planted 10g
 

i have a 10g semi planted tank and i was wondering if you can give me any tips on how to care for the plants that i have:
2x bunches of dwarf sagittartia i just have them still bunched in the weight that they came with is that ok?,
1x amazon sword i have that out of its pot just stuck in the pebbles,
1x anacharis just in its bunch aswell,
1x java fern i had that planted but now i just have it floating
i just have the stock light that came with my kit and i have just regular aquarium pebbles as a substrate.sorry for the long post but i just want to do the best for my plants

I will go in the order that you have listed them. The Dwarf Sagittartia should be spread out more if you want it to remain short. When it is bunched together, it grows taller. You will need root tabs for this plant as well. I recommend the Seachem Florish Tabs. The Amazon Sword gets quite large and when provided with the proper light and nutrients, will quickly out grow your tank. It also requires root tabs because it is a heavy root feeder and will only take in a minimal amount of nutrients from the water. The anacharis is a stem plant, so it will get its nutrients from the water. I recommend you get the Seachem Flourish Comprehensive and start dosing your tank with fertilizers. The anacharis should be spread out to allow the bottom of the plant to get some light. The Java Fern should be anchored to a rock or piece of driftwood with a piece of string. This plant also gets its nutrients from the water, so it will benefit from the Flourish Comprehensive as well. All of these plants are very hardy and easy to grow with low light (1 watt per gallon) and a little fert dosing. Do you know what kind of light the stock tube is? It should say on the side of the tube.

is it ok for the dwarf plants to stay in there bunches from the store (i just took them and put them in the substrate) and the same with th anacharis? i did this because i cant get them to stay in the ground and how can i tie the fern to the driftwood i have i dont have fishing wire or thread, would elastic bands work like the ones from the fish store. and for the lighting its not a flourescent tube or anything i cant see any writing on the side but the tank was a marina kit if that helps

Yes it is ok for the Dwarf sag to stay in the bunches. It just means that they will grow taller trying to fight for light. Same with the anacharis. It can be frustrating trying to get the plants to stay in the substrate because I am sure, like most plants from the stores, they do not have very long roots. Right now you can just leave the plants as they are and let them adjust to the different water parameters and light. Once they start to get longer roots, then you can move them around. Now I will start with the light. Plants need light with a spectrum in the 6500k area. Preferably right at 6500K. Without this spectrum of light, they will not photosynthesize and algae will take over. I am going to assume that you have an incadescent fixture. If that is the case, then I would recommend one of the CFL light bulbs made by GE. They are in a blue package and say 6500K on them. These are the kind of bulbs that I am using on my tank and they work great.

the incandescent wont cut it? or will it just be slow growing and will the one you recommended fit in my slots
and will i really need the tabs or just like the light will it just grow really slow

My guess is that it will not cut it. It probably isn't in the right spectrum and will only give off a lot of heat. The light fixtures that come with kits are usually just used for viewing fish. I can not say if the light bulb I mentioned will fit your fixture because I have no idea what fixture it is. I make my own light fixtures. As far as skipping on the root tabs, this isn't really a good idea. Plants need both light and nutrients. Without either of these, they will not photosynthesis and die. You can read more about this in Byron's planted tank articles in the Aquarium Plants section. I strongly recommend reading these, so that you can learn about the basics of aquarium plants.

ya i just looked into them and they should work it just means another trip into town and i have to order the tabs on line

I agree with everything bigfish has told you. Do you not have a petsmart or petco were you live? If so you can get the tabs at petsmart.

i have a pjs pet mart all it had was a nutrafin plant gro it is kinda small but i think i will order some from big als

I like Big Als there prices are good and they ship fast.