold them when they got to about 3" in diameter. I've had baby angels in there, as well as various barbs and livebearers. When I do have to have the water tested (like when a new fish doesn't survive) it always checks out fine, with minimal to no ammonia, nitrate or nitrite. The reason I don't check it regularly is because I don't need to- after the tank is established, unless something major (pump failure) happens, it's basically a non-issue. When I was just starting with aquariums I caught a bunch of threespine sticklebacks. Out of the dozen or so I had, only one adapted to flake food- the other 11 died. However, that one went into a one gallon hex aquarium with a ugf, 1/2" of gravel, some hornwort, and the water I caught it in. The reason I didn't use fresh water is because I wasn't sure of the chemistry of the water it was in, and I didn't want to kill it. That fish started at 1" and over the course of 2 years, grew to 3". It never, ever,
ever had a water change- the tank was topped off from time to time, but it never had a water change. The fish never got sick, always ate well, and died from old age. Given enough time, the last stage of the nitrogen cycle will take place, and the nitrates will be used by the plants, and will outgas as nitrogen gas. In a balanced system, water changes are unneccesary.
But, I'll try the more conventional method and see what happens. Interestingly enough, the best tanks I had were the ones I set up before I knew much about what I was doing. Never had a problem growing plants (or fish) in my first few tank setups...
