Tank #2
Using regular garden soil & black gravel. This one I make ticker substrate, ~1.5 inch for substrate & cap.

1st day
Two groups of Rotala Indica back-center & left-front because I want to see how they fare with regular garden soil.
Java Moss patches on the driftwood
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Red" at the center, near the driftwood
Ludwigia sp. 'Dark Orange' & Bacopa caroliniana on the back-right near the Anacharis
Anacharis on the back-right
Eleocharis Acicularis Carpet Plant - Hair Grass on the front (I'm having trouble separating them but managed to do it later)



Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Red"



Ludwigia sp. 'Dark Orange' & Bacopa caroliniana respectively



5 days
Added Water lettuce (Pistia Stratiotes)
Separated the Eleocharis Acicularis Carpet Plant - Hair Grass to small groups/patches
There are two plants on the right, in front of Anacharis. The bigger leaves is unknown plant but it doesn't survived anyway but hidden behind it is Ipomoea aquatica which actually semi-aquatic plant.
Experimenting regular grass but this ones are grow on wet soil. The taller hair grass in front of the driftwood.







9 days
Added more Water lettuce (Pistia Stratiotes)


Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Red" doing well


28 days
All doing well except Rotala Indica still having problem melting at the base stem.

I think you can go to glass shop but I'm not totally sure. How about plexiglass?

That is crazy. Do you mean after cleaning the algae & changing the water, it still come back? Probably still too much fertiliser. Can you stop fert temporary for a couple of weeks? Try add some shrimps & nerite snails.

This post has been edited by kizwan: Oct 17 2019, 09:23 AM

I use tap water & dechlorinated it before adding into the tank. Which filtering system you use? Is it the one that only removed dirt & chlorine or the one that do purification i.e RO water?

Good luck. I had pretty bad green algae problem before my aquarium stabilised . Also thanks to apple snail which removed most of it (and destroying my Rotala Indica in the process) & the albino corydoras for eating the rest of it. Albino pleco helps too but not really efficient. I also did my part too of course in cleaning & changing water a couple of times in a week for a couple of weeks.

This post has been edited by kizwan: Oct 19 2019, 11:30 AM

This single Anacharis grew horizontally near the substrate. Its roots must have now anchor it at the bottom.

N900rocks victorsoo is correct the original leaves melting away is quite normal in newly setup tank because different water parameters. It is difficult to match water parameters where they originally grew. As long as stem doesn't melt, new leaves will grow. Also some plants may not make it.

I follow Foo the Flowerhorn who posted videos on YouTube for low tech tank setup, the lowest tech; no co2, no ferts, no filter. He follow Diana Walstad's method & she produced a book called Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. I did compiled a list of plants that they successfully grew in low tech tank. I'm pretty sure the list is not complete. So if it is not in the list doesn't mean it can't survived.

These are the plants:-
amazon swords
crypts
anubias
wisteria
frogbit
valisnaria
water sprite
salvania
duckweed
water lettuce
java moss
liverwort
waterweed
water nymph
narrow leafed anacharis
Ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort)
Azolla imbricate (mosquito fern)
Najas Guadalupensis (guppy grass)
Bacopa caroliniana
Ludwigia Sp. Mini Super Red
Hemianthus glomeratus (pearl grass)
Egeria densa (Anachris)
Didiplis diandra
Dwarf hairgrass

I use Ista Premium Aqua Soil too in my first tank but I put regular aquarium gravel on top of it. The reason why is that the fish shop only order 4L of aqua soil for me which only enough for 1 inch substrate in 2 x 1 x 1 ft tank. The gravel helps in holding the plants. Anacharis & Water lettuce (Pistia Stratiotes) helps a lot in balancing the tank. They also keep algae at bay but they need to be thriving first before they can do they job. In my tanks both have gone through melting & recovering before they can start thriving. I read duckweed thriving better than Water Lettuce & also smaller, so you may want to try that instead. Anacharis produced single root along its stem that grow into the substrate, acting like an anchor. Basically you can plant Anacharis into the substrate or you can tied it to the rock using thread or fishing line. I even have one Anacharis that grew sideways near the substrate & the roots grew into the substrate which basically anchor it. A couple of side shoots appeared as you can see in my previous post. Just recently I trimmed a lot of it because they block lights.

