plant help
 

ive got a very leafy plant that supposed to grow like a weed ive had it around 2 months and its gone all brown on the top leaves and took kind of hairy ive gone through a few plants but i never seem to keep them long and they look terrible i have standard lighting just a single strip flouresent light and a black plastic top i will be getting a glass top but in the meantime how can i get better growth from my plants (that doesnt cost money)?

most plants need a fair amount of light to be happy. u could get a piece of shiny metal and make it into a reflector so at least the bulb you have would be more effective. (i know u said no money but u can get metal really cheap at most home repair/improvment type stores. we built a lite fixture out of ventilation pipe and it only cost like 10 dollars or less for the metal i think. u culd make a diy co2 thing so at least ur plants r getting a fair amount of 1 thing they need. these are also very cheap (under 10 dollars cdn).

i just noticed or tested or what ever my nitratye ppm is actually zero the yellow indecator is 0 red is really hi but mine is almost green which is odd because i have lots of fish crap and shiny metal as in tin foil?

well actually tinfoil doesnt wrk as great as u would think cause it scatters the light a bit to much. but if u get a thin piece of metal that is shiny it would work. u could rub it a bit to make it more shiny. it is kind of weird that the nitrates r reading zero. i know plants can use them if they are really thriving but if ur plants not then thats prob not the case. r u using the test with the drops in a test tube? ive heard other tests can b inaccurate.

ya im using test tubes

A way to save some money when working for lighting..
 

Hey there,
Even i'm going in for a planted tank and the first thing i made sure was the lighting...it is very important for the plants to have adequate lighting. I went out n got 2 additional tubes for my tank (Osram fluoro L 36W/77)...they say it is specifically for plants(colour spectrum)...costed me Rs400 per tube (approx 9$)....
Also since i didnt want to spend much..i got only the ballast for the tube without the stand for the tube and instead of the normal stand i used metal wires wrapped with rubber/plastic to hold the tubes securely in place (wires are the metal ones used for hanging clothes to dry)...this way i can even adjust the position the 3 tubes i have in my tank!
Also for reflector i used cardboard, aluminium foil and transparent clinging film to make my reflector...(i guess u get the idea here)
However i would recommend u to use a thicker foil to make sure it lasts longer...(i've hrd these reflectors work for bout 3-4 months if maintained/handled properly...i added the transparent clinging flim to make sure there is not much damage to the foil by neones fingernails and stuff....The makeshift reflector didnt cost me more than 1$