Help: Improving My Tank

[Eugine Thomas]

THE HISTORY OF A TANK

​

Introduction

My plants grow very slowly and are listless; problems with browning, etc. When I first added my plants I did have the lights on for “ridiculous-hours” (and they grew very well), but I had an outbreak of staghorn algae (since then (now a few months ago) I have cut back my lights to 8 hours with 1 bulb, only); however, having said that, I added an extra hour to my timer yesterday because a few plants (that were added several weeks ago), were still struggling and wilting. I know this may be the effects of shock but I thought that one more hour would be okay to try; especially since I was planning on adding CO₂ in a few days.

My Technical Specification List

Aquarium age: 6 months

Tank: 4x1x1 foot (with an extra 4 inches in height; although I don't fill the water to the brim)

Soil: 50-50 (vermiculite and “Westland Aquatic Compost”); potassium sulfate added on start-up; capped with flint gravel. There are 3 pieces of bog-wood and 1 piece of redmoor. Aquarium sand has been added to the front of the tank for aesthetic purposes (no plants are rooted in this area).

Filter: Fluval 4 Plus and (an uninstalled) 3000L/H wave-maker

Heater: Marina 300 W

Lighting: 2x “Solar Tropic 38W Solar Fluorescent Tubes T8” with Arcadia reflectors; one on 8 hours a day

KH = 5 dKh
GH = 6 dGh
TDS = N/A

Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrate = 0 ppm
Nitrite = 0 ppm

pH = 7.4-7.8 [see note below]
Temperature: 23.5 C

Water-changes: every two weeks

CO₂ = 5 ppm (estimated via KH and pH readings) from tap

Nutrients: [excluding fertilised substrate on start-up (potassium sulfate)] a few root-tabs (Plants Alive) were added yesterday . That's it. Again: the tank is 6 months old. I do have an bottle of “Tetra Plantamin Fertiliser” that I was going to open.

Estimated nightly pH swing: 0.4 pH [see note below]

[NOTE (re: pH readings): I actually think that my pH swing is 0 and that I've been, albeit in a consistent manner, incorrectly reading my tests (until recently). When I recognised that I was casting a shadow from the test-tube onto the card, I realised that I'd been trying to mentally compensate for what I thought was a slight printing error in the manufacturing of the test card (or, I thought, the sun-bleaching of the card). I think my true pH is 7.8 and there is a 0 pH swing]

Fish, etc.: 6 Amano Shrimp, 1 Blue Shrimp, 1 Cherry Fire Shrimp, 1 Green Shrimp; 2 Golden Pencil Fish, 5 Leopard Danio, 6 “Galaxy Rasbora”, 5 Threadfin Rainbow, 1 Lemon Tetra , 1 Red Sword, 4 White Cloud Mountain Minnow, 1 Golden Cloud Mountain Minnow, 1 Penguin Tetra; a few Assassin Snails.

Other: I slightly overfeed my fish so that my Amano Shrimps get some food (there wasn't enough food reaching the bottom of the tank and the shrimps started to eat my plants (see bald stems in the pictures above) (a cory also died)). I changed my water yesterday: it was my first ever weekly-change since cycling my tank.

My Plan to Improve Things, a Summary

I have a low-tech tank and I am in the process of transitioning to a high(er)-tech aquarium to make my plants grow bushy and look better. In the future I may consider changing my plants (currently all low-light-level plants) but for now I just want improved plant health and plant growth. The plan (provisional) that I have is to slowly raise my carbon dioxide levels from my estimated starting point of 5 ppm up towards 15-20 ppm, over the period of a month. I will (at the same time) add a general plant fertiliser for aquariums, as directed (possibly TNC Complete or TNC Lite); in the future I may also consider adding a form of liquid carbon (dilute glutaraldehyd). I don't think I'll need the full 30 ppm that everyone talks about and, moreover, I'm concerned that if I were to add 30 ppm that the levels of CO₂ would cause a large pH swing and end up killing my fish overnight. Finally, I was going to start raising the light level (about a week after I plan to start adding CO₂)...and when things seem good, stop, and stabilise the system at that point.

