Help me with plants

Okay, here's the situation. I have two tanks. One tank, a 20 gallon, I can not keep the plants in the ground and they always seem to basically disapear within three days of planting them. That tank currently has been put on hiatus because Two of the four fish in the tank died and I put the two left in the 29 gallon with my other ones.

I'm not completely sure that it's a 29 gallon because my mom bought it and then couldnt remember enough to tell me what it was after she bought it. It's basically the same width as my 20 but a few inches taller.

The other tank, the 29 gallon, the two plants I have in there are slightly alive. In other words, some of the leaves are green and some are brown and partially see-through or half green and a partially see-through brown.

Yea, in case that made no sense whatsoever with my rambling all through that. I need help keeping my plants alive and planted in the rocks. Please help! I'm going to have to get more gouramis soon and I've heard that they like to have lots of foliage or other places to hide in their tanks. If that's true, I'm doing poorly with the plants.

I have a plant food that my mother bought for the plants but I have no idea what else to do!

I would appreciate any help I recieve.

 

Well, I'm just starting to have luck with my first planted tank so I'm by no means an expert, but I'll try to help as much as I can.

What fish do you have in the tanks?
What lighting do the tanks have?
What plants are you trying to keep?

Also, if you want to know the tank sizes, take the length of all the sides (in inches), multiply them together, then divide by 231. That will give you the gallons.

(L x W x H)/231 = gallons

-Chelle

 

i can help you with plants, what exactly is it that you need. This is my plant tank, its great. Ill try to help you.

 

The twenty gallon tank is now empty because I put the 2 remaining fish in the larger one with my mother's tetra's. The 20 gal had 3 male Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami's (two of them died, that's why I combined the tanks) and an Albino Cory Catfish (still living). The remaining Gourami and Catfish are now in the larger tank. With them are 6 tetras of two different species. I don't know exactly what species they are because my mother bought them because she thought they were "cute" and "pretty". Three of the tetras are a light pink and the other three have an orange stripe along their sides.
Confused? :? Here is a list of all the fish I just named or gave a description to:
1 Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami
1 Albino Cory Catfish
3 light pink tetras
3 orange striped tetras

The larger tank with all of my fish in it did not originally have a light or hood. It still doesn't. When I moved my fish to the larger tank, I also gave it the hood to the 20 gal... it doesn't fit but it's going to have to do. Our family has no money to go buy that tank a hood. Anyways, I do believe it is a floresent light.

What plants am I trying to keep? Like what I have in my tank right now? I have no idea what they're called. I just went to the pet store, I think it was Petco, and they just have a big tank of plants for like a dollar or less that are unlabled. Even if I were to ask the people there, they usually don't know anything about what they're doing, it wouldn't help much. Basically I get the cheapest plants I can. I'm broke and I have no idea what plants would be best to keep with my fish and so on.

Lol, thanks! I didn't think of doing that. I'll have to do that later after I find something to measure it!

 

I guess what I basically want to know is what I need to do to keep the plants I put in my tank alive and what plants are better than others to keep with my fish.

 

the plant in the center of my pic with the purplish leaves is a ruben sword. It is pretty easy to care for, also arrowheads are in the backround and are nice and hardy plants. What kinds of plants are you looking to care for now. A somewhat corser gravel is better than a very fine gravel. Yopu should get a slightly stronger light than a normal flourescent, and add plant fertilzer as you mentioned. Also weekly water changes wouldnt hurt. If you have any questions jsut keep the posts coming and me and chelle can try to help. -tl

 

Okay, thanks. I just want something that won't die after a week of being in my tank, something easy to care for or hardy I guess. I'm not really picky.

A stronger light? Is there any specific kind that you think I should get, if so about how much does a light cost?

I'll post if I come up with any more questions. Thanks for the help.

 

Well, for starters, you're going to need better than standard lighting. Most of the low light plants require at least 2 - 3 watts per gallon which means you would need 40 - 60 watts of fluorescent light. The standard light for 20 gallons (at least my 20 gallon any way) is only about 20 watts. You will also need special lights with a Kelvin ("K" or "color temperature") of around 6500.

Before you buy any plants, I suggest looking around and pricing the appropriate lighting first. Lighting supplies can get expensive and it's pretty much impossible to keep plants alive w/o the appropriate lighting. So if you're on a major budget, you may not want to or be able to go with live plants.

Here's some of my favorite vendors so you can do some price checking:
http://bigalsonline.com
http://drsfostersmith.com
http://thatfishplace.com

-Chelle