1st planted tank. Am I doing things right?

[Marc1t]

Hi to everyone. I'm new here & very new to the planted aquarium, though I have kept fish in the past. Iv experienced a few issues & just wondered if I was doing anything wrong? Im open to any criticism or advice you may have, as I really want to do things right.
Right my set up!.......... I have a 220litre 2foot cube aquarium, Eheim 2028 external filter with ceramic tubes in the bottom, Substat Pro middle & carbon in the top, with the usual filter pads. lighting is 2 24W T5HO Fluval power tubes. Is this enough lighting? Temp set to 26C. Substrate is ADA power sand with Aquasoil Amazonia granules & powder over the top. The plants I have in there is a Discus mix from Aqua essentials,all easy plants but could do with a few more? & some carpeting plants open to suggestions here, . fish stock is light at the moment just 10 cardinal & neon tetras recently added will increase when conditions have stabelised & add a few Ottocinclus & Corries. The tank has been up & running now for about 3 months. all my levels Nitrite, Nitrate Ammonia are 0 PH 7 I have not measured for hardness or phosphate yet but I am looking into some test kits to get.
A couple of things I'm not happy with.
1. Water clarity, during the day the water looks pretty clear but in the evening ie when its darker with the lights on I can see a white ish haze, also all of a sudden I got an outbrake of algae I think it was hair algae, not sure but maybe kept the lights on for too long? about 10 hours now reduced to about 8. What I did. 1/3 water change every 3 or 4 days. Is this too much? Can you do too many water changes? I have an RO filter & mix 50/50 with tap water, I read someware that this would reduce algae & would be good for the fish? Ill confess not sure if im doing the right thing here? cleaned the filter just once nothing too drastic just washed the pads in aquarium water & poured the dirt from the bottom of the filter, did not use tap water at all. Algae is still coming back but much reduced.
2, I tried to grow Cuba didn't really work so I pulled it out want to have another go. I know this plant is a bit more difficult but any advice here. also I have Echindorus Tenelius which isn't doing that great was fine for a while but seems to have slowed down.
Having read a few things on here I have started dosing Easy life Carbo & Am looking into FE Co2 after reading through the tutorials, seems the right way to go, but not sure whether I really need this.
Is there any other Ferts that I need to introduce. or anything else for that matter which Im not doing or doing wrong.
Any advice would be great thanks.
Marc

 

[EnderUK]

The two T5HO is more than enough for a CO2 injected high tech tank. Anyway you can take out at least one? Cover it up with electrical tape, turn the reflector around so half the light is getting through?

Don't worry about test kits, all you really need is a pH pen if you are going to CO2 inject and maybe a TDS pen if you really care about water hardness, the fish won't. The ferts usually recommened on this forum are dry salts. KNO3, MgSO4, KH2PO4 and Trace Elements. Check out aquarium gardens in the sponsor and look for the 10% off code.

Highly recommend you go to the tutorial section and read through them all.

You can't really do to many water changes. Keep it up until the water is clear might just but poorly washed substrate. You can also use active charcoal or purigen. Floss also works but can quickly reduce the filter flow.

 

[Julian]

Everything Ender said basically.

I was a bit shocked when reading through all of that, the money you must have spent, to then find that you weren't injecting CO2...

You could take out half your Ceramic media, plants will remove most of the bad stuff.

 

[Marc1t]

.

I was a bit shocked when reading through all of that, the money you must have spent,
quote].[/


I don't think iv spent that much in the grand scheme of things really! £90 for the whole setup bought second hand immaculate, excluding the lovely oak stand (even if I do say so ) built by myself. I could do a tutorial on this lol. cost me £50 in materials & the substrate for £80 (thought that was expensive) plants were £45 & the fish were £20 all spread over 5 months.
Is that not a bargain???
Looking into the FE Co2 route at the mo. Ok iv spent a bit!!
Cheers for your comments
Marc

 

[Marc1t]

Sorry about the last post don't quite know what happened there hope it makes sence!!!

 

[alto]

I think you're fine with the actual lights - I've a similar cube (60 x 55 x 55) & run 2 T5HO (luminaire is actually 4 lamp so I run the 2 outer lamps to get a reasonably even light spread across the tank bottom ie front to back) BUT go back to a much shorter photoperiod, perhaps 5 hours to start.
You can slowly increase as plant mass increases/algae clears etc; if you want longer viewing time for the tank, you can diffuse some of the light (as EnderUK suggests) or just pick up a weak (cheap) LED - I happen to really like watching a tank with dimmed LED lighting, lots of shadows & ripple across the water surface gives mice movement to the dim light that does enter the water.

As you're not supplementing CO2, this is going to be the limiting plant growth factor in your tank, that new ADA soil will supply good substrate nutrients but you may want to consider a water column fertilizer, Tropica does a nice line if you're not interested in EI ...

