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I've been in and out of tanks for the last 20 years or so. Dabbled in freshwater a bit, then shifted to saltwater and full on reefs but have always kept them low tech with minimal maintenance. This brings me to my latest foray in to planted tanks.
I got my hands on a 3g tank for my kid sand thought I'd throw in some elodea and moss to make it more interesting. A week later before we even got fish a 20g high became my newest tank. I didn't intend to go fully planted but ended up with a thin layer of controsoil under gravel and sand along with some hardscape. It's all grown with stock TopFin lighting, which is pretty surprising to me. No CO2 has been used. Only a small HOB filter provides water flow and aeration. Tank has been running since December 13.
Stock list is:
7 white cloud minnows
6 green neon tetras
4 Cory habrosus
2 Scarlet Badis
Unknown number of neocaridina (> 15?)
1 Nerite
4 ramshorn snails
Eventually increasing bladder snails
Plants include:
Parrot feather
Water wisteria
Val americana*
Staurogyne Repens
Limnophila mini (aromatica? Vietnam? Unsure)
Ludwigia ovalis
Hydrocotyle tripartita
Red root floaters
Salvinia minima (currently floaters are about 1/3 of the tank surface but will probably be reduced as they block too much light.
Eleocharis acicularis spike sedge
Elodea
Riccia
Java moss
Christmas moss
One mystery plant that I forgot- starts with an L I think and is planted in my bottom left, behind the eleocharis.
I don't test religiously but the last time I tested ammonia, nitrite, nitrate were not detectable. pH around 7.2, gH was super high from my tap, kH I forget but was around 2 I think.
I've never dealt with fertilizers before but I think I'm at the point where I need to start dosing something. Between the lack of N showing in tests and the new growth on the limnophila being almost white and starting to melt, something is out of balance. If anyone has any suggestions for root tabs and/or an AIO liquid I'd appreciate it. As much as the scientist in me wants to do dry ferts etc, I don't have the budget, time, or mental bandwidth to do the necessary work for it. I know the tank won't be the absolute best it could be but somewhere between thrive and barely survive would be good.
Also, I think the poor Nerite has run out of food. After a short diatom bloom, everything has been pretty clean in the tank. A small bit of hair algae but so far that's it.
Looking forward to reading more threads and better understanding planted tanks!
![Plant Plant community Natural landscape Rectangle Vegetation]()
![Plant Leaf Terrestrial plant Vegetation Grass]()
I got my hands on a 3g tank for my kid sand thought I'd throw in some elodea and moss to make it more interesting. A week later before we even got fish a 20g high became my newest tank. I didn't intend to go fully planted but ended up with a thin layer of controsoil under gravel and sand along with some hardscape. It's all grown with stock TopFin lighting, which is pretty surprising to me. No CO2 has been used. Only a small HOB filter provides water flow and aeration. Tank has been running since December 13.
Stock list is:
7 white cloud minnows
6 green neon tetras
4 Cory habrosus
2 Scarlet Badis
Unknown number of neocaridina (> 15?)
1 Nerite
4 ramshorn snails
Eventually increasing bladder snails
Plants include:
Parrot feather
Water wisteria
Val americana*
Staurogyne Repens
Limnophila mini (aromatica? Vietnam? Unsure)
Ludwigia ovalis
Hydrocotyle tripartita
Red root floaters
Salvinia minima (currently floaters are about 1/3 of the tank surface but will probably be reduced as they block too much light.
Eleocharis acicularis spike sedge
Elodea
Riccia
Java moss
Christmas moss
One mystery plant that I forgot- starts with an L I think and is planted in my bottom left, behind the eleocharis.
I don't test religiously but the last time I tested ammonia, nitrite, nitrate were not detectable. pH around 7.2, gH was super high from my tap, kH I forget but was around 2 I think.
I've never dealt with fertilizers before but I think I'm at the point where I need to start dosing something. Between the lack of N showing in tests and the new growth on the limnophila being almost white and starting to melt, something is out of balance. If anyone has any suggestions for root tabs and/or an AIO liquid I'd appreciate it. As much as the scientist in me wants to do dry ferts etc, I don't have the budget, time, or mental bandwidth to do the necessary work for it. I know the tank won't be the absolute best it could be but somewhere between thrive and barely survive would be good.
Also, I think the poor Nerite has run out of food. After a short diatom bloom, everything has been pretty clean in the tank. A small bit of hair algae but so far that's it.
Looking forward to reading more threads and better understanding planted tanks!
