plants dying?

[Matt_Didg]

my anacharis are bright green at the top, yet a bad looking browny grey from about half way down to the bottom.
The plants i got were from room tempreture water (18-20) and the ealier ones are going bad, some of the newer ones are startin to go.
What can i do? is this even a bad sign?

 

[George Farmer]

Sounds like lack of light. Give us some more info - tank size, lighting etc.

 

[Matt_Didg]

20 gallon, 30 watt light

i used to jsut turn the light on when i was watching it and while i was on the computer ( next to it) but now i leave it on while im at skool, so its on almost all day

 

[George Farmer]

What type of light? Do you have a reflector?

To answer your "how long to leave light on" question here too - most of us planted guys have a plug-in-timer - they're cheap and work really well.

 

[abstract]

can the brownish color be rubbed off? or is the plant matter actually dying? it could be a form of algae..

 

[zig]

I wonder if now that you are leaveing the light on much longer is this helping the new green growth at the top, and the bottom section may have lacked light for so long that it went the way it did, anyway just a guess.

 

[AllusiveLife]

Or it could be the filters. I had the same problem, I think if anything its the plant itself lacking enough nutrients. When my underground filter died on the left side of the tank, my plants started growing faster, and looking much healthier.

 

[shuhu]

It might be the light, you don't seem to have enough (1.5Watts per Gallon) you need at least 2Watts per Gallon. I've read somewere that keeping the lights on longer than 12hours won't make it better (but worse) for your plants so don't even try doing this, because what is more important is the amount of watts, you probably need at least 40 or 60watts.

Also how tall are your plants, these grow way too much creating shadow areas at the top which can affect the plants at the bottom of the tank.

These might help:
http/www.aquabotanic.com/diagnose.htm
http/www.csd.net/%7Ecgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm