[Manel]

quick question (s):
I have a 55 gallon tank with a Marineland canister filter. It is almost 5 months old, the substrate is completely Fluval stratum with some dragon stone and wood spread around. A bunch of fish: 7 goldfish, lots of cardinal and neon tetras, scisortail rasboras, two pictus catfish, three long fin catfish and seven clown loaches, three Siamese algae eaters, a pleco…I know not all of them are supposed to go together but I just ended up with them from various sources and they worked fine so far. Everyone found their place and seemed happy overall, no aggression and I didn’t lose any.
However my plants aren’t doing good. Whatever I put in seems to ‘rust’ after a while. My crypts are doing ok, but stem plants and ferns develop a dry / blackish look, slanted leaves etc. I have tried everything and no positive result: changed the light, light distance, regular water changes, ferts / no ferts etc. there is some imbalance in the tank that I can’t seem to fix
so I want to redo the whole setup

my plan is to take everything out and redo. Catch all the fish and place them in some plastic containers, plants in buckets, and everything else out and start from scratch.

I want to start the new setup with a layer of gravel, a layer of the old substrate on top, and sand on top of that. Then rocks for caves and wood, and plant everything in the sand. Refill with new water and let the old filter run for a few hours before I put back the fish. Should take me about a day I suppose.

now the questions:
1. Should I rinse the old substrate before I reuse it? The gold Fish produce a lot of waste and it’s pretty filthy, but will the nutrients in it be flushed?
2. Will my fish make it?
3. Will it work?

any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks

 

[minorhero]

quick question (s):
I have a 55 gallon tank with a Marineland canister filter. It is almost 5 months old, the substrate is completely Fluval stratum with some dragon stone and wood spread around. A bunch of fish: 7 goldfish, lots of cardinal and neon tetras, scisortail rasboras, two pictus catfish, three long fin catfish and seven clown loaches, three Siamese algae eaters, a pleco…I know not all of them are supposed to go together but I just ended up with them from various sources and they worked fine so far. Everyone found their place and seemed happy overall, no aggression and I didn’t lose any.
However my plants aren’t doing good. Whatever I put in seems to ‘rust’ after a while. My crypts are doing ok, but stem plants and ferns develop a dry / blackish look, slanted leaves etc. I have tried everything and no positive result: changed the light, light distance, regular water changes, ferts / no ferts etc. there is some imbalance in the tank that I can’t seem to fix
so I want to redo the whole setup

my plan is to take everything out and redo. Catch all the fish and place them in some plastic containers, plants in buckets, and everything else out and start from scratch.

I want to start the new setup with a layer of gravel, a layer of the old substrate on top, and sand on top of that. Then rocks for caves and wood, and plant everything in the sand. Refill with new water and let the old filter run for a few hours before I put back the fish. Should take me about a day I suppose.

now the questions:
1. Should I rinse the old substrate before I reuse it? The gold Fish produce a lot of waste and it’s pretty filthy, but will the nutrients in it be flushed?
2. Will my fish make it?
3. Will it work?

any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks

View attachment 1050519

There are a lot of problems with the tank that would need to be addressed if you want a better outcome.

Your tank is very overstocked. The tank also has fish that thrive at different temperatures. The tank is also by a window which will be providing way too much light just by itself.

You mentioned you have tried different fertilizer methods and that the tank has been running for 5 months. Be aware it will take a few months in a low tech tank before you can be sure a change is affecting things.

Things to do to improve conditions.

You should put up blackout material on the tank back and short sides so the window doesn't affect the tank. Or move the tank.

You should re-home most of the fish. A tank this size can house 2 goldfish and nothing else. Or some of the smaller fish, but not everything.

You need to be doing big 50+ % water changes each week. Lights on for a max of 8 hours a day. Dose a complete liquid fertilizer per package directions. Lots of options there but in USA the most popular brands are nilocg ThriveC or aquarium co-op easy green.

Good luck.

 

[Manel]

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your suggestions.
Yes, the tank is overstocked and will do something about that, but my problem isn’t the fish - it’s the plants. I do regular 50% Waters changes, and vacum the substrate as much as I can, as for the tank being next to the window that should cause algae due to excess of light in my understanding, which are also not a problem, so far I had minimal algae growth.

My main problem is that the plants either develop holes on the leaves or rust.

I haven’t able to pinpoint the problem so I’m guessing it’s a combination of nutrients or ammonia present in the substrate plus lots of fish poop and whatever else, so..back to my questions

 

[Marc_G]

The rust may be diatoms, indicating nutrient imbalance. I had this in my high tech tank and it went away once plant growth took off.

 

[ThreadFin]

I would start by getting rid of the goldfish.
They are cool water fish that produce a lot of waste. What are your water parameters.

Also goldfish tend to dig up and root around plants.

 

[Manel]

I created a thread with the plants problem a few weeks ago and got no suggestions.

Problem with plants

My plants are not growing as they should and I can’t seem to fix the problem: most plants develop some ‘rust’,black algae(?) especially on older growth. Perhaps I am missing some essential nutrition? I have been using some low tech fertilizer from Glosso factory for about a month now but...

www.plantedtank.net

to sum up my questions:
Should I rinse the substrate before reusing it?

thanks for any thoughts

 

[somewhatshocked]

Should I rinse the substrate before reusing it?

No, you should not rinse soil-based substrates.

But definitely take the advice of @minorhero and others here.

 

[Blackheart]

Aren't Goldfish also known to make a snack out of plants?

 

[Manel]

I have re-scaped and replanted what I could salvage out of the old plants, perhaps about 40%. Also relocated many of the fish. Hope it works out better this time.

 

[anfield]

Agree with others. Too much light from the window and likely nutrients imbalance.

 

[Manel]

Ok so, painted the background black and set the light to the default 24h cycle, it’s A Hygger 48” so not to strong. The ’blackening’ and melting is no longer much of a problem but now I have brown algae over everything, diatoms? Some comes off if I rub it but much doesn’t. I understand it has something to do with the silicate in the water. I had some zebra nerite snails but they didn’t do anything except lay eggs everywhere so I took them out. I do constant water changes but that does nothing also. I also have two siamese algae eaters but they also do nothing. Should I get a pleco?
any other suggestions?