In my bettas  tank there's about five ribbon plants (among others) that are turning brown/ getting brown spots. Three of the ribbons were in my goldfish tank awhile ago, until the goldies decided they loved to dig them up every five minutes. So, I was wondering if part of the spots are due to the goldfish (its been a month since I moved the plants) or water conditions, or just the plants dying. The tank is a five gallon (filtered) and the betta is halfmoon, therefore he likes to rest on the ribbons. This wasn't an issue until about three days ago. 

Oh!Sorry! I do have a 15 watt light. The tank is a TopFin 5.

Hmmm. You're talking alien to me! The bulb looks all curly, if that helps!

if its curly and white it's most likely a fluorescent, and nabi is right you need one that produces a daylight light spectrum of around 6500k to get strong healthy growth out of your plants, it is sometimes stamped on the glass somewhere and as Nossie said previously, it is usually mentioned on the box... if you dont have the box and cant find the light rating on the glass see if you can find your bulb online with google and check out its specs... cheers > Ron

 Okay, I think I found the bulb on petsmart.com. It's a aqueon mini compact, and it's actually a 10 watt. It says it is a daylight/bluelight.

just had a thought, the ribbon plants in my pond where the water is colder are doing the same thing as yours BronzieThe Moor, but the ones inside in the tank where the water is warmer are going great guns... also found this on wikipedia... it may help demystify the light rating a bit... cheers > Ron

Aquaculture... In fishkeeping, color temperature has different functions and foci, for different branches.

In freshwater aquaria, color temperature is generally of concern only for producing a more attractive display. Lights tend to be designed to produce an attractive spectrum, sometimes with secondary attention to keeping plants alive.

In saltwater/reef aquaria, color temperatures are an essential part of tank health. Cooler temperatures are seen as getting through the water better, providing essential energy sources to the algae hosted in coral, that sustains it. Because coral receives intense, direct tropical sunlight, the focus was once on simulating this with 6,500 K lights. Higher temperature light sources have become more popular as their success became widely known...first 10,000 K, more recently 16,000 K and 20,000 K. Meanwhile, actinic lighting is used to make the somewhat fluorescent colors of many corals and fish "pop", creating brighter "display" tanks...

76 sounds fine, that's warmer than my inside tank and the ribbon plants are thriving so it must be your light... I had a look at my lamps (2) on our tank which are also fluro bulbs, it just says they are energy saving 15 watt (Daylight) bulbs... cheers > Ron

BronzeTheMoor you remind me of a time my teacher used wikipedia to make colts fans look really bad.