Thinking about starting over

[mPhish]

My ten gallon is absolutely disgusting. At least three kids of algae, detritus worms, dying plants... I'm sick of all the work that goes into cleaning it. I only have two small panda garras and two nerite snails in it at the moment, my betta died recently so it's a bit empty. I kinda want to dig it all up, power clean everything that's covered in algae and restock it. Any tips or advice would be nice.



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[Toad]

What kind of lighting and filtration do you having running now? What kind of plants and substrate? Sometimes just swapping a few thing can help fix up a crap tank without having to do a complete overhaul.

Do you plan on keeping your current stock?

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[mPhish]

Toad sorry for the late reply. I actually did a nice deep clean and took out the divider I had (it was covered in algae). It looks a lot nicer now, but it still needs some work and cleaning. I'm keeping my stock, but I'd like to get a betta and maybe some neons, or other easily attainable schooling fish. Any suggestions?


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[mambee]

10 gallons is a very limiting size. As odd as it sounds, larger tanks are much easier to maintain and keep stable. What filter are you using? What lighting? I use Finnex LED lighting on all of my tanks. I find that if you start with enough plants, you don't give algae a chance to get established. I grow Java fern, crypts, and anubias in abundance without any CO2. Also, I switched all of my tanks to sand and am very happy. Sand doesn't allow detritus to get buried. Once you get the basics right, there are an abundance of nano fish which would do well in a 10 gallon tank.