where did it all go wrong?

[mike5531]

from this

to this

and now i want to get it back to its former glory i have now money!

 

[zig]

Jeez what happened, were aggressive fish chucking the rocks around Pity i really liked the look of that tank, post your tank stats fert regime etc if your looking for a hand, im sure lots of people will help you out to regain its former glory (and how to keep it)

 

[steelhealr]

Lighting an issue? Looks like the plants have regressed. SH

 

[AllusiveLife]

What type of filters are you using? (trust me bro< I can relate) Must be doing tons of water changes, taking away all the nutrients the plants need to strive..

 

[shuhu]

how long did it take to look from that to that!!!

 

[George Farmer]

I assume you have removed a lot of the original plants yourself. If so, why? Algae issues or just poor growth?

Give us some more info and we may be able to help figure out your problem.

 

[mike5531]

algea took over the plants and with my girlfriend moving in and going on holiday the plants went all stragely and looked a mess (mostley dead). also algea had taken over the substrate aswell

i have also decide that that tank is in the wrong location and is hard to maintain but i dnt have anywhere to move it to. so it will have to stay where it is for now till i can get a proper stand on the cheap

 

[mike5531]

made a star today by ordering some laterite, iv never used this befor just normal gravel usally so do u think it will make a diffrence this time around?

 

[shuhu]

I assume you know more about planted tanks than I do, but from what I've read so far:

- it could be that you have more than 2WpG lighting and maybe you need CO2 because of that. Maybe that is why you had so many algae, hence your plants were not "grabbing" enough nutrients and the algae won?

- Also, fast growing plants help to win the algae on taking over, I really can't tell from your pic if you have these type of plants but I've read that it's better to have many of them at least for the first months

btw, if your plants are lacking CO2, laterite alone probably (I'm assuming) won't work that much, but it's definately better than pure gravel

hope this helps

 

[mike5531]

iv got co2 running

 

[iggy01]

As Zig and gf225 have stated earlier in the thread, you need to state your tank stats before any advice can be given.

How much lighting do you have? What are your readings for nitrate, phosphate, pH, and KH? Do you add a commercial fertiliser? If so, how much and how often?

Once you have given info on some/all of these questions, hopefully someone may be able to help you.

Also, as shuhu said, adding laterite to your substrate won't help if your tank is lacking other nutrients.

Good luck!