I have just bought some new equipment (to be fitted): 1x “Premium Complete Aquarium CO2 System for tank up to 500L - GB / 16/22mm - up to 500L / Standard Drop Checker [http://www.CO2art.co.uk/products/premium-complete-aquarium-CO2-system-for-tank-up-to-500l] and 1x “World Class Advance Precision Needle Valve by SMC with Check Valve”.

I am considering buying a canister filter and an external heater but I do not know which ones to buy (possibly: “Hydor External Aquarium Heater Eth 16mm Hose, 300 Watt” and the “Fluval 406 External Filter for aquariums up to 400L”). I will also add my wave-maker to increase the internal flow of water inside my tank.

Questions

Nutrients

I'm still unsure about what nutrients I should be adding to my tank and, to be honest, it all seems very complicated: the idea of learning the science behind this seems to be too troublesome and risky for me. Is there a good (generalised and reasonably priced) micro-nutrient and macro-nutrient fertiliser that I could dose? I don't mind doing daily (even alternating) dosing, but I'd like to have someone just tell me to "dose this product in this amount on this day" and then "dose that product, in that amount, the other day"; ideally I would like to use one product and dose just once a week: is this possible and what are the consequences if I do?

Miscellaneous

1. How should I increase my light levels relative to my CO₂? Is there a way to roughly correlate them: say, so many bubbles of CO₂ per hour of light? I'm trying to avoid shocking my fish as well as an algae bloom.
2. Have I risked an algae bloom by increasing my lights by 1 hour yesterday; should I stop and wait for my CO₂, etc.?
3. Should I consider adding liquid carbon (dilute glutaraldehyd) from the start?
4. Am I right in thinking that adding liquid carbon will help prevent an algae bloom in the transitional period?
5. Should I buy a CO₂ reactor?
6. Is the Hydor External Aquarium Heater a good choice for my aquarium?
7. I've heard nightmare stories about the Hydor External Aquarium Heater leaking or "boiling" fish. Are these concerns well-founded?
8. How do you "overfeed the fish" to feed amano shrimp (without risking an algae bloom or their eating my plants in a fit of starvation); particularly in regard to my proposed system? Am I being too cautious? Should I remove one or two of them?

Conclusions

I was hoping you could help me with the conclusion: do you see any problems with my plan?





Thank you for your help,

I look forward to your replies,

Eugine.

 

[PARAGUAY]

Your enthusiastic and its infectious Eugine I almost feel guilty as though I should be water changing or setting up another tank or something🙂 Seriously have a good look at the tutorials UKAP and threads here,Q&A at Aqua Essentials,anything about aquascaping in Practical Fishkeeping all sound information.Come back with the questions as we all do.Just quickly though some of your plants fall into the easy category and looked well initially? Could have crashed -lack of nutrients, Tropica Premium a good starting point.Nutrients is simple science if your plants dont get them they suffer as indicates in the photos.Algae problem check lighting -maybe less light,maybe on to long.CO2 gather information on the above.

 

[Eugine Thomas]

Your enthusiastic and its infectious Eugine I almost feel guilty as though I should be water changing or setting up another tank or something🙂 Seriously have a good look at the tutorials UKAP here,Q&A at Aqua Essentials,anything about aquascaping in Practical Fishkeeping all sound information.Come back with the questions others will give better advice and be more knowledgeable than myself.Just quickly though some of your plants fall into the easy category and looked well initially? Could have crashed -lack of nutrients, Tropica Premium a good starting point

I did read the tutorials: that's how I now know I'm out of my depth. I'm trying my best but I just don't have the experience to identify problems and correct for them. I'm hoping that someone will be so kind as to hold my hand through this crucial stage. I lack confidence.

 

[Julian]

1. CO2 stability will determine the photoperiod. Surface agitation determines CO2 stability. There is no way to correlate them in the manner you suggest as there are too many variables in every tank.
2. Yes.
3. Won't hurt.
4. Liquid carbon is an algaecide, so yes.
5. If you can afford one.
6. Yes, just keep it clean (once every few months, make sure it's on the output of the filter)
7. All heaters break, especially without proper maintenance. For every horror story there are a hundred successes.
8. Lots of water changes.

Don't see any problems with your plan.

