Stem plants dying??

[kattiq]

So I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but all of a sudden it seems like my wisteria & anacharis are dying (and even my sword is shedding it's leaves) They have been in my tank for at least a good 2 or 3 months. I would have thought they would have adjusted by now. But the leaves are completely gone from most of the lower parts of the wisteria and then the roots keep dying. So they end up floating up to the top of my tank and then I have to go and replant them. I use flourish liquid fertilizer about once a week. The lighting I have is a Hagen A1634 20-Watt Life-Glo 2 Fluorescent Bulb, 24-Inch in case that helps..
This is what my tank used to look like:

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/43A5F921-7065-4E10-BD8D-64318AF83E6B-4322-000002AAF74B1CE6.jpg

Now it looks like...and I apologize for the tank looking a little dirty. I haven't had time to deep clean the tank!

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/3915C472-F11D-4947-BEBB-6B2503F98544-7321-000005CF4A77E275.jpg

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/85E6EA53-7B3A-419C-B7AD-5873F5EA9692-7321-000005CF59D361CF.jpg

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/5040985C-4DC8-47CF-BF94-B2643B687DC3-7382-000005D3192D9768.jpg


Does anyone know what measures I could take to get them to grow back again?? I don't have a ton of time or money due to the fact school is in full swing but I really want to try and do my best to get the tank back up to par!

[kattiq]

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/B8FB1824-B82F-4939-A76C-69036549ACA0-7382-000005D31F7AD355.jpg

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/AE5FBD04-FC8C-40DB-AD91-52DB72D567E0-7321-000005CF600312B5.jpg

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m570/kthrrs/BBB4B537-9BBB-440D-A277-F1D77DDDFDBE-7321-000005CF5368DED9.jpg

[smaug]

Your light is insufficient by a long shot. I assume the tank to be a 10 or 20 gal? 40 to 50 w of t5ho would be needed for the asst of plants you have. Until you can get such a fixture stop dosing all ferts. The plant are not using them but the algae is.

[mommy1]

You also might want to try some root tabs, stem plants are usually heavy root feeders.

[smaug]

Actually ,no. Stem plants do put down root like structures but are more for anchoring. Stem plants actually pull the majority of there nutrients from the water column. The sword plants are different story and could benefit from root tabs but only if more light is added.

[mommy1]

I wasn't disagreeing with you about the lighting Smaug, merely adding another thought. I didn't say all were heavy root feeders just usually, meaning many but not all. These people agree.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=140546

[Goes to 11!]

+ 1 to the above.

Your tank requires more light and more ferts for your plants to thrive.

[biotsrama]

What's your water change schedule? What's your nitrate level? Besides Flourish, do you also dose phosphate and potassium?

[homemadepopcorn]

What kind of lighting do you have currently ()? It probably isn't enough from what I can see...

What is the substrate that you're using?

For now, cut off the dead growth, it isn't doing your plants or your water any good. Your sword seems to be putting out a lot of nice green leaves though, doesn't seem to be unhealthy. Its normal for swords to die off like that but that could progress more rapidly if there aren't enough nutrients in the tank.

[C-Dub]

Try better lighting as suggested previously. I think thats your main issue

[kattiq]

Okay thank you guys!! I didn't really think about the lighting because I had posted another time when I wanted to upgrade lighting and the people I talked too on here said what I had was good! I guess I need to go on a hunt to find a better wattage and hopefully my plants will come back! I love the live plants way too much to EVER go back to fake.

Oh and I use Eco-complete for substrate.
And I usually try to change the water about every week or so and get out all the dead leaves and what not.

[homemadepopcorn]

What size tank is this? I may have missed this bit... a 24" light is a 10/20/29g?

Eco-complete is a good substrate as long as you fertilize it. By itself, it doesn't really carry anything beneficial for plants in the long term.

[kattiq]

Its a 29g. So I'd prefer finding a light that will fit in the hood I already have on my tank (which you can see through the link to my tank journal in my signature)..Does anyone have any good suggestions?? :)
And by fertilizing do you mean root tabs or could I just use liquid like I have been?