Do you have any tester to test ph? water temperature stable?

Hi guys, any ideas what lights to use for an 8x2x2 tank? I bought some led t8 lights but its not enough. My vallis are melting. Thought of getting two 4ft aquazonic lights but too pricey lah.

So appreciate if u guys can give some ideas for cheaper DIY-ish lights, and also where to buy?

TIA

Water temperature should've stabized as I stay inside condominium.unfortunately I don't have a Ph tester.will get 1 tomorrow.

Donner : did u soak ur plants with anti-chlorine water before introducing into your display tank? usually the fishes die due to pesticide that may have come from the shop u bought.

plants that die are probably due to changing from emersed to submerged form. do u have the plant names?

aimank : how long have you had the vallis? its probably adjusting to your water parameters... what signs of change the vallis is leading you to suspect light is not enough?

for diy, you can go for LED spolights 20w or 30w x 4 or 5units across your 8 ft tank. I am running 2 x 20w red-blue lights on my 4ft now. mainly anubias and straugyone.

closed-
problem solved...
have a good day

This post has been edited by yongann1701: Jul 3 2015, 10:53 PM

hurm, like jctasoga said, youre plants melting probably due to changing to submersed form, you just recently bought them right? or you have bought them long time ago?

is that a cobomba in the back? in front is vallisneria(?), some moss, anubias, and java fern? cant ID the rest. If thats a java fern on the right, are you burying its rhizome? if you are, attach them to a driftwood or rocks since they will starts to rot and melt slowly.

Hi jctasoga,

I bought these aqua plants about 1.5 months ago from cute_miao. Here's the closer look at what I have bought from him. https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3340740/+40

Rotala Nanjenshan
Java Fern
Saggitaria Subulata
And another I got from another fish shop that I couldnt recall the plants name.

The plants were actually blooming nicely until I did my 40% water cycle change.

Hi jctasoga, I bought them since 15th May. Ask for Java fern, I buried them into the substrate with Lava stones on surrounding the java fern. Will it work?

7/7 Update on my tank

1st tank seems like stabilizing. Plants stop decaying and a few new stems has grown out from Rotala Nanjenshan.

2nd tank different story. After 2 days I moved some of the plants over, all my black molly died except my Siam. Tested with Ph tester , before it was around 6.8 and after 2 days, it shows 6. Those plants in 2nd tank continue to decay. Any ideas guys?

Just a quick update on my office tank.

Updated it to be as low maintenance as possible.

- Only 2 types of anubias and floating plant.
- Gave away all my adult female guppy. Too many heart-aching scenes of fries being gobbled up by adults in overcrowded tank.
- Slowly moving to an all male tank.

That is a nice tank. Lovin the driftwood

Hi Donner, I think cute_miao's plants should be ok she's a reputable as i can hear so far... since you have already planted it for more than 1.5months, i doubt there will be issue with the pesticide in plants. if there are, the fishes will go diedie in a matter of few hours.

if you point to the water change, i am sure you have used anti-chlorine with the tap water right? if you have add in anti-chlorine, then i have no idea what went wrong. its small possibility those fishes are not fully accustomed to such a big water change.

i have done 50% up to 80% sometimes but so far havent had any casualties... but anyhow can't do anything now but i would propose to change small amounts of water since your tank is still very new...

I was really interested in this planted tank thingy..but sadly it really hard to find any planted tank related shop in the northern region...anyone know any shop for me to buy aquatic plant in Kedah?

hi guys, im facing some problem here,

I got planted tank in my room, everything goes well, it is bare bottom tank, not carpet, just start planting monte carlo. Other plant, riccia, fissiden, moss, rotala and bacopa.

I got assassin snail and cherry shrimp house in that tank, everything looks fine, got berried mommy.

the egg owned by one of the mommy has been hatched. I saw the shrimplet the day it hatched, but on the next day, I never saw the shrimplet. don't know either they are hiding in the riccia or what so ever.

FYI, I am using surface skimmer... and HOB

there are another mommy shrimp that berried, I don't want the same thing happen... Kindly advise me on this matter...

hi hafiz...

lol. hi kimi

nice tank! gobbled the fry? must be hungry all the times then... mine red lace don't gobble, but too bad all my red lace sold off or died due to water pollution few months back... :/
now switch to shrimp majority tank instead

Looks like my aquarium is stabilizing. Just to be sure, I drop another dose of excel and flourish and promote the plant. The plant (?) with drift wood is a bit concern for me. It ain't doing well and just now had a check, most of its leaves turn to dark pale green. Any ideas what I can do to save this plant?

Also whenever I turn on my canister, a foul stench emits like something rotten even though I cleaned my canister 2 weeks back. Any hints guys?

I spoke to a petshop nearby my place and he thought most likely is due to my condo maintenance done on the water tank. Usually this is carried out on Friday or Saturday. He advise next time keep the water for a day or 2 before doing a cycle change.

Thanks. I feed twice daily so I think could be overcrowding and bad habits.
Every time I missed getting the female out, the adults will go all seek n destroy digging through all the books and cranny to hunt for fries.

@DonnerGott did you leave the plants without water like an hour or more? it normally happen to me when i leave those plant without water an hour or more, and they will end up like this whenever i re-scape...

and i guess keep the water few days in advance will be good... i'm doing it too and so far all my planted tank no problem

This post has been edited by aH wAi: Jul 9 2015, 11:19 PM

probably your guppy fry got not sufficient place for hiding too... my tank was used to be overcrowded too, even 2ft also crowded like hell... end up i invest another 1ft and 1.5ft planted tank to fit them, and now one of the tank become empty