 

[tam]

It's pretty daunting reading everything when you start 🙂

I would leave your lights where they are for now, that's rarely the issue with plant growth but can definitely lead to algae. I would guess your plants grew well initially because of the fresh soil rather than the higher lights.

Regularly adding a liquid fertilizer should help - particularly if you don't currently have much nitrate. There are a few brands and you can either get the macro and micro separate or an all-in-one option. Tropica do Premium (micros) or Specilised (Both), or you can get pre-mixed EI as a liquid from places like: http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/liquid-fertiliser/apfuk.html or https://www.thenutrientcompany.com/product-category/aquarium-plant-food/

You could also add some liquid carbon, again it keeps things quite simple and you just add the specified amount of liquid per day along with the ferts.

I'd expect that would sort you out. Keep in mind the plants you have won't repair bad leaves so you'll need to do a bit of trimming to get things looking good once you start the new routine.

If you wanted to go high tech, that's more complicated. It might be worth trying things simple to start with and then if that goes well for you then try out high tech.

For your shrimp... I'd suggest some sinking food - go for algae pellets that are too big for the fish to swallow and the shrimps will get a chance to run off with them 😉

 

[Rahms]

I did read the tutorials: that's how I now know I'm out of my depth. I'm trying my best but I just don't have the experience to identify problems and correct for them. I'm hoping that someone will be so kind as to hold my hand through this crucial stage. I lack confidence.

I'm also a beginner but might as well try and give you some basics. Its all about balancing CO2 light and nutrients. Light to a plant is like exercise for a muscle: it damages the plant, but the plant can regrow/repair if there is sufficient CO2 and nutrients. From what I've gathered, its unlikely an 8 hour light period will ever be considered too short: if theyre struggling theyre being damaged faster than they can repair, and adding more light wont help.

Your plants look like theyre melting, which is likely a CO2 distribution issue. You want them to have excess CO2 and nutrients and be light limited, rather than excess light (hello algae and melt).

Adding CO2 will of course help but your light isnt exactly a behemoth, so it shouldn't be a requirement. Chances are your distribution is poor. Consensus seems to be that a spray bar running the length of your tank is the best option, aimed horizontally at the front piece of glass so that it cascades down and creates a nice swirl. You need a filter capable of providing adequate flow for that though. Might be worth installing that pump of yours near to the filter outflow (in the same direction) to beef it up.

As for nutrients, read the EI dosing guide and buy the starter kit from aquariumplantfood, then just dose and forget about it

 

[Eugine Thomas]

1. CO2 stability will determine the photoperiod. Surface agitation determines CO2 stability. There is no way to correlate them in the manner you suggest as there are too many variables in every tank.
2. Yes.
3. Won't hurt.
4. Liquid carbon is an algaecide, so yes.
5. If you can afford one.
6. Yes, just keep it clean (once every few months, make sure it's on the output of the filter)
7. All heaters break, especially without proper maintenance. For every horror story there are a hundred successes.
8. Lots of water changes.

Don't see any problems with your plan.

I'll change the timer back right now, Rahms. Where you said "make sure it's on the output of the filter"; you mean, inspect it to see if it's still attached properly?

Oh, I'll go back and edit the original post to add this question, but, question 9: Is the "Fluval 406 External Filter for aquariums up to 400L" a suitable filter for my plan?

Also, and suggestions of a good carbon reactor?

Thanks for your help,

Eugine

 

[PARAGUAY]

The general consensus for planted tanks is 10 times tank volume a hour,so its this what is important not what a filter is deemed up to,however Fluval are a good filter to have and a powerhead could be added if required,the 10 times is less important for low tech non CO2 set ups

 

[Eugine Thomas]

There are a few brands and you can either get the macro and micro separate or an all-in-one option.

I went for APFUK Simply (Ei) (micro and macro); also bought some liquid carbon.

or you can get pre-mixed EI as a liquid from places like: http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/liquid-fertiliser/apfuk.html or https://www.thenutrientcompany.com/product-category/aquarium-plant-food/

Thanks.

