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Do you guys think reducing the lighting period and/or intensity would help? Lights are currently on for 51/2 hours a day - was thinking about reducing this to 4 1/2 - would that help? Or, the lighting unit has 2 x 25w and 1 x 20w bulbs - should I maybe switch one off??

I'm kinda at a loss as to what to do now. I assumed it was the low light levels coupled with the high ferts/CO2 I add each week, as nothing else had changed. The new lights have been on the tank for three days now and I've continued with the usual doses of ferts/CO2 but the water is still...

If you suspect the good filter bacteria have been affected by the recent meds you should test for ammonia/nitrite and perform large water changes until things settle again and you're getting 0 readings for them both.

Hi Darrel, I assumed it was the poor lighting causing the issue as nothing else has changed in the tank and it doesn't receive any direct sunlight. What else could have caused the water to go cloudy/slightly green in colour and the BBA to suddenly take hold again? Any ideas at all? Would a large...

Hiya, yes, regular water change every 10 days - 50%. The tank gets no direct sunlight.

Have you tested for ammonia? Fish gasping, cloudiness etc are classic signs of ammonia. Is this a mature tank?

Hi All, looking for a wee bit of advice please regarding a new issue that's come up in my established tropical tank. I've been a bit lax with changing the T8 lights regularly and I think this has caused a bit of green water algae in the tank. I hadn't changed the lights for about 18 months and...

I was dosing with carbon every day a while back but was getting terrible green hair algae trouble so cut it back to 3 times a week and increased NPK to 3 times a week and the issue has improved greatly. Still get some green hair algae but easily picked off the one plant it affects when I do the...

Completely agree. When I cycled the tank a year and half ago or so, I was so worried that the bacteria wouldn't cope with such a low tap water ph and non-existent KH/GH. I didn't want to start faffing with the natural tap water chemistry as I wanted to keep soft water fish in a low tech tank...

Thanks, but replacing the substrate isn't an option.

Yeah, I gravel vac with each water change but am careful not to disturb the gravel around the plants too much.

Hi, just plain gravel.

Hi all, I'm thinking about upping the amount of NPK I currently add to my tank and wanted to get some advice from you guys whether or not you think this is a good idea. Set-up and current ferts dosing; 165L tank 10 x Rummy Nose Tetra, 10 x X Ray Tetra pH 5/5.5, very soft water 25 degrees c...

Well done for cycling the tank without fish and using ammonia instead. It's the best way to ensure that no new inhabitants suffer from ammonia poisoning when you eventually add them to the tank. Unfortunately though, your tank is really too small for fish. Your idea of shrimp though is a good...

Yeah, so far anyway! If this one does well I might get another one of a different type. The only thing I'm not clear on is if the bulbs have to be rested periodically.

Hi, it's an Aponogeton Boivinianus. It's already sprouted several new leaves in just a few days so hopefully it will be quite happy!

Thanks for the reply. I planted it today. I planted it so that the top of the bulb (where the leaves are coming out) is above the substrate - is this about right or should I uncover some more of the bulb? Not sure how deep they should be planted.

Hi all, I ordered an Aponogeton bulb recently and received it last week. It's been sitting in a bucket waiting to go into the tank for about a week. However, the bulb hasn't sunk in all that time and is floating mid-bucket. I read online that this could mean the bulb is spent and therefore no...

Hi, as has been pointed out, goldfish and planted tanks are a tricky thing to achieve! Goldfish will quickly uproot plants and will eat them, which is fine as they can form an essential supplement to their diet. The key to keeping a planted goldfish tank is to buy lots of cheap, easy to keep...

I used to order from them years ago and each time received excellent plants and excellent service. However, I ordered from them last year and I won't be using them again! Service and customer care seems to have gone awol at Green Machine unfortunately. I ordered a full size plant and was sent...

Right, it was water change day today so I took the opportunity to do some re-scaping! You guys were right! :) I put the plants into larger groups of the same type and did the same with the small rocks and left an open area in the middle of the tank. I think it looks much better! Just need the...

I think you guys are right. Now that you've pointed this out to me, I can clearly see that the new leaves are a different shape to the old ones. I know that swords are grown emersed but this didn't even occur to me this time! Doh! Thank you!

Thanks Wisey. I'm concerned though that planting in more compact groups will affect growth as plants might not get enough light if they are planted more densely - is this something I should be concerned about do you think? Or will the plants still get enough light? I'm thinking about moving one...

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Regarding the algae issues (see my ongoing post in the Algae section!) I add liquid carbon twice a week and the lights are on for 5 1/2 hours a day. I'm going to try reducing the lighting to 5 hours and see if light reduction has any impact on the algae. What is...

Hi guys, I'm looking for a wee bit of help please with my planted tank. I've always wanted to have a healthy, low maintenance and attractive aquascaped tank. It all started out along the right lines when I set up the tank and fishless cycled it about 9 months ago. But over the past months the...