The white clouding of the water is likely a bacterial bloom or "green water" (more of an "algae") - try placing a white cloth (or strong tissue) just into the water, "collect" whatever may be there for a minute or so, then view the cloth under good lighting ... if you see a green tint or brown tint it's an algae.
This sort of algae responds well to UV (if that's something you've been dying to add to your tank 😉) or you might use some of the flocculents (such as Seachem Clarity) BUT beware that any of these flocculents may affect oxygen levels & pH (slight to dramatic), especially if water is "soft" - or you can just wait it out.
This last may be a few weeks to months but I always start there - adding in Purigen may help (it's very good at "polishing" water), there are also mechanical micron-filters (not sure how available these are nowadays, they are usually a bit tricky to get working properly as you need to "charge" the resin & they are noisy & can blast into your substrate if you're not careful). Water changes improve the clarity short term (usually back to "cloudy" by the next day), adding additional plants (IF they thrive), increasing the liquid carbon (you don't mention dosing levels, some plants & fish are sensitive to higher doses, especially long term), adding CO2 (gas) ie anything that changes & re-balances the tank.

(I've a slight Green Water (that actually looks more brown (on the cloth) at present) - it's common here in the spring as local water supply is from natural resevoirs (read man-made lakes))

HC is not easy to establish in a 2 foot deep tank without CO2 & water column fertilizers - read up on maintenance & be sure this is the carpet plant you want.

Otocinclus & shrimp are always a helpful algae crew.
Cories can create a bit of dust/disturbance with the ADA soil, so I'd wait until you get the tank sorted first.

As to your expenses, they sound good to me 🙂 - absolutely do a tutorial on that!

Photos would likely help with suggestions, especially re the E tenellus - there are some nice journals where only liquid CO2 is used.

You're fine with the water changes, with ADA it's not uncommon to begin with 50% daily water changes for the first couple of weeks, then gradually decrease frequency.
What are you using for a dechloriator/tap water conditioner?

Re filter, perhaps rinse out the fine pads monthly at this stage, depending on what you find when you open the filter - you don't want a load of debris in there.
I'd leave the biological media as is, until plants are well established, If you're depending on the carbon pad for "polishing" & the rest of the "carbon claims" this needs to be replaced at least monthly, at this stage your carbon pad is acting much like a mechanical/biological filter pad.

For carpeting plants, again photos would be helpful, also what level of maintenance do you like to do ... in a 60cm deep tank, the E tenellus may work fine as a "carpet"
Have you consider H tripartita Tropica has done a very nice plant video.

 

[Marc1t]

Hi
Thanks for you comments, loads of useful advice there. Still not sure what the haze is could be the ADA soil it did take ages to clear when I first filled the tank. I'm reluctant to use clearing agents, it'll probably come back afterwards anyway, so I wont waste my money just yet, Patience here I think is the way forward. As for the filter media, bit worried about messing about to much with it at the moment as its still fairly newly established. Purigen Iv heard of as a good product I might try this.

Thanks Alto & Ender for the lighting advice. I really thought being new to this that I did not have enough light, but after reading the tutorials on Co2 & lighting Its all beginning to make sense Ill reduce the light & duration for a bit see what happens. Your idea about cheap dim LED's is great & it got me thinking of a blue actinic sort of lighting for the evening. any ideas on this?. The brightness of my tank is a bit "in your face" when you just want to chill with a glass of wine after work.
The dechlorinater Im using is Aqua Care tap water conditioner, claims to remove chloramine aswell. To be honest to me this stuff is a complete mystery I have no idea how such a small amount added does the job immediately as it also claims Its just a leap of faith & I always chuck the recommended dose in at water change, Any suggestions on other products?

Still on the lookout for a carpet plant as well as a few red plants to fill a few gaps, I like the look of the one you suggest, Im not sure on the E Tenillius in my aquascape the jury is still out on that one, ill stick it out for a bit longer.

The next stage I think after reading the tutorials is to go for Co2 injection & thinking about the FE route here seems practical & fairly cheep. & Im sure it will be beneficial.
Im adding Easy Life Carbo at the moment, plant fertilisers is another mystery I read the tutorial about EI but to be honest it was a bit over my head ill need to read it again. and trawl the ferts forum.
Cheers for now Marc.

 

[alto]

For red, this Ludwigia sp is one of the easiest - I really like the leaf size & it will grow under most conditions (note that Tropica version has been selected/developed for that red).
Tropica has loads of videos on their Youtube channel, many showing growth over 90days - just take note of the aquarium conditions re substrate, light, CO2 etc when considering how a particular plant will do in your own tank.

it got me thinking of a blue actinic sort of lighting for the evening. any ideas on this?.

Not my thing (I hate that weird blue lighting & I've seen fish show stress under it) - I invested in Kessil & just use the lamp at lowest possible setting + magazines atop the glass cover, to create "moonlight" shimmer in the tank ...
I was in the local "everything" shop & they had new LED lights in (that plug into various lamp sockets) in a range of voltages, a couple of "spectra", dimmable etc

Aqua Care tap water conditioner

I use Seachem Prime as it's got some great studies behind it (unfortunately this data is no longer publicly available) & 5ml treats 50 US gal (based upon a X amount of chlorine/chloramines, printed on the bottle or the FAQ) but there are many that work just fine.
The only important note is that if you're treating in the tank (rather than pre-treating the change water in bins), you need to add conditioner for the entire tank volume & not just the change water volume - this is especially important if your water contains chloramine rather than chlorine.