 

[Eugine Thomas]

The general consensus for planted tanks is 10 times tank volume a hour,so its this what is important not what a filter is deemed up to,however Fluval are a good filter to have and a powerhead could be added if required,the 10 times is less important for low tech non CO2 set ups

I read that in the tutorial but, in the same tutorial, the gentleman (I think he was a guy) finally decided to go for a much smaller pump. I'm confused....and a little concerned for the fish.

My wave-maker is rated 2500 LPH.

 

[tam]

Fish waste/food and sometimes tap water provides some of the macros so if you've got a well stocked tank (lots of pooping going on) and low-medium amount of plants (not too much demand), and you are running low tech you might not need to add extra. If you have them separate you can adjust the proportion of macro/micro to factor that in e.g. dose micro twice but macro once. Gives you a bit more control if you want it.

The fact you're reading very low nitrate suggests to me that you'll need some sort of macro - so either the the TNC complete (both macro & micro) or separate bottles so you can add both.

Personally, I'd probably go for the complete plus a bottle of carbon and try those for a month, see how it does before changing anything else. From what I've noticed the plants react quickly so if that works you should see healthy new growth pretty quick.

 

[Eugine Thomas]

Fish waste/food and sometimes tap water provides some of the macros so if you've got a well stocked tank (lots of pooping going on) and low-medium amount of plants (not too much demand), and you are running low tech you might not need to add extra. If you have them separate you can adjust the proportion of macro/micro to factor that in e.g. dose micro twice but macro once. Gives you a bit more control if you want it.

The fact you're reading very low nitrate suggests to me that you'll need some sort of macro - so either the the TNC complete (both macro & micro) or separate bottles so you can add both.

Personally, I'd probably go for the complete plus a bottle of carbon and try those for a month, see how it does before changing anything else. From what I've noticed the plants react quickly so if that works you should see healthy new growth pretty quick.

That's pretty much what I did: bought the fertilisers (although I bought them separately (APFUK Simply (Ei)) with some liquid carbon; going to give it a month before I start to do anything else, I think; however, I've CO₂ arriving on Monday (it'll just have to be for show, for a while). What a shame.

Thanks tam!

 

[Julian]

I'll change the timer back right now, Rahms. Where you said "make sure it's on the output of the filter"

If it's on the intake, unfiltered debris will build up inside it. This is what leads to malfunctions. If it's on the output, the water is cleaner, debris takes longer to build up.

 

[Eugine Thomas]

If it's on the intake, unfiltered debris will build up inside it. This is what leads to malfunctions. If it's on the output, the water is cleaner, debris takes longer to build up.

Clever thinking. Thanks.

I've a 300 Watt heater at the moment and I have to turn it down as far as it can go; I'm thinking of going for the
Hydor ETH 200 In-Line External Heater 200w 1/2 hose instead of the 300 W version. I've never used an external heater so I don't know how the power relates to the number of litres it can heat. The manufacturer says 100-180 l, so I should be better with the 200 W version.

 

[Edvet]

