Need some help, plants are dying!

This is now my third attempt at a true planted tank, and I'm about to fail miserably, again. My setup is a 10 gallon (20"x10"x12") with 1"-1.25" of pool filter sand for substrate. Light is a very strong reading lamp with egg crate to magnify it for 14 hours a day (this used to be a fry tank and that light grew hornwort and java fern better than any other light I've ever used). Filtration is a sponge filter. Decor other than plants are two medium sized grey rocks from my local lake and a large piece of driftwood (it takes up like a quarter of the tank!). For stock I have a breeding group of 6 Tuxedo Swordtails, a breeding group of 5 Paleatus Corys, and a single Aeneus Cory. Now, for plants I have a Marimo moss ball, 5 stems of Cabomba, Java Fern, and a large Cryptocoryne spiralis. Temp is running at 74-76 with a pH of 7.6. Every single plant except the java fern is dying now! Im down to half the amount of the C. spiralis as I had when I bought it and the Cabomba is loosing leaves like crazy and and moss ball just isn't growing, the java fern is just barely growing but not as quickly as it used to. There is this odd silty looking particulate matter that is constantly floating in the water column which I think is what may be choking out the plants. Though, I've done a 50% WC every day for the last three days and it won't go away! All the fish are perfectly healthy.


I honestly have NO idea why I never have luck with plants or what's killing them now but if you guys have any ideas please let me know as this is my final try with plants before I'm done for good and this is getting increasingly frustrating with each attempt.

Well, I'm going to try to take an offensive approach to this. I got a bother strong reading lamp and put it on the other side of the tank, so now there is double the brightness which is again doubled in strength by the egg crate. If light was the issue, it should be resolved now. If this silt **** is the issue then I'm just going to continue to do 50% daily until it is gone. And if that doesn't help, then I wasn't meant to keep plants . But in all seriousness, if anyone has any ideas of anything else it could be and how to resolve it, I'm listening.

Aquanero said:

Exactly what kind of lamp are you using?

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These.


But like I stated, they both have grown hornwort and java fern for me extremely well in the past, though, those are both pretty hardy plants.

Aquanero said:

Java fern can grow in a closet. I think and I'm no expert either, you should get a full length Fluorescent fixture with a Flor-max bulb.. Keep the light on a timer at about 8 to 10 hours a day. Cut back on the aeration it drives off C02. Get some mech filtration to clear up the sediment, maybe a small HOB and lose the sponge

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I had the plants in a 15 before this tank with a full length light for growing plants and they were dyig even faster. Only problem with an hob is I hate their power consumption and I already have 6 things plugged into one outlet.

UPDATE:

The second light and added WCs seemed to have helped. These are the conditions of the plants as of now.
Java Fern- Growing Very Well
Cabomba- Growing a bit, enough to need trimmed within a week or so
Moss Balls- Grew Enough for me to split it into four new balls
C. spiralis- Slowly melting/dying, I doubt it's going to make it

If anyone has tips for the Spiralis please let me know as soon it's going to be to late.

If you can see in that last photo, I have the spiralis in a small plastic Tupperware container full of sand to act as a pot since the amount of sand in the tank was not deep enough to fully cover its root system. If I put dirt in there instead and capped it with sand, do you think I might see some potential growth? Not Eco compete or anything like that but just plain dirt, I could grab a handful from my yard out it in that container to cover the roots and cap it with a tiny bit of pool filter sand. Thoughts?