Hello everyone, I was hoping to get some honest feedback before I make some changes to my aquarium. When I was younger, I kept several community setups, even tried a live reef set up at one time. In those days we did not have the numerous test kits that come with hobby now. I settled into to a new home about 2 years ago and decided it was time to do a fish aquarium again. Planted aquariums seem to be the most popular set up, which was something that was not done back when I first did my aquariums. I have a 55 gallon cube, was going to be a salt set up but changed my mind. I decided to go with a low-tech plant set up with a sand substrate. I have some large pieces of driftwood, tried to attach some flame moss and petite anubias. Plants are not growing, but algae is. I have 7 Congo tetras, 7 cory cats, a small bristlenose and one nerite snail. I have spent numerous hours researching lighting; intensity, how long to leave on, what spectrum. Should I give the plants fertilizer but be careful not to spike the nitrates. This is definitely more stressful then when I kept fish before. My focus is more on fish then plants, so I was thinking of just pulling the almost dead plants out, cleaning it up and going with a fish only tank. Of course, everything I read says that planted aquariums are so much more stable. Any advice on how to proceed. Thanks
Advice on New Tank
- Thread starter Gdog67
- Start date
The algae you have is is down to excess nutrients in the water, if you don't fertilize for the plants, it's likely going to be from the food
It's also down to the light, both plants listed don't need much light , so you could likely turn it way down or even off and see what happens .
Having faster growing plants in there will also help stop algae growth too . Stem plants can just be floated in the water to use up the nutrients that feed algae, or terrestrial plants with their roots in the water (pothos is common, but not my thing as it's toxic to cats)
The type of algae you gave might give a better clue, maybe post pictures
But lower the amount of light for now, it makes fighting the algae easier
Good luck
It's also down to the light, both plants listed don't need much light , so you could likely turn it way down or even off and see what happens .
Having faster growing plants in there will also help stop algae growth too . Stem plants can just be floated in the water to use up the nutrients that feed algae, or terrestrial plants with their roots in the water (pothos is common, but not my thing as it's toxic to cats)
The type of algae you gave might give a better clue, maybe post pictures
But lower the amount of light for now, it makes fighting the algae easier
Good luck