Just my 2 €cts:
You don't need to go "high tech" to grow plants large and healthy, all that can be done in low tech too.
2x 38W T8 sounds like lowish light, so using one will defenitly be low light. You should be able to make it work with 2 T8. Just start with 6 hours and if that is stable you can add till about 8 hours
Vermiculite? Never heard that as substrate,isn't that very light? Basically you can work with any substrate, depending on how much money you want to spend, from cheap riversand to expensive Amazonia. You might research soil based tank, where there is a layer of soil (mineralised or not) under the gravel, but it is not vital.
To grow plants need energy (light),carbon, macro nutriens (N,P, K) and micronutrients (Fe etc). The available energy is the motor, but in order to run smoothly it needs the other components too. If there is unbalance the algea will adept faster and win the race. Energy, macro and micro nutrients are easiest to give in abundance, Carbon is the difficult child. Plants need it not only to grow, but it protects them too.
Seeing carbon is the difficult one it is wise to make your tank dependent of how many available carbon there is. Low tech tanks can do with the carbon with is ready in the tank through diffusion from the outside and through production in the tank/soil/filter.
Adding carbon in the form of chemical fluids or pressurized gas will allow more light and faster grow, but the other ferts have to be available in order not to let the tank spin out of control.
Sadly it is difficult to measure all those values, especially all the tests available in your average shop are realy useless. They will however provide you with false information and stear you in many wrong directions. So please loose them. Now........... Run to your stach and throw them in the bin..................yeah now.......................
So now you got rid of them lets do some basics.
In your case you can still stay low tech, just you have to add ferts.
To make this easy EI was "invented", Just chuck in plenty of everything and have only C be the limiting factor. Don't be afraid, ferts dont cause algea, they are around everywhere and always anyway, bad plantgrowth causes algea. Bad not meaning slow, but bad meaning damaged growth, leaves dying, leaking all kind of nasties etc etc.
If you are daunted by all the info, i would certainly advise you to go low tech. There you have more time to react to mistakes, It's easier to keep a bycicle on the road then a F1 car.
In a low tech filtering is less critical, waterchanges are less critical, general growth is slower, so no need to prune all the time, and almost all plants you want can be grown low tech (realy).
You talk about a external cannister filter. This will work fine, and as a bonus you will have less clutter in the tank. The filter you have now can work too, you might need to clean it a bit faster because it has a smaller volume.
As an added note: guestimating CO2 through that table is not correct either, so forget you have 5 ppm CO2.
About ferts: you can add low dosis ferts with the EI method easily, the forum sponsors have good starter sets with easy instructions, and remember ferts don't cause algea.
About heaters: a simple in tank one is good enough, i don't like inline or in cannister heaters, but that's my preference
About Carbon: adding carbon doesn't prevent algea! Adding carbon allows more light to be safely added thus increasing growthspeed, but also increasing the risc of getting things wrong.

About your tank: why not fill all the way?
Not sure how your substrate is, or if it needs change, but i would start to add ferts (ei method, do app 1/5 of the high tech dose), and if possible use 2 tubes for 6 hours, See how the plants react. Remove as much damaged leaves as possible, and do 2 waterchanges per week for app 10-20%. After 2/3 weeks you should be able to see wether the plants are doing better. If you get a lot of algae drop 1 light and use that for 6 hours. Remember it all goes a bit slower in low light.

Should you want to go the CO2 route, i would advise a pH measuring pen in order to see if you get the CO2 working in good order. An hourly measurement will give far better information than any table or dropchecker. But again if i where you i would start the low tech route first.

 

[EnderUK]

Your lighting is fine for a low tech tank, what you seem to be suffering from is lack of nutrients such as Potassium, Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Those large holes in your plants aren't your shrimp eating them. It's your plants starving and dying which the shrimp then eat the decaying leaves. You don't need to feed your shrimp, there's enough food in your tank for them to eat even though you can't see it, overfeeding can lead to fish health problems as well as general tank problems.

Liquid carbon won't do any harm, I would probably recommend in over CO2 injection with your light levels. There's a good tutorial about liquid CO2 here. You've bought your CO2 kit though so you can use that as well. I would recommend an external filter just to remove the internal filter from the view. You don't have to buy an Hydor heater, if you get the growth right you can simply hide the heater in your tank with plants 😉

Perhaps get some fast growing stem plants to fill in the back. The stem plants I would probably trim down, plant the tips in clumps of 3-4 and keep trimming as they start to grow to get them bushy. I would personally remove any of the dying leaves to try to encourage new leaf growth rather than the plant wasting energy in the dying leaves, this guide here. You can save this tank so don't panic.

 

[EnderUK]

haha Edvet beat me to it.

 

[Eugine Thomas]

About your tank: why not fill all the way?

I like to see the waterline: it's just a "thing".

Vermiculite? Never heard that as substrate,isn't that very light?

It's a long story: lightens the soil and allows for a deeper substrate to be planted; helps with rooting and the storage of nutrients, etc. Gardeners use it all the time when potting plants.

