Ugh. What's The Future Of My Tank?

[CrazyDiamond88]

I am having a serious lack of inspiration with my little tank. I had dreams of it becoming a beautiful aquascape like the ones I'd seen online.
 
However for a long time I've been struggling with algae of various kinds. 
 
And my plants seem to either be dying back or sort of just growing. Not thriving.
Except for my crypt balansae which is going pretty well.
 
It lead me to thinking: maybe I should just ditch ALL the plants except for the crypt and grow that through the tank with a bit of rock as hardscape. Just something very simple and easy.
The only thing wrong with that is there are no tall plants which reach the surface which I think may look odd.
 
But what do you guys think?

Am I being impatient? Should I try harder and keep at it? 
Or should I just make it easier for myself?
 
I'll post some images here shortly

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

Oh and to add...

I use a Kessil A150W 4 hours a day (it's very strong)
I dose liquid co2, a few drops daily.
There are 10 Pygmy cories and a betta living there.
I put ferts under the substrate but that was months ago now.
 
 
Additional info: I was just away from home for 1.5 weeks and my dad looked after the tank.
He did everything except dose the CO2. There was a big increase of algae when I returned.
It was sort of getting under control but now it's gone whacko again :c

 

[RRaquariums]

Well I know how annoying planted tanks can get they take time and are a huge pain but in the end if I put in the work and time I always love what it becomes so I'd keep at it and maybe read up on how to keep a clean and thriving planted tank.
I use dirt in all my planted tanks so I can't really say what you should do co2 wise and with other fertilizers sorry
On the plus side you tank looks way better then the first planted tank I set up

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

Thanks, that is reassuring

I just don't know why the growth in my tank is so slow... Or plants like my vallis are all but dead.
You can see how they thrived when I first planted them in the picture in my signature.

 

[daizeUK]

I'd wager the algae is due to the light being too strong. Can you raise the lamp?
Lack of growth is likely linked to lack of ferts. If you're dosing liquid carbon every day then I'd be adding liquid ferts every week (NPK as well as trace).

Most plants will thrive initially because they have a store of nutrients to see them through hard times like adapting to underwater life after being grown emersed, but if the stores get used up and not replenished the plants suffer and die.

Vallis doesn't like liquid carbon.

Ironically I had difficulty getting crypt balansae to grow until I started shoving lots of liquid carbon and ferts at it. It can actually grow quite tall under the right conditions.

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

Daize - I can't raise it any more unfortunately. I've put a tissue on the tank lid to diffuse the light a bit. 
I was considering selling it and getting a new one. It was very expensive and is a very good light.
 
I thought that perhaps I was getting algae because of too many ferts, but it does make sense what you say. I have Seachem Flourish root tabs I can put in.
Would you recommend the liquid ferts instead? And what is NPK and trace?
 
Thanks for the pointers, it's really helpful.
Shame about the vallis, I really liked it while it was there :c

 

[daizeUK]

The beautiful aquascapes you've seen are all carefully balanced with respect to lighting, ferts and carbon. You can do them too but you need to learn how to keep a tank in balance.

If you want to keep the powerful lights then I'd suggest you think seriously about getting pressurised CO2 and a fertilisation dosing regime such as EI and start doing a lot of research on how to run a high-light, high-tech tank.

If you replace the lighting with something weaker then you will probably find that things get easier. I'd suggest starting with some basic lighting around 1 to 2 WPG and put some low-light plants in there. You can keep adding liquid carbon and get some liquid ferts to go with it. I don't think the root tabs will cut it on their own.

NPK are the macro ferts - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants need these nutrients in order to use the carbon you're giving them efficiently. Without NPK the carbon is wasted.

Trace/micro ferts are a mix of other elements that plants need in small quantities, notably iron and magnesium.

My personal advice would be to try to master a low-light tank first before you move on to the more difficult high-light balancing act.

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

I don't really want to keep the light. It's very bright and has always seemed like too much for the tank.
 
What are some examples of good low-light plants I could use?
 
Where do I get macro ferts from? Do they come in liquid form?
 
Thanks, you've been really helpful. Hopefully this weekend I get some time to buy some new plants and re-scape.

 

[daizeUK]

Yes you can get ferts in both liquid and dry form. Liquid is fine for a tank your size. An example would be TNC complete but I have no idea what brands are available over in Oz!

There was another thread about low light plants recently. The easiest ones are java fern, anubias, cryptocorynes and java moss but check out the other thread for a longer list of other plants to try.

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

Thanks. I actually found one on another site.
I like Dwarf Sagittaria, Hornwort, and Pellia.
 
Now the trouble is finding a place which sells them all

 

[daizeUK]

You might want to check if pellia is okay with liquid carbon. Also look for Monoselenium tenerum which I think is the proper name for it (or various spellings such as Monoselium, Monosolenium!).

 

[KirkyArcher]

Some types of black gravel are either epoxy coated to get their colour or they are made from volcanic types of rock such as Basalt especially if it's the latter there is a need to use a very good substrate for plants underneath it and still lots of daily ferts, Algae most probably too much light either too strong or on for too long. You can get a film used to "frost" glass door panels that may diffuse your light still further and two layers further still.

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

Daize - thanks, I will look into that.
 
Kirky - The substrate I have is actually black moon sand. Thanks for the tip on the light. I think I'll end up selling it anyway and get something milder.