It definitely from the soil. Keep doing big water change. Some people can go up to 3 weeks before the water become clear. Or you can add cap using gravel or sand.

It just a minor annoyance. If you keep up with water change, it will eventually go away. By then it won't cause any problem when you're doing maintenance or add new plant. Like I said, you also can add cap like gravel or sand. Cap will reduce or prevent water from getting cloudy.

Keyword is "recently". Mostly newly setup tank will have algae problem. This is because they're not fully cycled, fully established yet. Make sure you have algae eater such as amano shrimps & nerite snails. These will take care algae. Most reason algae in newly setup tank is because imbalanced nutrients. In my experience, albino corydoras & "young" mystery/apple snail are very excellent in eating dead algae. Becareful with the latter because it eats plants too. I mention this because you'll have two teams in cleaning department. Of course in case of algae blooming, you'll need to get involved too in cleaning them. Anyway, for newly setup tank, algae usually not difficult to keep under control if you have algae eater.

I don't think undergravel filter really suitable in planted aquarium.

This post has been edited by kizwan: May 2 2020, 11:32 PM

Garden/compost soil. Have very good growth with stem plants. Make sure you planted well with fast growing plants. With one or two slow grow should be ok. Have a lot of nutrients, so it is algae magnet, that's why you should make sure planted well. For the first month you can not put fish because ammonia spike. To prevent all of this problem, you can wash the soil first, let it sit overnight & repeat until water mostly clear. Another way is mineralize it. And add clay - e.g. cat litter (unscented, no additives, no clumping agent).

This video may help you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiyCpfqcZQA

This is definitely the first time I heard about dosing benificial bacteria in planted aquarium. arithenicktern please update us on your experience especially in organic matter control as well as whether it can prevent algae. I know beneficial bacteria will established naturally. Maybe dosing it can helps tank cycled faster. Also maybe it can help in case of emergency where you have problem in your tank that you need to correct.

In another note, I bought ammonia test kit. I was expecting high ammonia in my problematic tank. All fish/shrimp end up dead in this tank. Honestly majority of them either they jump out or got eaten by my cat. I bought test kit & tested the water in my tank. To my surprise the reading is either 0 ppm or between 0 to 0.25 ppm. I don't think I mess it up.



I also bought very cheap ghost shrimp (riceland prawn specifically) to live in the problematic tank. They eats organic matter as far as I know. So that should helps because I can't remove all of that by myself.

That garden soild should be ok. Sift it first, to remove the dead root, etc. After that you can use it right away but may cause problem later because it rich in nutrients. Make sure you plant a lot of plants. Choose fast growing plants. Before you plant anything, add cap such as fine aquarium gravel or aquarium sand. Basically, first layer is 0.5 to 1 inch of sifted organic soil & top layer is 1 inch of fine gravel or sand. Cap useful especially preventing the water become cloudy. Alternatively, you can prepare the garden soil first which may take days. It is called mineralized the soil. https://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...ron-talbot.html

IMO, clay is optional but add to the soil if you can.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

To anyone interested in low tech setup, the best way is to have deep substrate. At least 3 inch of substrate. More is better. Why at least 3 inch of substrate? This is because of the bacteria & protozoa that live in it. Basically 1 inch of soil & cap with at least 2 inch of fine sand. The cap is useful to separate the bacteria in the soil from the water column. When you add water, the bacteria & protozoa will thrive in the substrate. These aerobic & anaerobic bacteria are the ones who converts ammonia to nitrites to nitrates to nitrogen & nitrous oxide. Other inorganics produced by protozoa get broken down by anaerobic bacteria. Elements such as carbon & iron are taken up by root of plants.

Thanks to pros like Father Fish & Jay's Aquarium for this tried-and-true method.

For the amano shrimp, did you get them acclimated first before putting into the tank?

1. Before investing in CO2, try dose with liquid fertilizer. The yellowing looks like caused by nutrients imbalance, likely macronutrients. You also can get CO2 checker to check CO2 level.

2. Which cheap shrimp you get? They don't eat algae maybe, just organic matter or mulm. You should regularly scrub the green algae on the glass & rock using toothbrush.

