Your pH is so high it's off my chart, but anything over 8 means you have
virtually no CO2. No CO2 means poor plant growth.Under no circumstances be
tempted to add a buffer to bring your pH down. These contain phosphate which
is a disaster for algae. Just add CO2, the cheap yeast method is fine. This
should kick your plants into life. I agree with the comments about your
light. I would suggest 2 tubes.
From then on, just watch your plants. Add an iron rich trace element mix for
the micro nutrients, N and K for the macros, as you feel necessary. Don't
add any aquarium plant food that contains phosphorous.
Premature fish death is not normal. They should die of old age( after
several years).
I've kept freshwater tropicals (on and off) since the late 1960's, and it's
only in the last 10 years or so that I've taken a greater interest in the
plants, and I've found that with good plants and good water, the fish seem
to look after themselves with no disease. In fact, my son still has some
fish that he took to university with him 7 years ago ( and that's after 3
house moves).

PS use fine sand and gravel. Plants can't root in rocks!



"Tzeentch" wrote in message
...
Hi everybody,

I have a 25 gallon Aquarium populated by Mollies, 4 of them at
the time (2 adult (one of them born in the tank) and 2 young (2 months
old, born in the tank)).

I have never been able to keep the plants in the tank beautifull or
even living for a period of more than 2 or 3 weeks. They all wither
and die very rapidly once planted. It looks to me as if the roots or
the bases of the plants near the root outside the gravel are rotting
(althought that might be too strong a term). I've had 6 different
varieties of plants, none of which survived very long. My fish seems
to die a little bit too much also, although the salesman at the local
fish store tells me this is normal.

Here are the results of the most recent test:
PH: 8.5
KH: 60 ppm (about 3.4, I beleive is the correct conversion)
GH: 80 ppm (about 4.5, I beleive is the correct conversion)
NH3/NH4 (ammonia): around 0.6 ppm (test kit doesn't give super
precise result, so it's around 0.6ppm or maybe a little less)
NO2 (Nitrite): 0.1 or less ppm
NO3 (Nitrate): 5 or less ppm

Neon is open 12 hours a day. No CO2 is added in the tank.
I make a 25-40% water change every 7 to 9 days. Tap water is used for
that purpose.
I add some tap water conditioner (Nutrafin's Aquaplus) and a nitrifier
(Nutrifin's Cycle) everytime I make a water change.

So, what can I do in the immediate to remedy the situation, and what
can I do in the long term to make sure this situation doesn't arise
again?
Thanks a whole lot for any help.