Wondering??!?!!?!?!

[tintin]

???I have my new 30gal tank full of water, with its anti everything
....the water is quiet crystal.... ;D....
i have a couple of pieces of wood....a biowheel penguin, heater.....
...airstones....everything is doing fine...it has about a week...
this weekend i will buy some zebras to begin....
here comes the question: yesterday i bought three plants...
little amazon, kind of elodea ?  and a little one looking like
a xmas tree....really nice....like the lil' "hands" of a lil' shrimp...
will they survive all alone these few days..???
why are there some little spots of yellowish...???
help.......anything good for them???

 

[SegaDojo]

i assume you're a total beginner for aquarium plants..

so here a little run-down.

Plants need 3 things.. light, fertilizer, and CO2.. though some would consider CO2 as a type of fertilizer.

Incandescent and halogen lighting is next to useless when it comes to plants.  Most people use flourescent since its cheap, and efficient.  Some others use metal halide, but i won't go into that cuz i don't think you need it.

the minimum amount of lighting that I would recommend is 1.5 watts/gallon.  So in your 30g, I'd recommend atleast 45 watts of flourescent lighting.  Some may still have success with less lighting than that.. but I wouldn't start a planted tank with that little lighting.

You should add some sort of liquid "fertilizer".  Seachem makes a really good product called Flourish Iron.  Or you can use the Seachem Excel.  These two products will provide some micronutrients (trace elements) that are required for healthy growth.  The Excel however, will do more than just add micronutrients.  They claim that their product will add CO2 to your water column as well.. so it may be something of interest to you.

Depending on how heavily/lightly planted you want your tank to be, you have the choice of removing your biowheel and airstones.  For heavily planted tanks, you really should add extra CO2 to your water column and remove the two cuz it will dissipate any added CO2.  However, if its a lightly planted tank, then you may consider leaving it in to keep your CO2 levels CONSISTENTLY low.  

I will provide some very useful links you should read up on... I can't possibly include everything you need to know on plants in this one post..

good luck!

www.tropica.com

www.brainyday.com/jared/aquarium/info.htm