New Start?

[bettafishlover86]

Summer vacation is finally here. For the past 6 months, I have had a 29 gallon aquarium up and running. I have a bunch of guppies, a betta, two otocinclus, and a cory.(I am getting more Cory’s in the next few days) A piece of driftwood and a lot of random plants are also in my tank. Two weeks ago I got a timer for the light and an automatic feeder. My aquarium is a mess. I bought a lot of plants trying to make my aquarium look good but I don’t know how to take care of them. My water is brownish yellow from tannins and dead plants. Two weeks ago I cleaned the filter media and brown gunk came out. My filter has the brown goo in it too. My gravel is filled with brown poop and stringy stuff. I don’t know what to do and I feel awful for being so careless. I just ordered new filter media from petsmart that is coming tomorrow. I have no co2 and tonight I am going to research all of the plants I have, most likely giving some away. Whenever I clean my gravel it gets dirty in a couple of days. I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to turn my aquarium into a healthy one.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Gravel vaccum thoroughly and continue forward with weekly 50% water changes. This will make a huge difference.

Floating plants are also very beneficial, my personal favorites that i have tried are giant salvinia and dwarf water lettuce, although the latter for me require frequent root trims as the roots get so long, over the length of my arm (i have long arms) and take over the water column lol.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I just ordered new filter media from petsmart that is coming tomorrow. I have no co2 and tonight I am going to research all of the plants I have, most likely giving some away. Whenever I clean my gravel it gets dirty in a couple of days. I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to turn my aquarium into a healthy one.

Whatever you do, do not throw out your current filter media and replace it all at once!! That will crash your cycle and very possibly kill your fish. It's normal for brown gunk to accumulate in the filter, just rinse it out in a bucket of old tank water that you're removed during a water change, then put it back in the filter.

Same advice as above - just increase substrate cleaning and water changes to improve the general condition of the tank. But it doesn't look to be a bad way, just a bit neglected. Wouldn't take much to improve it! The plants look healthy, so no real problems there, but learning what species of plants you have and what ferts they like (i.e liquid or root tabs) can help you feel you're doing your best for them.