Just my 2 €cts:
You don't need to go "high tech" to grow plants large and healthy, all that can be done in low tech too.
2x 38W T8 sounds like lowish light, so using one will defenitly be low light. You should be able to make it work with 2 T8. Just start with 6 hours and if that is stable you can add till about 8 hours
Vermiculite? Never heard that as substrate,isn't that very light? Basically you can work with any substrate, depending on how much money you want to spend, from cheap riversand to expensive Amazonia. You might research soil based tank, where there is a layer of soil (mineralised or not) under the gravel, but it is not vital.
To grow plants need energy (light),carbon, macro nutriens (N,P, K) and micronutrients (Fe etc). The available energy is the motor, but in order to run smoothly it needs the other components too. If there is unbalance the algea will adept faster and win the race. Energy, macro and micro nutrients are easiest to give in abundance, Carbon is the difficult child. Plants need it not only to grow, but it protects them too.
Seeing carbon is the difficult one it is wise to make your tank dependent of how many available carbon there is. Low tech tanks can do with the carbon with is ready in the tank through diffusion from the outside and through production in the tank/soil/filter.
Adding carbon in the form of chemical fluids or pressurized gas will allow more light and faster grow, but the other ferts have to be available in order not to let the tank spin out of control.
Sadly it is difficult to measure all those values, especially all the tests available in your average shop are realy useless. They will however provide you with false information and stear you in many wrong directions. So please loose them. Now........... Run to your stach and throw them in the bin..................yeah now.......................
So now you got rid of them lets do some basics.
In your case you can still stay low tech, just you have to add ferts.
To make this easy EI was "invented", Just chuck in plenty of everything and have only C be the limiting factor. Don't be afraid, ferts dont cause algea, they are around everywhere and always anyway, bad plantgrowth causes algea. Bad not meaning slow, but bad meaning damaged growth, leaves dying, leaking all kind of nasties etc etc.
If you are daunted by all the info, i would certainly advise you to go low tech. There you have more time to react to mistakes, It's easier to keep a bycicle on the road then a F1 car.
In a low tech filtering is less critical, waterchanges are less critical, general growth is slower, so no need to prune all the time, and almost all plants you want can be grown low tech (realy).
You talk about a external cannister filter. This will work fine, and as a bonus you will have less clutter in the tank. The filter you have now can work too, you might need to clean it a bit faster because it has a smaller volume.
As an added note: guestimating CO2 through that table is not correct either, so forget you have 5 ppm CO2.
About ferts: you can add low dosis ferts with the EI method easily, the forum sponsors have good starter sets with easy instructions, and remember ferts don't cause algea.
About heaters: a simple in tank one is good enough, i don't like inline or in cannister heaters, but that's my preference
About Carbon: adding carbon doesn't prevent algea! Adding carbon allows more light to be safely added thus increasing growthspeed, but also increasing the risc of getting things wrong.

About your tank: why not fill all the way?
Not sure how your substrate is, or if it needs change, but i would start to add ferts (ei method, do app 1/5 of the high tech dose), and if possible use 2 tubes for 6 hours, See how the plants react. Remove as much damaged leaves as possible, and do 2 waterchanges per week for app 10-20%. After 2/3 weeks you should be able to see wether the plants are doing better. If you get a lot of algae drop 1 light and use that for 6 hours. Remember it all goes a bit slower in low light.

Should you want to go the CO2 route, i would advise a pH measuring pen in order to see if you get the CO2 working in good order. An hourly measurement will give far better information than any table or dropchecker. But again if i where you i would start the low tech route first.

I've bought APFUK Simply (Ei) (both micro and macro); also bought some liquid carbon. I was going to dose as the manufacturer's instructions say: is that what I should do, or should I scale those measurements down 1/5?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Eugine Thomas]

I want to stabilise my aquarium as a low-tech tank first? Get myself up and running with both light bulbs? I'm a bit scared of light as the last time I had both lights on I had to deal with staghorn (I could only deal with it by dropping the lights). I have to confess (please don't tell anyone): I had them both on for sixteen hours...then I dropped them both to fourteen hours (didn't work); then I gave up and went for one bulb on for eight hours. I've been in the box ever since.

What about this?

Week 1

1. Dose micro-nutrients (as manufacturer's instructions)
   
   
2. Dose macro-nutrients (as manufacturer's instructions)
   
   
3. Dose liquid carbon (as manufacturer's instructions)

Week 2

1. Start to increase my lights (any suggestions about how fast?)

 

[Eugine Thomas]

There's a good tutorial about liquid CO2 here.

I keep seeing "SeaChem Equilibrium" being mentioned. What is it and why do people use it?

+ Calicum?
+Magnesium?

Why?