Hi, it's definitely an Ozelot! I think! Here's a better picture!

Thanks guys. Looking at the link you posted Colinlp and the image attached of deficiencies, it looks like the plants may not be getting enough NPK? Pinholes on the occasional leaf plus every so often I'll find a leaf with a dead patch forming on the outside edge.

Hi, I switched from using the API nitrate test to the Nutrafin Nitrate test. I was finding the API test was impossible to distinguish between 40 and 80 - the Nutrafin test is much easier to read colour-wise. Also, it's worth remembering that nitrate tests generally are not very reliable anyway...

Removed this leaf today from an Amazon Sword Ozelot. Can anyone advise please what might have caused this brown spot / hole in the leaf? Could it just be an old leaf?? Thanks all!

Help! The green hair algae is getting worse in my tank lately! The only thing I've changed is the flow direction - I added spray bars about 6 weeks ago to try to ensure all of the plants were getting ferts and to create a circular flow around the tank. I really don't know what else I can do to...

Hi there, thanks for checking in to see how I'm getting on. Appreciate it. Yes, I know - uprooting the sword plants is bad! I'm trying to not uproot them but sometimes the temptation to do so in order to remove the BBA is overwhelming!! I have had to remove the elodea as it was rotting away...

Thanks for the suggestions - will take a look! :)

Nah! Don't want to start messing with the natural chemistry of the water! :)

I didn't think 70w was very much light? Confused! I thought that was considered low-medium light level?

Now see, I had wondered if liquid carbon might melt the elodea. But I couldn't find any definitive info on it. I did read that elodea doesn't like acidic conditions particularly so just assumed it was dying off due to this. I don't add a lot of liquid carbon - 2.5ml twice a week. I would like...

Hi all, I recently added some elodea to my tank just to add something cheap and cheerful and to fill up some space in the background. However, I've removed it tonight as over the past 6 weeks or so it's not done well and was rotting from the bottom of the stems. I put this down to the very low...

Hi, I have/had a similar issue in my 165L tank recently. Green hair algae started to appear a few weeks after I started dosing Easycarbo to deal with BBA. I was dosing 2.5ml every other day. You say you are dosing 6ml each day?? That seems a lot to me! Why are you dosing so much over the...

Hi, so I did my usual 50% weekly water change yesterday and tackled the planting! I removed all the old, damaged and algae ridden leaves from the existing swords. I added the new sword plants and the elodea, which I'd already bought so thought I might as well chuck it in and see how it goes! As...

I have two Eheim Biopowers in my main tank and just bought another for my quarantine tank. Good filters.

Ok, I've done some reading on the site and am going to try adding spray bars to both filters tomorrow and point them in the same direction across the tank.

Hi all, thanks for your help so far - much appreciated. Here's my plan for trying to deal with the hair algae tomorrow and try to refresh the tank - feedback and advice gratefully received! 50% water change. Might add a spray bar to one of the internal filters to increase surface agitation...

Hi there, I can't help with the algae problem (having one of my own!), but if you want to keep the filter cycled and ready for fish you will need to keep feeding it an ammonia source or the bacteria will die off and you may get ammonia/nitrite issues when you add the fish. I'm about to order...

Thanks Darrel for that detailed reply. Really interesting. Yeah, I've been removing the most badly affected and older leaves from the Amazon swords as I thought that was for the best and would encourage new growth. There is lots of new growth on the swords but new leaves are slow to grow big...

Thank you - I bought some new plants today so plan to cut back all the old algae covered leaves from the existing swords and add the new plants. I will try reducing the carbon to maybe three doses a week to start with and see how that goes. Then if that doesn't help I will try increasing NPK...

Hi all, joined the forum yesterday and thought I'd say hello! I set up a tropical tank about 6 months ago after many years of keeping fancy goldfish. The goldfish have all sadly gone to the big pond in the sky, so I thought I'd try a less demanding tropical / planted set up this time around...

Hi Darrel, thanks for your reply. I used to keep goldfish for a long time so was used to vacuuming the gravel really well every week without fail! Keeping tropicals and a properly planted tank is new to me so I guess I'm still sticking with old habits and over-cleaning the gravel maybe? I'm...

Hi there, thanks so much for the reply. Interesting that you think I'm dosing too much ferts. I hadn't even thought of that. So you think I should reduce ferts? I was going to try increasing NPK to 3 times a week to see what effect that had. I live in a very soft water area and nitrate out the...

Figured out why couldn't upload images! Here they are. The tank today; Close up of hair algae; How the tank looked once I'd cycled it and added the fish about 6 months ago;

Hi all, new to the forum and looking for some advice please on my planted tropical setup and its algae issues! Here are the tank stats; Tropical tank setup about 6 months ago, fishless cycled and now home to 10 Rummy Nose Tetras. 165L AquaOne. Lighting is 70w total and lighting period is 5 1/2...