I brought two plants a while back for my 2 goldfish, however, after a couple of weeks I had to throw them out due to the state of them. They had gone brown and looked like they were rotting..
I just brought 4 new ones, and already it looks as if the same thing is happeneing.. How do I get the plants to thrive?
I'd love them to grow well and be healthy so that my aquarium is full of natural grennery.. I don't want to resort to fake plants..

What kind of lighting do you have on the tank? And what kind of plants are they?

its prolly 1 of 3 things that i have dont many times now-

1. what you bought were really bog plants, not aquatic plants, but were sold as aquatic plants. many companies do this. NEVER egt those ones in the little plastic tubes, their almost all bog plants.

2. not enough light. most plants need 2-3 watts per gallon. (meaning a 10 gallon tank needs a 30 watt light hood, etc) there are many low light plants (like i grow)

3. no fertalizer. i picked up some plantGrow from petco and my plants started to look awsome!

heres a good guide, has some bog plants to avoide and low light plant suggestions good luck! (just dont use the forum there, no one answers :/) BTW, Im no expert, just learning the hard way!

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

if your plants are crypts they wer probably "melting" These types of plant will do this when moved to a new tank as they ajust to ph and stuff, but they will grow back.

I found that adding plant fertilizer really helps, there are many nutrients and minerals in the water that are missing or not sufficient to support the plants, especially if you have a lot.

Do you know what kind of plants you bought?

Some plants do much better than others in a regular tank with just one fluorescent tube in it than others. If you try and pick plants suited to low light, you may have better luck.

i had the same problems when i started off planting my tank. The first step to having healthier plants for me was getting a good fertilizer. I add FloraPride to my water. i havent heard much on here about it, but it has worked GREAT for me. Then, i went out and bought a new light hood (a cora life light that has 4 65 watt bulbs in it). but that can be spendy enless you really want a heavily planted tank. Before I bought the new lights, i tried NutriGrow lights. i didnt use them for very long before buying the new lighting system tho, so I cant really say much abou them. I know there are some really good lights that you can jumi rig onto your light hood, or make a new one yourself, their called T-50's or T-51's not sure. They come in white or pink lights, and their like a compact florecent light. They set off alot more watts then normal lights ive seen at petco and petsmart. I had to go to speciality store to find these tho. Might be something to look into. Also, when buying the plants, make sure they healthy. Nice thick white roots.. not brown. ive tried those plants in the little plastic cases they sell at petco, and had some luck with them, but there isnt much variety, and alot of the plants in those looked like they were dying.

Good Luck with the plants. hope you can figure out what works best for you with keeping your plants healthy and happy.

Good advice, BR&BW

I have a lot of my tanks planted, so I make my own fertilizer mix using a trace element mix available at hydroponics stores. To that I can add whatever else I want. In my heavily planted tank, I also add potassium nitrate and potassium sulphate and phosporus. The plants just soak up more nutrients than the fish can provide.

In my lower light tanks (the ones with the tube provided in the hood), I only fertilize infrequently with the trace element mix. In those tanks I grow java fern, java moss, hygrophila polysperma, vallesnaria and nymphaea lotus (red water lily). I have also had success in the past with cryptocorne wendtii.

Is there a way to make fertilizer that doesn't require harmful or dangerous chemicals and is not too hard to do?

yea i would like to know that too

Here is the fertilizer recipe that I use. The ingredients are available from most hydroponics stores.

1 tbsp. chelated trace element mix (I use Plant-Prod Chelated Micronutrient Mix)
2 tbsp. K2S04 (potassium sulfate)
2 tbsp. KN03 (potassium nitrate)
1 tbsp MgS04.7H20 (fully hydrated magnesium sulfate, aka epsom salts) This is optional, omit if it is in trace element mix or if your water is high in magnesium.
p.s. I don't use epsom salts

300 ml distilled water

Dissolve the trace element mix in 150 ml distilled water, then add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour in additional 150 ml water.

I have experimented with the dosage, but right now I am using 1 ml per day for a 66 gallon tank of rapidly growing plants.

If your tank has a high nitrate level, you can leave out the potassium nitrate. My tank never shows a nitrate level.

I bought the ingredients for this mixture over two years ago, for approx. $15 Cdn. and I still have enough for a couple of more batches.

Please feel free to ask questions

where would you buy stuff like that?

I got mine from a hydroponics store

ok i dont think i would ever get into making my own. lol i just dont have the patientce and my parents dont like it when i spend lots o money on fish. they thought makein the sponge filters was bad enough

It is much, much cheaper to make your own fertilizer. The nice thing is that you can adjust it for your tank. You can leave out various nutrients. For example, if you had a measureable nitrate reading in your tank, you could leave out the nitrate. I leave out the epsom salts (magnesium) since my water is high in magnesium.

If you wanted just to make a trace element mix (which could be preferable for a lightly planted tank with just a few plants), you could just mix up the trace element mix.

So, it leaves you a lot of options