I have recently started adding plants, after a week they went brown and looked a bit past there best, so I removed them. I have issues with ammonia levels, I have an api tester kit. I dont have lights on until the evening as I'm not in, I have heard that you need lights on more. So what am doing incorrectly?
Need Some Advice.
- Thread starter Shabba82
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We will need more data on the aquarium before we can pinpoint, or try to, the issue.
Light. What exactly is the tank lighting, and how long is it on during every 24-hour period?
Plants. What species, and how many (a photo of the tank may help here)?
Tank size (dimensions, volume), fish, substrate. How long as this been set up (wondering about the ammonia issue)? Was it cycled, and how?
Are any plant fertilizers being added, and if yes, which and how much/often? What is the GH of your source water (tap water or well water)? This latter you can find out from the water authority if you are on municipal water, check their website.
Byron.
Light. What exactly is the tank lighting, and how long is it on during every 24-hour period?
Plants. What species, and how many (a photo of the tank may help here)?
Tank size (dimensions, volume), fish, substrate. How long as this been set up (wondering about the ammonia issue)? Was it cycled, and how?
Are any plant fertilizers being added, and if yes, which and how much/often? What is the GH of your source water (tap water or well water)? This latter you can find out from the water authority if you are on municipal water, check their website.
Byron.
some plants naturally 'die back' when moved but if you leave them be they'll recover in time. I would second adding some fertilizer and also some Co2. I use EasyLife EasyCarbo and Profito - the EasyCarbo is a liquid Co2 which you add daily. I'd also recommend calculating the weekly fert amount needed for tank size and dividing that by 7 so you add it in small doses daily instead of adding it all in one go once a week. I've been adding it in small doses daily to my tank for the last 2 years and my plants have gone crazy ... I've currently got an amazon sword with 2 flowers and getting one is rare.
I can't help much with the lighting as it's not my field of knowledge but I would say you can get a timer from Asda for a couple of quid and this will turn your lights on and off for you even when your not around.
It's worth noting that the plants will help you with the ammonia a little as they will soak up some of it so if you can get plants growing it'll go in your favour
I can't help much with the lighting as it's not my field of knowledge but I would say you can get a timer from Asda for a couple of quid and this will turn your lights on and off for you even when your not around.
It's worth noting that the plants will help you with the ammonia a little as they will soak up some of it so if you can get plants growing it'll go in your favour
Generally lights should be one between 8 to 12 hours a day depending on how bright they are. If you go more than 12 hours you could have algae issues. Less than 8 hours may not be enough to keep your plants alive. We really need to know some details about your light preferably lumen output, but if you don't know that provide the type of bulb, its wattage and if possible we web link to the manufactures web site.
Are you using, Tap,distilled, or RO water? if you are using distilled or RO water you will have to fertilize because the water does not have any micro or macro nutrient plants need to live. Tap water is generally OK as long it is not too soft. Do you know your waters GH (general hardness) level?
Are you using, Tap,distilled, or RO water? if you are using distilled or RO water you will have to fertilize because the water does not have any micro or macro nutrient plants need to live. Tap water is generally OK as long it is not too soft. Do you know your waters GH (general hardness) level?
Api Test Results.
02/05/16
P.H. 7.0
Nitrite 0 ppm.
Nitrate 0 ppm.
Ammonia 0.25 ppm.
Not sure, but think we have soft water.
Tank has been set up for a few mths.
Though when I change any of the filter media I add the quick start.
My tank is a fluval Roma 125 litre, it's bout 2.5-3 foot.
Rough description of tankmates.
10 Neon Tetra
8 Rummynose Tetra
3 x-Ray Tetra
3 Penguin Tetra
5 Black Widow Tetra
4 Guppies
3 Swordtails
2 Sailfin Mollies
1 BristleNose Plec
1 Gold Spotted Plec
I put my lights on for bout 5 hrs a day. Though as my tank is in the lroom, it's front facing so gets a lot of natural light. The lighting is 24" 20W T8 bulbs and I have two of them in the lid. The plants are basic from Pets At Home, they had a white ceramic Base, but the ones I have now have a Base flower pot Base with slots in.
I don't use any fertilisers or co2 products. As I'm not really sure I know what I'm doing and how it will affect the fish.
02/05/16
P.H. 7.0
Nitrite 0 ppm.
Nitrate 0 ppm.
Ammonia 0.25 ppm.
Not sure, but think we have soft water.
