Hello everyone,
I've had a small planted tank for a year (my first aquarium) and am having serious issues with poor plant growth. An experienced friend helped me get set up, but we are both flummoxed about what might be going on.
Here are some details (I am still an aquarium newbie so please forgive the imperfect language or extraneous details):
I've had some consistent algae problems on the walls of the tank, and try to scrub it off gently with a clean sponge during water changes. In addition to the general withering and leaf loss in plants, I have lately also noticed a thin gray hair-like substance growing on a lot of my plants, which I would guess is some kind of fungus.
Overall the tank looks very sparse now, and not very interesting to look at -- and although I am an aquarium newbie, I really expected more than this. I was hoping for something lush and visually interesting for us and the fish.
The change in the plant growth didn't happen suddenly (more like something I noticed over months) and so I can't correlate it to any one change that I've made.
I would appreciate any advice, or if anything that I've mentioned stands out as a "red flag" potential cause of problems, and any solutions that can be recommended. I can try to add pictures if that would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
I've had a small planted tank for a year (my first aquarium) and am having serious issues with poor plant growth. An experienced friend helped me get set up, but we are both flummoxed about what might be going on.
Here are some details (I am still an aquarium newbie so please forgive the imperfect language or extraneous details):
- The tank is 5 gal, with the AquaClear 20 three-component filter system (foam + activated carbon + BioMax) running continually on low and filter components changed according to the manufacturer's schedule. No bubbler.
- I have a basic white fluorescent light (sized to the aquarium lid, and bought from a local aquarium supply store) in the lid of the tank. I can't remember the wattage. I have the light set to be on about 8 hrs / day
- I have a thermostatted 25 W heater and keep the tank consistently at 25.5 C.
- I do water changes every two weeks, as follows: I remove about half of the water in the tank and replace it with local tap water that I've left standing for at least a day (after adjusting the temperature with boiling water).
- About 1.5 inches of Aquasoil on the bottom of the tank
- I planted the tank with a mixture of plants I had purchased: some Hydrocotyle, Bacopa caroliniana, Helanthium tenellum, Rotala wallichii, and "Pearl Weed". I also have some small colourful pebbles (from local lakes, but thoroughly cleaned first) added to the tank for decoration, as well as a "castle".
- Over time I slowly introduced small fish, two at a time -- guppies and neon tetras. I haven't ever had more than 7-8 fish at any one time. The tetras have mostly been consistent but we've gone through a number of guppies.
- We had a lot of small snails over about the first six months or so, which I removed as much as possible during water changes; I then got an Assassin snail, which took care of the other snails, and is still hanging around.
- For the past six months or so, I've been adding Flourish Excel every two weeks according to the manufacturer's instructions.
I've had some consistent algae problems on the walls of the tank, and try to scrub it off gently with a clean sponge during water changes. In addition to the general withering and leaf loss in plants, I have lately also noticed a thin gray hair-like substance growing on a lot of my plants, which I would guess is some kind of fungus.
Overall the tank looks very sparse now, and not very interesting to look at -- and although I am an aquarium newbie, I really expected more than this. I was hoping for something lush and visually interesting for us and the fish.
The change in the plant growth didn't happen suddenly (more like something I noticed over months) and so I can't correlate it to any one change that I've made.
I would appreciate any advice, or if anything that I've mentioned stands out as a "red flag" potential cause of problems, and any solutions that can be recommended. I can try to add pictures if that would be helpful. Thanks in advance.