Both of Ludwigia sp. 'Dark Orange' & Bacopa caroliniana doing well in my tanks. Since I planted them in the first tank that already balanced, luckily they didn't show any sign of melting but on the second tank since it is new, the original leaves appear semi transparent but I'm not sure whether some melt away or not. The second tank use organic soil (regular garden soil) (follow Diana Walstad's method). I noticed both Ludwigia sp. 'Dark Orange' & Bacopa caroliniana grow slightly faster with organic soil but anacharis take a while to recover.

Java moss in my second tank doesn't look good. I'm pretty sure algae have grow on it. I just clean my tank & big water change two days ago. BTW, I use thread to tied my plants.

Follow victorsoo advised; removed any dead plants/leaves, don't introduced any livestock in the first a couple of weeks & do regular big water change. Good luck!

Don't forget that is for florescent/CFL lamp. LED will be brighter at same wattage.

Do you really need to get the same brand?

If the algae is the type you can clean, you should clean it the best you can followed by big water change. In newly setup tank, you can get algae because of stunted gwroth. Your plants still adjusting in new environment. Read more about your plants whether they really need ferts.

How many days now? You can add algae eater to help cleaning the area you can't clean yourself. Shrimps or snails. Just don't get apple snails. It is very good in cleaning green algae but it eat plants too. It have huge appetite.

You can do like this using acrylic tube or silicone tube. Below picture was taken from Redit.

All I know when it come to shrimps, you don't do like that. You'll need to get the shrimps acclimated to your water first before putting them in the aquarium. There is a technique you can Google because I don't know how to explain it properly. Basically pour the shrimps including the water it came with to a bucket, put the bucket down near your tank and use a small tube to syphon slowly like dripping water from your tank to that bucket. That's how you get them acclimated to your water. I hope they didn't die.

Edit:-
Watch this video


This post has been edited by kizwan: Nov 3 2019, 10:41 PM

Anyone know the name of the shrimps use for fishing which are available at fish store? The transparent ones?

Thank you so much!

My Apple snail in exile in his own glass bowl. Feeding it with Anacharis.




BBA algae on Java Moss in my tank #2. Clearing up day by day.

Clueless07
How about guppies?

This post has been edited by kizwan: Nov 13 2019, 05:16 PM

There must be something not right if well established plants melts. Did you by any chance test your water? Confirmed chlorine spike?

Deficiency in fertilizer nutrients is common cause of melting, including decolouration on the leaves, of established plants. Just need to figure out which one you lack. Some nutrients are mobile, some are not & they have different effects on the plant. Meaning for example if the nutrient is not mobile, lack of that nutrient will affect new growth. So symptom will give you clue. Mobile nutrients means it can be stripped from old leaves. So deficiencies of these nutrients affect old growth too.

Nutrients are listed as mobile are N, P, K, Mg & Cl.

This post has been edited by kizwan: Nov 14 2019, 12:06 PM

It can be cheap or expensive. Depends on the setup. I recommend do some reading first. The Diana Walstad's book, Ecology of Planted Aquarium is a good book.

What kind wave maker you guys use in your tank? Near the surface or substrate? I have dophin pa500 & p800 that I think I can use as wave maker.

Cf800 can't adjust flow? I thought it can adjust flow.

Quarantined a small patch of java Moss for a week. Seems like the BBA algae is dying. It turned reddish.




N900rocks
How is your shrimps doing now?

You can get either one. LED is brighter than florescence at same Watt. For LED, the ones with both white & blue LED are prefered. You'll need 2 to 3 Watt per gallon.