Help Me Out Here?

[Paradise3]

Right, so I'm limited on money. I am on £15 a week currently but I need to save £80 for other things. At some point, preferably before New Year, I want to change this...

 
Into a nicely planted tank. I want to go down the Co2 road but it won't be technical Co2. It'll probably be Yeast or something similar. I can't afford a big Co2 set-up, even if I save up.
So I wanted to know - Lights? Ferts? Plants? I am not having luck right now with this tank. Once every 3 months I'm having to rip everything out of this tank and scrub the hair algae off it all. This is how it looks right now. The one in my signature is very much earlier this year... AKA - March time.
 
You can see what the hair algae is doing to my tank... Everytime I have to rip hair algae out, I lose more plants. My Vallis is dying back because I end up cutting it back every time as the hair algae attacks it first. The only original plant I have left is my Cryptocoryne wendtii. I've had that since I had my 3ft planted set up last year. I call it my "Big Mother Plant" because she's constantly creating little babies
 
So, what can I do? Keep in mind, I'm only on £15 a week and I won't have any spare money for the next 5 weeks and on the 6th week I'll only have £10. I need new lights but I have an idea of what lights I can get and they are cheap enough. So far I have an Interpet Daylight Tropical 30" Bulb and it's that causing my hair algae problems.
 
I know I've set this thread going early but I need ideas.

 

[Shelster]

What plant ferts are you currently using?

I had this too with my 180 but now I'm high tech, but just by adding carbon and ferts to water, no Co2 canisters....... Yet

SLIM helped me out with making my own ferts and chelated trace so it works out cheaper.

 

[DrRob]

OK, first answer, don't get better lights. You can grow great plants, slowly, with low lights. More light energy without sorting the rest of the stuff makes for more algae, not better plants. Improve the lights last.
 
Personally I'd start with ferts. You can get a dry fert micro mix for very little from places like this that'll last you for ages for micros. Macros only come with higher light and CO2.
 
For budget CO2, yes, start with the home brew method.
 
Plants wise, check the forum classifieds and donations. You can get some great plants that way that have already been grown immersed.

 

[Shelster]

I stripped all my plants back, and removed the badly effected ones and added loads of new ones too.

 

[Paradise3]

Actually, the lights I was going to get where what I had before I got this Tropical Daylight Bulb... They were clip on LED lights and I never had a single trouble with algae with using them(no ferts, no Co2) before I switched so it's this light. 
 
I'm not using any ferts or Co2 or anything added to the tank but I do use tap water that's not been treated as I always have.

 

[Paradise3]

Found a nice little Pressurized Regulated Co2 Kit for my tan - £15 second hand but new in box, never been opened
 
Quite happy with that since the RRP for them is £30.

 

[snazy]

I am repeating myself around here, but since money is an issue and you want cheap but nice results then why don't you just get some garden soil for 5-6 bucks, put it under your current substrate and that's about it. You'll need more plants and I've also put a little bit of red natural clay in the soil(10%-ish) to aid in water clarity and provide additional nutritients. Then just sit back and watch your plants grow without any hassle.
Here is one of the tanks I did like that, it's several months old and I haven't dosed anything, neither it has any extra CO2 supplement.
I've used homebase topsoil on the first and B&Q food and vegetable planter on the second small tank but the second isn't tested with inhabitants yet. The first has everything from several types of snails, shrimp, fish, etc. and all is perfect.
 

 
And a few closeups:

 

 

 

 
 
 
And this one is just less than 3 weeks old on the picture:
 

 

[Paradise3]

Is it not messy during clean outs(if I end up needing out rip hair algae out again) though? I try not to clean my tank out fully but lately I've been having to so that I can rip the hair algae out.

 

[snazy]

Well, I haven't had hair algae or any algae issues so I haven't needed to rip anything besides when moving plants and for most of them that's no problem.  But in the unlikely scenario that you do need to rip all plants out, you just have to do a water change after, that's all. The reason you are ripping the stuff out is because the tank doesn't develop in a healthy way and gets covered in algae. I am just suggesting a cheap alternative with which you shouldn't experience those problems, at least in my experience.
If needed to replant, with soil tanks its best if you just lift the plant up a little bit, then cut into the roots, but don't pull out all the roots depending on the plant. If you have to remove an amazon sword for example it would have covered half your tank.
That's why the clay is important as it makes the water settle in no time after these events. But with simple stem plants there's no problem pulling them out as much as you like because they don't have big root system.
 
With good planning and deciding on the aquascape in advance, you should mostly end up with trimming the tops, if a little bit of a soil cloud seems scary now 

 

[Paradise3]

Well, I haven't had hair algae or any algae issues so I haven't needed to rip anything besides when moving plants and for most of them that's no problem.  But in the unlikely scenario that you do need to rip all plants out, you just have to do a water change after, that's all. The reason you are ripping the stuff out is because the tank doesn't develop in a healthy way and gets covered in algae. I am just suggesting a cheap alternative with which you shouldn't experience those problems, at least in my experience.
If needed to replant, with soil tanks its best if you just lift the plant up a little bit, then cut into the roots, but don't pull out all the roots depending on the plant. If you have to remove an amazon sword for example it would have covered half your tank.
That's why the clay is important as it makes the water settle in no time after these events. But with simple stem plants there's no problem pulling them out as much as you like because they don't have big root system.
 
With good planning and deciding on the aquascape in advance, you should mostly end up with trimming the tops, if a little bit of a soil cloud seems scary now 

 
I was just curious is all lol. I don't know, I haven't paid for this Co2 set yet so I suppose I could tell them I'm not interested any more? That sounds horrible but after speaking to them I'm having second thoughts anyway Apparently they've only just mentioned they've been having problems with it connecting properly and such...

 

[snazy]

No problem. It's a valid question. I was afraid of the same but that's a minimal worry. If everything goes as it should, you won't have to pull much unless you don't like your aquascaping skills like in my case. If you want more info, let me know. I can even manage to send you some plants for free if you pay for postage. I've got extra clay left over too, but that maybe too heavy for the parcel. I am in Ireland so posting to the UK is a bit steeper.
 
Is your water soft or hard? If it's soft, you may need some minimal amount of dolomite at the bottom of the tank to keep the soil from going acidic over time which I can also send you.

 

[Paradise3]

No problem. It's a valid question. I was afraid of the same but that's a minimal worry. If everything goes as it should, you won't have to pull much unless you don't like your aquascaping skills like in my case. If you want more info, let me know. I can even manage to send you some plants for free if you pay for postage. I've got extra clay left over too, but that maybe too heavy for the parcel. I am in Ireland so posting to the UK is a bit more steep.
Is your water soft or hard? If it's soft, you may need some minimal amount of dolomite at the bottom of the tank to keep the soil from going acidic over time which I can also send you.

 
I'm not sure about my water It's Sheffield water(S14) so if you can find something via Google about it then go ahead. All I know is my PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and Temperature in my tank lol.
 
I'll be sure to come to you when I have my new lights(small clip on LED's which worked well for me before) if you can help me out?

 

[snazy]

No problem. Give me a shout if/when you need anything.
As for the water, maybe someone here lives in your area and knows the stats.

 

[Paradise3]

Is it GH and KH you want to know? If so I can test my GH and KH next week/week after? I'm not at home right now but I am popping back home for a day next Friday and so I can pick up some water to bring back so my partner can test it for me(I don't actually have my own test kit right now but he tests it regularly for me) if that's what you want to know?

 

[snazy]

Is it GH and KH you want to know? If so I can test my GH and KH next week/week after?
 

 
Yes, that's would be enough.