Any good suggestions for raising healthy aquarium plants?

I need types that are easy to raise plus methods of keeping them healthy. I have had several bulbs that grow amazingly, but then die off. The plants I have bought at Petsmart don't thrive. I don't know why. My water is hard, alkaline medium, and overall a very healthy tank. My fish are thriving, why aren't my plants?

Any good suggestions for raising healthy aquarium plants?
I have hard alkaline water and a low light setup and the only thing I have ever had do well for me was java fern and anubias. Oh, and java moss, but I'm beginning to think that was a mistake. I hear horror stories of people trying to eradicate that stuff from their tanks. Unless you're willing to go high-light, fertilizers, and CO2, you may want to stick with the plants mentioned above. I've also had floating hornwort and watersprite do well for me. I want to do a low-light, low-tech 30 gallon tank with fluorite substrate (that's it- no other fertilizers) and 2 watts per gallon and see how things go. After watching some of my more finicky plants die off, I think two of the reasons were lighting and lack of iron, which is what substrates like fluorite and eco-complete contribute. The Krib is an excellent site on planted tanks, if you want to do more research. Also Aquatic Plant Central has some good forums. Goodluck!
Reply:Aquarium plants need three main things: light, nutrients, carbon.



Different plants need different combinations of these.



Easy care plants are water sprite, water wistera, java fern, African fern, java moss, anubias, amazon sword, and crypts.



Look at your light bulbs. They should be 6500K fluorescents. Take your wattage and divide by how many gallons your tank is. If you have a 100 watt light in a 50 gallon you've got 2 wpg, for example. That's a pretty average wattage in a low tech tank. Your wattage should be at least above one wpg, two wpg is better. Much more and it will be harder to properly balance it with nutrients and carbon.



Your plants will thrive if you are able to keep your nitrates at about 20 ppm. Some plants like crypts are heavy root feeders and will benefit from a root fertilizer tab.



Live plants in a tank do not promote algae growth. Think of algae like another kind of plant. When you make your tank hospitable to plants it's also hospitable to algae. The key to effective algae control is to balance the needs of the plants so they compete with the algae for nutrients and eventually starve the algae.
Reply:oooh, yes, the java fern grows like a weed in my tanks!

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