2nd Time From Fresh.

[Joshwainwright]

Hey,
I've had my tropical fish tank for about a year now but recently (yesterday) I have completely restarted as I got annoyed with many aspects which are already starting to show.

The things that annoyed me
-Fish almost constantly dying with no signs of disease. This was VERY frustrating as I was always spending money on new fish. Already I have lost a fish after one day after restarting.
-Plants almost constantly dying. Again, very frustrating for the same reason. And again, new plants have started dying.

-Water turning green. After a couple of months trying to maintain the fish tank, the water would turn green. (a point of which i gave in with plants.)
-Water smelling. Again, after a couple of months or even weeks the water would start smelling awfull. Already, I can smell a difference.

I don't know what I have been doing wrong but I have put some things in place to try help. They include
-Inserting bubbles to try make the fish live longer.
http/img80.imageshack.us/img80/3225/dscf1248.jpg
-Buy some plant food to try make the plants live longer.

-Weekly 1/3 water changes.

Do you think this will help or will I still be doing something wrong?



By the way, some pics:

The fish tank with the light which is supposed to help plant growth.

The tank with the normal light.

Cucumber, a treat for the fish.

One of my black mollies, (big bully's!)

A pretty orange molly!

 

[~T~]

Yeh you might want to resize those pics.

 

[guppy_man]

First and third plants are not aquatic hence the reason they are dieing, they will start to rot and foul your water, so i would remove them.
The cabomba may not be getting enough light.

What Wattage are your tubes?

Are you dosing the right amount of fert?

To be honnest even if you are dosing the right amount, the 'pets at home' brand would'nt be my choice of fert. Check out the 'Plant section' for fert reccomendations.

Have you thought of adding CO2? If you want to know about DIY CO2 give me a shout, ill be happy to help.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah I was going to say that the first plant and the 3rd one don't appear to be aquatic plants.
If you're looking for some, best to ask in the planted tank section of the forums here and ask what would be best.
Not knowing the wattage of your light, good plants to start off with are low light. Such as java fern, anubias, java moss, crypts. Java fern and anubias need to be tied to something though. Like wood or rock. Don't bury their roots in the substrate.
The crypts, ime, the leaves will melt off when disturbed, BUT that doesn't mean the plant is dead. It should grow new leaves soon after. It's just that while the old leaves are melting off, you gotta clean up the mess.

When you say tht you restarted, did you start with brand new filter? Filter media? Or are you using the old stuff that was in there already?
Do you know what your water stats are? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

1. Has the tank been cycled? Probably the reason why the fish are dying.

2. As others stated, those plants (aside from the Cabomba) are bog plants. In nature, they can adapt to the changing water levels of the bog and be submersed for a short period of time. After that they tend to die off. Do you know your WPG? Your tank doesn't seem very bright so I suggest you find out your WPG and then you can find plants that are suitable for your tank.

If you took some time to research you would definitley be better off with your 2nd tank.