Tank has been set up for a few mths.
Though when I change any of the filter media I add the quick start.
My tank is a fluval Roma 125 litre, it's bout 2.5-3 foot.
Rough description of tankmates.
10 Neon Tetra
8 Rummynose Tetra
3 x-Ray Tetra
3 Penguin Tetra
5 Black Widow Tetra
4 Guppies
3 Swordtails
2 Sailfin Mollies
1 BristleNose Plec
1 Gold Spotted Plec
I put my lights on for bout 5 hrs a day. Though as my tank is in the lroom, it's front facing so gets a lot of natural light. The lighting is 24" 20W T8 bulbs and I have two of them in the lid. The plants are basic from Pets At Home, they had a white ceramic Base, but the ones I have now have a Base flower pot Base with slots in.
I don't use any fertilisers or co2 products. As I'm not really sure I know what I'm doing and how it will affect the fish.
That info gets us started, but there will be more questions, starting with the light. What type of tubes are you using? At one end there will likely be some printing, let me have all of it. If the tubes are different, provide both. You should have no problem from the light with two 24-inch 20w tubes, but we need to pin down what sort of light they are emitting. The duration at five hours is very minimal, and you could increase this close to 7-8 hours. A timer is the best way to deal with lighting (someone mentioned this already I think), and it should be the same every 24 hours. You can set it so the tank is lighted mainly when you are normally home to enjoy it. It does need several hours of complete darkness every 24 hours.
Can you pin down the water hardness? If you are on municipal water, see if they have a website with water data. We need to know the GH (general hardness). If it really is very soft, this could be part of the issue, but knowing the number will settle this. How are the mollies and swordtails managing? These fish need moderately hard water, the mollies especially; your other fish are fine in soft or very soft water.
Last question now...what type of plants have you tried? I need to know the species, scientific or common names. I don't know what Pets at Home is like, but in North America the chain pet stores frequently sell terrestrial plants (like some house plants) as aquarium plants, and it is normal for these to die off fairly quickly, so this could be part of the problem. True aquatic plants should have no issue under your light, depending what it is (spectrum).
Byron.
Can you pin down the water hardness? If you are on municipal water, see if they have a website with water data. We need to know the GH (general hardness). If it really is very soft, this could be part of the issue, but knowing the number will settle this. How are the mollies and swordtails managing? These fish need moderately hard water, the mollies especially; your other fish are fine in soft or very soft water.
Last question now...what type of plants have you tried? I need to know the species, scientific or common names. I don't know what Pets at Home is like, but in North America the chain pet stores frequently sell terrestrial plants (like some house plants) as aquarium plants, and it is normal for these to die off fairly quickly, so this could be part of the problem. True aquatic plants should have no issue under your light, depending what it is (spectrum).
Byron.
hard or soft water aside here I just wanted to tell you that you shouldn't be changing any of the filter media - this where the ammonia is coming from. Every time you change a filter pad you re-start your cycle from scratch and with that amount of fish it's gonna take a long time to re-cycle only for you to change the media and start over again.
Never change your filter sponges - just rinse them in some old tank water when you water change and put them back. The filter manufacturers tell you to change the sponges to keep you spending money and making them rich
Never change your filter sponges - just rinse them in some old tank water when you water change and put them back. The filter manufacturers tell you to change the sponges to keep you spending money and making them rich
Well I changed one side of the carbon and filter sponges, waited a few weeks, then changed the other side. But I understand what u mean. It's better to keep them in there for a long time. When I wash the filter and media, I wash it in the tank water and then reassemble and put them bk in.
Will check about the hardness and lighting but the plants were not labeled and I don't have a clue what their names are, but they were cheap, so I presume v common. Obv the more expensive the plant, the better care it will require, I was just looking for general pointers on what not to do. As I'm a novice and there isn't much I havnt broke in my tank, plants lasted a week, my thermometer broke twice, and my heater on my first day...
Will check about the hardness and lighting but the plants were not labeled and I don't have a clue what their names are, but they were cheap, so I presume v common. Obv the more expensive the plant, the better care it will require, I was just looking for general pointers on what not to do. As I'm a novice and there isn't much I havnt broke in my tank, plants lasted a week, my thermometer broke twice, and my heater on my first day...
Also at the beginning I lost quite a few, Rummynose, Swordtails and Guppies, out 12, but think I was overstocked and poor management and knowledge by me.
