Water Flow - Too Much For Plants?

[Kstawski]

Hey all, new member and new to the hobby!
 
I started a 55 gallon planted tank, and I've noticed that some of the leaves on my amazon swords have cracked, and my other plant (forgot the name of), is leaning pretty heavily towards the filter. I was wondering if this is normal, or if I need to trim the plant, or reduce the water flow somehow.
 
I included some pictures for reference! Thanks!
 

 

 

[Livewire88]

First off

  to the forum 

 
The cracks in the sword leaves look to have been caused during transportation, new leaves will grow and the old leaves will need to be trimmed off once they start to go transparent. The bent over plants are Cabomba a type of stem plant, if they are in the flow from the filter they will bend over like that, nothing to worry about.  
 
How long have the plants been in your tank? Do you have any fish in your tank? or are you adding a fertilizer for the plants to feed from?

 

[Kstawski]

The plants have been in for about 2 weeks, along with 3 white fin tetras. I don't add any fertilizer, but I do know that my substrate is made for live plants.

 

[Livewire88]

The plants have been in for about 2 weeks, along with 3 white fin tetras. I don't add any fertilizer, but I do know that my substrate is made for live plants.

 
Ok, 
 
The substrate looks like Eco Complete? if so it will help provide nutrients for the plants to feed on, if you up your plant mass you may want to look into dosing a fertilizer so that the plants can also feed through their leaves from the water column.
 
If you don't mind me asking did you cycle your filter before adding the fish?    

 

[Kstawski]

Sounds good! Thanks for the advice!
 
And yes, despite being new, I was patient enough to cycle the tank!

 

[Livewire88]

You are welcome, 
 
If you have any more questions feel free to ask, there are tons of members here that are always willing to help. 

 

[mike455555]

also dont worry about the leaves on that sword, its in its emersed form at the moment and will lost all of them leaves, but will grow new aquatic ones welcome to the hobbie =] 

 

[Kstawski]

also dont worry about the leaves on that sword, its in its emersed form at the moment and will lost all of them leaves, but will grow new aquatic ones welcome to the hobbie =] 

Hmmmm, I'm not quite sure what this means

 

[Livewire88]

also dont worry about the leaves on that sword, its in its emersed form at the moment and will lost all of them leaves, but will grow new aquatic ones welcome to the hobbie =] 

Hmmmm, I'm not quite sure what this means

 
 
The majority of Aquatic plants are grown emersed (out of water) so when you add them to your tank the plant needs to adjust to grow under water, the leaves that were grown when the plant was out of water will gradually die off and new leaves will replace them. 
 
This is why some plants don't always look that good for the first few weeks after planting. 

 

[Kstawski]

Ah, I see! Thanks for the help everyone! 
 
Upon closer inspection, it appears that some small snails hitched a ride from the store to my tank, and now I have a few tiny snails crawling around my tank.. Is this a bad thing?

 

[Livewire88]

Depends if you like snails? If it was me I would remove them ASAP otherwise you may end up with hundreds of them.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Ah, I see! Thanks for the help everyone! 
 
Upon closer inspection, it appears that some small snails hitched a ride from the store to my tank, and now I have a few tiny snails crawling around my tank.. Is this a bad thing?

 
 
 
Every time I see a plant with a sign that says "Snail free" I laugh!  What they mean is that there's no charge for the snails!
 
 
Just smash them as you see them.  The fish will appreciate the fresh meal, and the snails won't breed into a problem.  A few snails aren't an issue - they aren't really "Bad" but some people really don't like them.   More a matter of taste than anything else.  Ironically, some people just get a few Assassin snails to deal with their snail problem - fight fire with fire.