Too much plant debris in the tank and filter

Question
QUESTION: I have had my freshwater aquarium for over two years.  I had live plants from the start but just recently took all of them out because of the constant debris from them stopping up the water intake on the filter and covering up the filter.  Why are these plants doing this when they're supposed to be so good for the aquarium and fish.  One problem might be is that we have very hard water.  Also, since I have a beta in the community tank, I keep the water temp at 80 degrees.  Maybe I'm putting the wrong plants in the tank for that temperature. All the plants I took out of the aquarium are in a separate tank where they have room temperature water at 76 degrees and are doing great.  What do you feel is the problem here, I really do love live plants in my aquarium and I have a fine substrate for the plants and because the fish and frogs love any.  Any ideas about what I should do?  Right now I have Java lace fern, Java fern, cabomba, a beautiful sword plant and a dwarf lily.  None of which do good in the aquarium.  Thanks for your help.

ANSWER: Hi Marie,
76F and 80F is not much of a difference and those plants should be fine in an 80F tank.  There must be another issue.  Plants grow the best in the color spectrum of 6700K or anything close such as 6500K.  The 6500K are also known as "Daylight bulbs" and are very commonly sold at Lowes and sometimes Home Depot.  The photoperiod must be around 7-9hrs a day and off the rest of the time for them to rest.  The Java ferns are low light requirement plants, in high lights they will turn black and die.  Because of their slow growth rate, they are very susceptible to algae.  They cannot be buried in the substrate as their roots take in nutrients from the water, they do best in 1-2WPG (Watts per gallon).  The Cabomba and Sword plant however require high light.  All of the plants you mentioned are very easy plants to care for and do not require much maintenance.  If you could reply back with a few more details I'm sure we can pinpoint the problem.
1.  I need to know the spectrum of the lights you are using.
2.  The photoperiod of the tank that the plants are dieing in.
3.  How bulbs do you have and how many watts are each bulb giving off?
4.  How many gallons is your tank and how deep is it?
-Matt-

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QUESTION:
I have two 10W,color enhancing, full spectrum bulbs.  The hood was made for incandescent bulbs which I don't like because they are too dim, so I switched to the florescent for better light.  The lights are on about 10 to 12 hours a day and I have a 10 gallon tank that is 18" deep.  I also use onyx sand substrate.  Since neither of the tanks will hold tubes, I can't put a plant light in them.  Any suggestions?

ANSWER: I believe it is possibly the light or the substrate.  The tank should be bright.  If it is not, it is not enough wattage.  18" is a very tall tank for a 10g, and would require more wattage to be able to penetrate the deep water.  Also, Sword plants and lilies require nutrient rich substrate.  The substrate you have is plain black sand.  It is not nutrient fortified.  Some substrates such as Flourite, Eco-Complete, ADA Amazonia Aqua Soil, are examples of fortified substrates.  However it is quite costly.  If you do not want to buy these substrates, you can buy plant root tablets.  Tablets are placed into the substrate at the base of the plants that are heavy on roots.

I would recommend making your own fixture as buying one is quite expensive.  If you decide to, here is a link below where a fixture is made for a 55g tank.  Yours would be a lot less cheaper since it's only a 10g.  I helped that person build the fixture and walked her through it. Works well.

http://www.aquariumforum.com/f34/diy-large-hood-55g-walkthrough-7596.html

-Matt-



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I informed you wrong, the ten gallon is only 12" tall, so the lighting should be right.  The plants are doing much better in my 5 gallon tank because I have gravel in it and the Java ferns are just floating right the gravel and even the sword plant is doing better.  So maybe I need to get a regular hood that will hold the regular fluorescent tube so that I can put a grow light in it and change out the substrate.  The fish really do seem to prefer live plants over the fake.  So I guess the wattage is correct for the water depth, I just need a good substrate.  I always presoak the substrate in Cycle overnight before changing out the substrate and so far the tank has done fine doing it this way  Let me know what you think and I'm going to get one of the better soils.  Thank you for your help.  

Answer
It sounds good to me.  Just be sure you are getting AT LEAST 1watt per gallon.  2wpg is better.  If you get 3wpg then you would need to use CO2.  So I recommend 2-2.5wpg.  As long as you have nutrient rich substrate and the correct lighting, your plants will take off.

Remember to limit your photoperiod.  Some people think leaving them on 24/7 will help.  That causes too much stress on the plants and too much algae.  I would limit 9hrs MAX.  if you start to see algae, then lower it 30 mins.  If you STILL see new algae growing, lower it agian 30 mins.  In my tank, I run my lights for only 5hrs day.  But yours might be different.  Everyone;s tank is different.

Let me know if you have any further questions.
-Matt-