Will check about the hardness and lighting but the plants were not labeled and I don't have a clue what their names are, but they were cheap, so I presume v common. Obv the more expensive the plant, the better care it will require, I was just looking for general pointers on what not to do. As I'm a novice and there isn't much I havnt broke in my tank, plants lasted a week, my thermometer broke twice, and my heater on my first day...
Will check about the hardness and lighting but the plants were not labeled and I don't have a clue what their names are, but they were cheap, so I presume v common. Obv the more expensive the plant, the better care it will require, I was just looking for general pointers on what not to do. As I'm a novice and there isn't much I havnt broke in my tank, plants lasted a week, my thermometer broke twice, and my heater on my first day...
Also at the beginning I lost quite a few, Rummynose, Swordtails and Guppies, out 12, but think I was overstocked and poor management and knowledge by me.
your stocking isn't good really but it's what I would expect from a beginner so don't get hung up about it. We've all made mistakes to begin with.
Basicly you've added lots of different tetra's when it would have been better to add a large shoal of just one type. When it comes to shoaling fish such as tetra's they do better in groups of 10+ ... not only do they behave naturally but you get to see a nicer effect - watching them shoal naturally is lovely to watch and the more you have the better the shoal and visual effect.
There's a chance that the black widow's will pick on the guppies and start fin nipping. This type of tetra is well known for fin nipping and with the guppies flowing fins it may encourage this behaviour.
The tetra's and plecs are soft water fish but the guppies, swordtails and mollies need hard water - the mollies would prefer hard and brackish (this means aquarium salt added) too so not a good mix there as the plecs though can not cope with brackish water
As I said, don't worry about it now. In time you'll get your stocking right. It's all a big learning curve to begin with.
With your lighting ... it's best to give at least 8 hours of lighting for the plants to thrive and don't be scared of plant ferts/Co2 ... there are instructions on the bottles and all you need do is look at the amount needed for water volume. As mentioned before, I use Easylife Profito plant fert and it tells me to add 10ml per 100 litres of water, per week. My tank is 240 litres but I have large lumps of wood and some rocks so to make it easy I've allowed for this and removed the 40 litres from the calculations so I'm adding 20ml of fert to my water volume. It's better to be a little bit under than over as the plants will also use fish poo and nitrates as food aswell.
With the liquid Co2 (easylife's easycarbo) It tells me to add 1ml per 50 litres with a maximum of 2ml per 50 litres for aquariums with lots of plants so I add about 4ml per day.
You can get small syringes or pipette's easily online (amazon, ebay etc) really cheaply which will make your life easy when adding ferts/Co2.
When buying plants - try to avoid those with the ceramic base as this tends to stop them developing roots as they rot at the base. If you have no other choice than to buy those cut the ceramic thing off ... plants like cabomba, elodea (which are the main two they fasten to those ceramic ring things) will re-root themselves in time.
If you buy a plant in the mini plant pot remove the plant pot and as much of the rock wool as you can that's in there too before adding the plants to your substrate.
There are two types of plant that can't be planted in the substrate, these are Anubias and Java fern. These need to be tied to decor - you'll probably see these already tied to wood in p@h.
If you are unsure what a plant is, ask them. If they don't know you can look them up online. Try looking on Tropica's website as they normally give clear pictures and descriptions of all the plant species.
Hope that helps and I've not overwhelmed you with info
Basicly you've added lots of different tetra's when it would have been better to add a large shoal of just one type. When it comes to shoaling fish such as tetra's they do better in groups of 10+ ... not only do they behave naturally but you get to see a nicer effect - watching them shoal naturally is lovely to watch and the more you have the better the shoal and visual effect.
There's a chance that the black widow's will pick on the guppies and start fin nipping. This type of tetra is well known for fin nipping and with the guppies flowing fins it may encourage this behaviour.
The tetra's and plecs are soft water fish but the guppies, swordtails and mollies need hard water - the mollies would prefer hard and brackish (this means aquarium salt added) too so not a good mix there as the plecs though can not cope with brackish water
As I said, don't worry about it now. In time you'll get your stocking right. It's all a big learning curve to begin with.
With your lighting ... it's best to give at least 8 hours of lighting for the plants to thrive and don't be scared of plant ferts/Co2 ... there are instructions on the bottles and all you need do is look at the amount needed for water volume. As mentioned before, I use Easylife Profito plant fert and it tells me to add 10ml per 100 litres of water, per week. My tank is 240 litres but I have large lumps of wood and some rocks so to make it easy I've allowed for this and removed the 40 litres from the calculations so I'm adding 20ml of fert to my water volume. It's better to be a little bit under than over as the plants will also use fish poo and nitrates as food aswell.
