How would you rearrange my setup

[guttedsquid]

Hi! I have a 29gal community tank that I'm I kinda unhappy with. I feel like my plants aren't growing in the way i imagined, and that my attempt at a foresty colorful guppy tank is mostly just a scraggly first attempt at aquascaping that needs to be replaced. I'm hoping that some of you with a better hand at this can give me some advice. How would you rearrange this setup? I'm on a budget, and last month's investment in a pressurized CO2 system has completely consumed my spending money until April. I intend to buy a solid black background sometime, but if you guys really convince me that i need to make some additions I'll start saving up asap.

I fertilize with florapride with every weekly 10%wc and do testing for gH kH and pH twice a week. CO2 is daily for about 8-10 hours depending on work schedule. I use an airstone at night to balance pH. I have fluval led lights that stay on way too long (always forget because i admire my fish so much lol).substrate is gravel and sand. filtration is a Fluval AquaClear rated at 30gals. pH 6.8, kept at 75 to 78 degrees. In the summer I plan to upgrade to a 55 or 75 gallon tank if i can find one used.

Here is a video of my tank
https://youtu.be/CJlfyOjIb0Y

I have the following plants
-9 stalks of lemon bacopa
-11 stalks of anachris
-6 stalks of some kind of rotala
-1 Vallisneria
-3 scarlet temple that just won't grow
-3 Amazon sword
-13 stalks of ludwigia

Sent from my N9510 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[guttedsquid]

Anyone?

Sent from my N9510 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Old Scales]

First off your tank looks nice IMO. You guppies are just beautiful. I'm a lifelong guppy fan. My first indication is your light. It looks to be at low light and you have some medium light plants in there. ALWAYS match your plants to what light you have or will get. Next issue is you need to dose balanced macro and micro ferts consistently. You need to keep a balance of NO3 and PO4 at the same level for the plants. Dosing once a week may mean the plants are running out of nutrients before the next dosing. Look at the PPS Pro ferts from Green Leaf Aquarium. Cheaper in the long run also.
You did a great thing with the CO2 system. Just keep it consistent day to day. This is important for your lights also. Get a timer so your photo period stays consistent too.
You are definitely on the right track with your set up. You just need to tweak some things. Also, try putting each plant species in groups instead of just spread out evenly across the tank. Put you taller plants on the back sides with shorter ones in front. Put groups of plants with different leave textures or colors by each other for contrast. I will PM you a write up I made about the plant triad that may help you.
Oh, also, get an API master test kit with the extra Phosphate kit too. Ph, NO3, PO4 and KH are tests any serious planter has to do to know what levels the plants are getting.
Good luck and have fun. Experimenting, making mistakes and trying again are what makes planted tanks interesting. If it were easy, every goldfish bowl would look like a Tom Barr masterpiece and it would be quite boring IMO. OS.

 

[Huro]

Agree with OS you have a very clean tank plants and fish both look good, add the advise OS gave you and I am sure your tank will be where you want it in no time.

 

[guttedsquid]

thank you so much both of you for your replies. I will certainly look into the fertilizers, seeing as it doesn't have much in it; just noticed it is 95% water!!! Was wondering if I'm nitrogen deficient... i think my test strips have gone bad because strips say my pH is low while drop test consistently show is near neutral. So I don't believe that my nitrate is nearly wherethe strips say it is. The lights are a concern for me because I've never had LED until now, so i may just go for the Fluval sea rather than the Fluval eco bright i have now.

Sent from my N9510 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Huro]

If your interested in quality LED I would check out Dutch Planted 6300K - Build My LED, LLC, these lights are top notch imo.

 

[guttedsquid]

I rearranged my setup... what do you guys think? Im happier with the left side but not the right... will try and give it a week to grow on me no pun intended.

Sent from my N9510 using Aquarium Advice mobile app