Why do the real plants in my 20gall aquarium always die?

Question

I went to my local fish store and they told me real plants were much better for the fish than fake ones. So i bought the easiest ones to care for. I planted them in my aquarium and they were doing fine at first. Now they've all turned Yellow or brown and are dead except one of them ( i bought 5).

I use a weekly plant solution,
I keep my aquarium light on for exactly 10 hours a day,
and I keep my aquarium very clean.

Please help me before every one of my plants die!!!!

Answer 1

It may be the intensity (wattage) of your lights is too low for the plants you have or that you're using tubes with a less than ideal wavelenght (there are only a few wavelengths (essentially "colors") of light they can use.

It may be that you need to add some supplements to get good growth - while fish add the usual "fertilizer" that contains nitrate and phosphate, most plants also require some iron, which tends to be deficient in aquatic environments. You can buy iron in liquid supplents for tanks, but only use about 1/3 of the suggested dose - it feeds algae as well as your plants.

And another possibility is that your "aquarium specialist" may not have known that much about plants and just sold you what he/she liked whithout knowing what the light tolerance of the plants were.

CO2 is what plants need for growth, not oxygen. And if you have fish in the tank, they supply some of this as well. You can add more, and the plants will get more lush, but you have to control the dosing carefully or else it affects fish in a negative way. CO2 isn't absolutely essential to provide, but plants will look better for it.

See these for more info:
http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-list.html
http://www.yamatogreen.com/plantedtank.htm
http://www.aquariumsecrets.com/Aquarium_Plants.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/AquariumGardenSubWebIndex.html
http://www.articlefishtalk.com/Article/Aquarium-plants---DIY-CO2-injection-By-George-Booth/37
http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

Answer 2

There are so many variables here:
1. Are the plants you bought really for underwater? A lot of fish stores sell 'aquarium' plants that really belong on land, so die within months of purchase.
2. Enough light? 8 hours of light, at 2 watts a gallon minimum. Leaving the light on longer won't help if you don't have the 2 watts/gal. Basically, a 20 gal tank needs 40 watts, min.
3. Correct nutrients and fertilizer? A weekly solution is like taking a vitamin; you still need good food to live.
4. Are you water parameters correct? When you start, you need to check your levels often.
5. Enough plants? You should buy a ton of fast-growers, with the understanding that some will die as you figure out what your tank can support.
6. Substrate - kinda linked to number 3. If you have just plain gravel, this could be hard.

My advice is to start reading. My favorite plant site is www.plantedtank.net. Start there

Answer 3

Do not put an Oxygen supplier in your tank, plants do not need Oxygen, they make Oxygen! By oxygenating your water, you will lower the Carbon Dioxide (which plants do need). That will kill your plants! Try not vaccuuming the gravel as much, that is removing the fish poo, which, if you have plenty of bacteria to clean up (which you do), will feed your plants. Also, many fish stores don't sell true aquatic plants, they take land plants like Mondo Grass, and sell them for aquariums. Mondo Grass cannot live underwater, so, it dies, many plants you bought are probably in that category. Do some research online. You should try getting some Java Ferns, be careful though, you don't bury the roots of this plant, tie the base to a rock or driftwood and it will attatch itself! Good luck!

Nosoop4u

Answer 4

It might be that you're keeping your aquarium very clean. If you're using a gravel vac to get all of the fish poop out, then you're also taking some nutrients out. Try not using the plant solution. There might be something in that that's messing up the plants, even though it is meant for plants...

Answer 5

are you taking the advice of the people at petco on what plants are easy? don't. they sell bog plants as aquarium plants and they will die.

you need to research what easy aquarium plants really are. also maybe change your aquarium bulb to something that is for growing plants.

here are some plants that are actually easy to grow if you change your aquarium light --

bulbs -- apongetons, nyphaea(dwarf lilies and lotus), crinum (onions)

plants you tie down to rocks and driftwood --
java fern, java moss, anubias (there are lots!), bolbitis

cryptocorynes and swordplants -- be forewarned "brazilian sword" is a bog plant -- its also a common houseplant called "peace lily" -- stay away!

there are lots of bunch plants -- hyrophelias are super easy. there are a bunch of varieties including "water wisteria" and "temple plant". red temple plant is something entirely different and a lot harder to grow.

i have tried to include some common and latin names so you can research them -- good luck!

Answer 6

what type of light do you have, they do make lights special for live plants, or if your able to get the tank somewhere where real sunlights hits it, did this with my tank and my plants are flourshing now.

ps what type of fish do you have, some fish like silver dollars will go to town on plants, so be aware that some fish eat plants as well

Answer 7

You also might want to try getting a new light for your tank. Get one specifaclly designed for plants (Gro-Lite). Once they take root, switch out your light. Also, flourescents go bad after abouta year, so if you have never changed your light before, you may want to think about it.

Answer 8

I think your plants die beause of inappropriate water quality and should then be provided a better one.

Answer 9

Try putting a oxygen supplier of some sort in your tank. Most plants cannot photosynthesize properly if they do not recieve enough oxygen.