With the liquid Co2 (easylife's easycarbo) It tells me to add 1ml per 50 litres with a maximum of 2ml per 50 litres for aquariums with lots of plants so I add about 4ml per day.
You can get small syringes or pipette's easily online (amazon, ebay etc) really cheaply which will make your life easy when adding ferts/Co2.
When buying plants - try to avoid those with the ceramic base as this tends to stop them developing roots as they rot at the base. If you have no other choice than to buy those cut the ceramic thing off ... plants like cabomba, elodea (which are the main two they fasten to those ceramic ring things) will re-root themselves in time.
If you buy a plant in the mini plant pot remove the plant pot and as much of the rock wool as you can that's in there too before adding the plants to your substrate.
There are two types of plant that can't be planted in the substrate, these are Anubias and Java fern. These need to be tied to decor - you'll probably see these already tied to wood in p@h.
If you are unsure what a plant is, ask them. If they don't know you can look them up online. Try looking on Tropica's website as they normally give clear pictures and descriptions of all the plant species.
Hope that helps and I've not overwhelmed you with info
So without plant fertiliser and co2 will the plants likely die off quickly?
So far no problems with fish compatibility... Or nipping etc. I did some research on this before I put them in together, but didn't factor in water hardness, cos I didn't think there was such a thing, but I understand the concept now. The Male Sailfin is the biggest in the tank and he likes to follow and chase the female Sailfin about. My partner says she has noticed him following the black widows, but I havnt noticed any worrying behaviour.
So far no problems with fish compatibility... Or nipping etc. I did some research on this before I put them in together, but didn't factor in water hardness, cos I didn't think there was such a thing, but I understand the concept now. The Male Sailfin is the biggest in the tank and he likes to follow and chase the female Sailfin about. My partner says she has noticed him following the black widows, but I havnt noticed any worrying behaviour.
Shabba82 said:
No, not necessarily. There are a lot of fish keepers who don't add anything for their plants but they still grow but that is generally in mature tanks. This is mostly because the plants are using the Nitrate as food aswell as fish waste - I guess the nearest analogy I can think of would be a rose bush in the garden - if you chuck some horse manure on it an water is it will grow but if you then feed it plant food everyday aswell it'll grow faster and more 'lush'.
With a new tank there's generally low nitrates and fish poo takes time to build up and so the plants are starved of food and so they struggle. Along side that you have some plants that by their nature die back when moved (ie: when you buy them from the lfs and re-plant them in your tank) you think a plant is dead when it's actually just 'gone to sleep'.
If you start adding some plant food while the tank matures it gives the plants some food and should help them to establish
When you go to your doctor and say "I'm not feeling well," the doctor is not going to be able to diagnose the cause and prescribe the cure without knowing all the data. Same here. The light data is crucial, as is the water GH, and the plant species. Not all plants will grow under the same conditions. It is a question of knowing what you are providing, and what the plants need. Planted tanks are not difficult unless we make them difficult.
http
/www.scottishwater.co.uk/~/media/Domestic/Files/You%20and%20Your%20Home/Water%20Quality/ScottishWaterHardnessData.ashx
According to Scottish Water, I enter my postcode, the nearest site is Blairlinnans North. Soft Water.
/www.scottishwater.co.uk/~/media/Domestic/Files/You%20and%20Your%20Home/Water%20Quality/ScottishWaterHardnessData.ashxAccording to Scottish Water, I enter my postcode, the nearest site is Blairlinnans North. Soft Water.
So my lighting, here's the details, it's a Fluval Roma 125litre.
On the Hood:
Roma 125
Ac 240v
50hz
L-47220
13/14
2 x 20W Fd G13
Askoll - Made In Italy.
Lighting:
Glo - Aqua Glo
24" / 61 cm
20W T8
Made In Japan.
Glo - Power-Glo
24" / 61 cm
20W T8
Made In Japan.
On the Hood:
Roma 125
Ac 240v
50hz
L-47220
13/14
2 x 20W Fd G13
Askoll - Made In Italy.
Lighting:
Glo - Aqua Glo
24" / 61 cm
20W T8
Made In Japan.
Glo - Power-Glo
24" / 61 cm
20W T8
Made In Japan.
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