[COLOR=blue]We keep buying live plants for our 10gallon Betta tank and lo and behold, they start turning brown after a short time? they DO grow, but so much of it turns brown.. we have the standard lid with the two narrow lightbulbs that came with this kit, seems enough lighting?

what is the trick here?

They love the plants and we don't care for artificial ones, because they're not soft and REAL....what is the problem?

we clean the tank weekly, it's heated, taken care of properly.. just dont' get it.
and it has happened with a variety of plant types, not just a specific plant!

any tips!???

thanks, Lynn and Family

If you want nice fake plants - I recommend silk ones. They are soft & look very real in the tank.

Otherwise I'd post this in the plant section & see what those planted tank people think!!!

Jenn

(I've had read plants & silk & for me I perfer the silk because I don't have to do much to maintain them)

What kind of lights do you have? How many watts? What kind of plants are they?

Number one is lighting. Lack of enough light kills most plants.

Number two is food. You could try a liquid fert or plant the plant on top of a clay fert ball, either in the substrate or in a shot glass.

Number three is that most stores sell decorative plants that they expect to die within a few weeks/month. Look for ones with good roots or roots coming off the stems. I've got some of these to grow and divide using clay fert balls.

Try a few crypts. Some of these tolerate very low light, and very little feeding. Java moss and java fern can get by on almost nothing and you can wrap java moss around a piece of driftwood or a rock, or anything really.

Try any of the Anubia's too,or even those little Lily Bulbs that they sell in pkgs. at Walmart. I have the same set-up in a ten gal. Tropical tank with the same lights and all.It looks like a jungle in there! Anacharis/Cabomba/Anubia/Crypts/Java moss/Java Fern/Lily Bulbs,etc,and they're all doing great

okies, as others have suggested - light is a main factor. if you have a light in there, how long has the bulb been there? light strip should be changed every year for planted tanks as after a while, the spectrum (that is specifically designed for plant growth) will change, and instead of encouraging growth, it will prohibit it. Algae will grow in its place.
secondly - if you have a deep tank ( over 18") you will need to have t5 lighting (doublestrip) in order to get sufficient amount of light.
thirdly - do you use any fertalisers in your tank? i personally use a mixture of nomal plant fertalisers (to replace trace elements within the water) and iron plus. without sufficient levels of iron, your plants will turn yellow and die.
As others have mentioned, some plants are purely sold to make money, they usually will only last a couple of weeks.
i have found that some good plants that are very hardy are bacopas. they come in different colours, and are also very cheep

where do you get these clay fertilizer balls you are talking of? thanks~

JBL have a brand called Die 7 Kugeln or The 7 Balls.

I get them from my local fish shop... in Melbourne...

trade out the "narrow" ones, which are incandescent, for compact flourescents, available everywhere from walmart to petco.

Also, stick with low light plants, such as the ones here:

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.p...y=1&filter_by=2

if you dont know what it is in the store, dont buy it.

also, those packs of bulbs grow great! i bought mine at petco, and they grow awsome.. their hybrid aponegentons.

I have the 2 bulb setup with the 10gallon tank kits you buy, says it is 25 Watt bulb maximum from what we are reading on tank lid? does the iron fertilizer mentions affect the fish in any way? or is this something found naturally in the ocean anyway? we would love to have live plants for our babies, and will NOT buy from PetSmart/PetCo in the future, they always die! Now, to find a good petstore who knows what they are talking about!! Like Devs described, we would also love a jungle like look for our tanks too! We have tried the bulb packs and they died, from Walmart, think they were old or something!!! Thanks for everyone's suggestions, tips here, I knew if anyone could help, it would be here,,, such great advice and good people who truly love their fishies!

none of the fertilisers, iron plus or regular, will affect your fish in any way in rivers and such it would be there anyways

I work for a petco.. and i can tell ya, its not there fualt, or suppliers send us alot of junk... but the bulb packs we sell are really good, and the "loose" plants grow easy.. just aviode the potted plants, especially the purple waffel

Magic, do all petcos sell bulbs? I've never seen any. They wouldn't be in a plant tank already, right?

No Kissy,they actually will be found hanging on a hook in an isle.Comes in a little plastic cover with cardboard backing. I've sometimes seen them near the Betta stuff,or near the end caps of the isles where the fish are.

no, they come in a pack, and should be hanging on little strips somewhere in the department. one pack has 3 bulbs, an onion, and 2 somethings... cant remember...

and the other pack has like 10 bulbs, and are hybrid apos. both packs are good, i prefer the look of the apos, they fill in more (even though its a bit more expensive at first... but you get so many more bulbs, its a better buy)

Thanks to you both I was just wondering, none of my tanks have enough lighting to support healthy plants.