It is quite normal for the plants stunted during first 2 weeks because nutrients imbalance but they will recover. But in your case, yellowing means it is quite serious. I haven't check whether your plants are suitable in low tech setup because I'm on phone right now. I will check later. That hair grass is very slow growing, so you should plant a lot of it (in the area you want it to cover). Generally you should avoid slow growing plants in low tech setup.

EDIT: All of the plants are not easy plant & require CO2 injection. Which stem plant is that? You didn't add to the list of plants. Looks like ludwigia.

This post has been edited by kizwan: May 26 2020, 02:38 PM

Update on my tank. Tank #2 recovering well after months of algae attack.

Tank #1
301 days








Tank #2
263 days

A bit off topic. One of my planted aquarium have a very slow leak at the bottom part of rear wall. Is using epoxy on the outside, maybe with small piece of glass to close the leak, good option?

Just FYI, it was a success.

Which method did you guys use when doing water change?

1. Syphon the amount of water you want to remove out of the tank. Fill tap water in a bucket. Add water conditioner into it. Then add the treated water to tank.

2. Syphon the amount of water you want to remove out of the tank. Add water conditioner into the tank according to the amount of water you need to add. Add new tap water into the tank.


BTW, did you guys add water conditioner into the tank when you add new fish to help it acclimate?

This post has been edited by kizwan: Jun 17 2020, 12:28 PM

You didn't turn off the filter when doing water change?

I have a small powerhead (not dophin) & big powerhead (dophin). I don't use/trust the small one because it make rattling noise. The big is ok but I need to standby to turn it off before the water all drain out. I only use it once or twice when refilling.

Get a big bucket from a 99cents or 2ringgit store. Use it to keep tap water or treated water in it but I like to treat water right before adding to the tank. Also the tap water when keep like that for 24 hours, the chlorine will evaporate - this what they called old or aged water. Install the pump in it & use it to refill your tank. I don't know why I advice you this because I didn't do it myself.

What kind filter did you use to filter the tap water? Mechanical & carbon filter? Or RO / RODI system? If the latter did you remineralised it?

Also what kind of filter media did you use in the filter (for your tank)?

I use filter water only before until it cause problem in my non-planted & planted tanks. Water conditioner not just deal with chlorine but ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, heavy metal & encourage coating development on the fish to protect them from illness. At least keep water conditioner on hand. In case of spike in ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, it can help, provide a stop gap while you identify & fix the problem.

What do you guys use to accurately dose Flourish in small tank? Using the cap is difficult if you want to dose 1ml of Flourish. Each cap thread is 1ml but I'm not confident to measure using the cap.

BTW, I have 4ft tank (119.7 gallons, 453.6 liters) non planted tank that I use to put extra water lettuce especially for multiplying it but they did not do well. So I want to dose Flourish & flourish nitrogen. Should I calculate the whole tank when dosing it or I should dose less?

Any local fish store should have aquarium, lighting & pump/filter in stock.

That must be a nice 2ft tank because that's pricey. What is the dimension of the tank & what is the brand of that filter?

https://www.aquasabi.com/aquascaping-wiki_s...a-soil-amazonia

Look at pH section.

Lets the tank run it course - cycle. Also nitrifying bacteria still not established yet. If you increase pH too much, ammonia will be more toxic which is bad for livestock. At high pH ammonium can convert back to ammonia.

Clueless07 which fertilizer you're using for your tank? Which you dose more, macro or micro?

I'm using Seachem Flourish & Flourish Nitrogen. Nitrogen is only 100ml bottle because I use it dose only one tank (second tank); apparently this tank have low nitrate. Floaters & anacharis having trouble surviving in this tank. Also to combat BGA in this tank.

Stopping dosing fertilizer in my first tank because I get green water due to dosing too frequently, once every two days. Both bacopa caroliniana & ludwigia sp. dark orange showing deficiency in old & new leaves. That's why I started dosing Flourish. Ludwigia already showing good progress. Bacopa leaves are smaller than it should be & darker color; unlike bacopa in second tank with bigger & greener leaves. I think I need NPK fertilizer. Let see if bacopa produce normal new leaves.