How Do You Know Your Tank Is Matured?

[DevUK]

Silly question really. I know that the best way to start a new tank is to plant lots of fast growers to combat the algae. What I'm not so sure about is how long you should wait before starting to replace the fast growers with the plants you actually want to grow.

My tank has been setup for 3 months (wait, read on... ) Now, initially I didn't plant many fast growers... I had some moss, some java ferns and a few other plants, along with a bit of cabomba and egeria densa (not much though). Now, I neglected the tank a little, due to work and money constraints, and wasn't dosing anything, just water changes. The tank got overrun by hair algae, and BBA. I then started dosing Excel, and did a re-scape, and planted a lot of H. Polysperma, and removed all the gunked up plants (egeria and cabomba had gotten pretty manky so it went in the bin).

Now, about a month on, I'm pretty much algae free! The polysperma is growing really well, as is my Crypt. Crispatula "Balansae" and anubias nana, christmas moss and java ferns. I'm just not sure what I should do next. I'm tempted to plant more polysperma, to make sure my algae issues are long gone. Infact I need to prune and re-plant so I'll definately do that.

But yes, going back to the original question, how long does it take (on average) for the maturing process to "complete"?

Another factor might be me swapping from Excel to pressurised CO2 in the next couple of months...

 

[nry]

My tank took 3-4 months to settle once I went high-tech, if algae growth has dropped back noticeably then I would say things are doing well. Last month I ripped out and moved loads of plants - I expected major algae hassles but had none.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh I would say a couple of months, it does depend on the tank though, I high light tank is probably quicker due to the plants being able to grow faster and thereby stabilise the tank quicker. Long for low light tanks.

Sam