What's been most frustrating?

[candygirl415]

So you ventured into a planted tank. What has been the most frustrating in either getting it started or maintaining it? From plants being difficult, to figuring out proper methods, or even from your wet pets. I'm curious as to others aggravating experiences. For me its been my java moss not growing while everything else is and my african dwarf frogs. I absolutely adore my frogs but they've driven me crazy concerning my plants. The goofballs are not gentle. Anything that takes a couple days to take root, I am constantly replanting! I just propagated my hygro and I have put the new piece back in the soil more times than I can count. Its finally got a cpl tiny roots so hopefully soon it will latch in the soil and stay put. Same problem with my dwarf tears. I have a 3rd of what I started with actually rooted. Of the rest half has survived floating amongst my sprite. I had a nice sized floating piece of wisteria that they shredded and now just have a tiny piece left that I planted in a spot they don't really hang out. I also had two really nice full pieces of hornwort, which is now in many smaller pieces around the tank. If its fragile or needs to catch root in the substrate, they are hanging out on it, pushing off it, or swimming through it. I swear just to aggrivate me, lol! Everything is still alive, green, and trying to grow despite my rowdy frogs. What's been your annoyances?

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[dalto]

Mostly the fact that I kill every plant within a month or 2. After the plants are dead all that remains are the snails...

 

[KristaButler]

Same here. I constantly have plants floating around at the top, only to put them back in the substrate. Nothing has died yet though fingers crossed. I think my angelfish is pulling them out. After numerous times, I finally anchor it. It drives me nuts though, until I do.



May the force be with you.

 

[LeviRH]

Planting anything in my Flourite Black has been a real chore. It's about 2 1/2 inches deep. Everything seems to want to float out at first, but once I get it settled in, it takes a couple days to root in. That's my biggest issue.

Other than that, snails. Thorough cleaning for every plant I get, and still end up with a couple. So thankful for Assassin Snails.

Rockwool is also not my friend in potted plants. Hate removing it.

 

[candygirl415]

I tried anchoring my hornwort when it was still in larger sections. My frogs cruised right through it breaking many pieces off. So now its a little everywhere caught on various things. I never had an issue with unwanted snails, thank god.

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[F.Sam]

Getting every plant to flourish, except fore-ground plants


Sent per three-eyed raven...

 

[candygirl415]

If you haven't, try dwarf sag as a foreground. Mine is doing great, multiplying here and there. At first, yet another my frogs pulled loose constantly until it rooted, lol. All of mine, even what's in pieces is doing well except my mosses. I have java, flame, and a small piece of willow. None is dying but not growing. Grrr.

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[Delapool]

Planted tanks, grr!! My list:

Plants that grow fine in 5gal but not DT,

The small fortune spent on lights and CO2,

The chemistry I've learnt despite my best efforts to avoid,

That the plants also need to grow faster than the fish can eat / destroy them (the good news is all my fish get along as they have a common goal..),

Element deficiencies - I'll just move on.....

That plants will also get algae grow on them just to add to the woes,

The cost of the plants kind of adds up,

I sometimes worry about my fish surviving with all the ferts dosing and co2 injection. For example every so often I'll overshoot the nitrates dosing.

Glut - promises so much but will melt your plants as well. Be nice if it was all a little easier.

Sigh

 

[jetajockey]

Algae can be annoying, but I just nuke it now and all is well for the most part.

 

[Delapool]

Algae can be annoying, but I just nuke it now and all is well for the most part.

That's handy! What are you using for that? It's green, hair algae on the plants which I find the glut doesn't seem to control as well as bba.

 

[Brookster123]

Ermmm.... algae.....

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[tiger terror]

The cost of it all buttttt I couldn't think of a better hobby in which your constantly learnig&evolving in..

Getcha feet wet fish tank people!

 

[Alan79]

Keeping gardening fish is a big annoyance. I started my planted journey with a pair of Comets who tore out EVERYTHING. I have them in a tank with some Ludwigia repens and an Anubias clump but nothing else survives long. I have not owned a cichlid as i hear they also love to garden.

Early on i used larger substrate to try and keep plants in. It took ages for things to take root so i avoid that annoyance by using finer grained substrate now. Sand or very fine gravel work best for anchoring plants in my experience.

In my experimental tank (again with the Comets) i had issues with it being dirted and the comets shifting the gravel cap around. In 2 months they removed a half bucket of soil from their tank digging in the substrate.

Cost. There is always a new plant/light/hardscape item/filter/fertilizer/fish etc that we "NEED".

Plants not working out or being what they're supposed to. I've stuck with low tech tanks sometimes with CO2 and ferts. I cannot get reds, some pinkish leaves form on my sunset hygro but thats the best i can manage. Foreground plants for the most part fail in my tanks at best they tend to live but not thrive. Dwarf chain sword (which may have been wrongly labeled and is possibly dwarf Sagitaria) thrives but gets taller than i want in my foreground. I am trying crypt parva and have high hopes it will work.

Plants thriving better than expected. I occasionally buy a new plant that just explodes with vigorous new growth in my tanks. I have introduced plants that have quickly out-competed 1-3 other varieties leaving them looking sickly and often eliminating them completely.

Algae. I know almost every type personally at this point in time. Most i have gotten rid of. Green hair algae remains as the arch nemesis of my kuhli tank. Seems way too hard to remove the kuhlis for a good dose of peroxide and all my other tricks don't work. A tear out of every plant and a peroxide dip will win that war but the effort involved is a pain. Spot treating has not seen any significant reduction of the GHA. Tearing out the clumps that form daily/weekly makes me want to tear the tank down and start fresh.

Keeping things in proportion. I could solve this issue by buying bigger taller tanks but i have issues with keeping dimensions right in my tanks. My mid ground plants usually end up growing to the waters surface while trimming tips in my stem plants becomes repetitive when you have stems in 5 tanks.

Floor space in tanks. If i had the money i would buy some monster tanks and have some dutch themed aquariums running with a huge variety of plants to play with and a huge variety of fish as well. My funds for now are limited so i have smallish tanks (biggest tanks are 35g). It's hard to do a dutch theme with limited space.

I may have listed a lot of grievances about running planted tanks, but if it had roven easy i would have given up. The challenges make the successes worth the effort.

 

[jetajockey]

Peroxide does great at killing hair algae and seems to work on diatoms as well.

 

[Delapool]

Peroxide does great at killing hair algae and seems to work on diatoms as well.

Just thinking back. I had been using peroxide on BBA and it bleached some nice foxtail I had growing in pots. I'm wondering now if that may be because the peroxide I have is 6% whereas in US it is commonly 3%?

Pretty sure it was the peroxide as only some foxtail near where I had been squirting it was bleached.

 

[candygirl415]

Omg, lol, wow. I'm a newbie to a planted tank, only been running and growing for almost 3 months. I haven't had THAT many problems. I am developing bits of algae that i'm not sure what kinds and diatoms. I'm hoping my shrimp and new nerites will handle most of it. Hearing the stresses of algae makes me nervous, lol! I don't do ferts, just what I mixed into my miracle grow soil base, and co2 just from occasional excel dose. No high tech lights, just an led strip that came with tank and a small under the counter fluorescent light. So far it all seems to be enough. I'd love more ground space to work with, but i'm severely limited on home space. Plus I have to watch depth for my frogs. I wish they'd make bigger but shallow tanks. I'd also love more than one for different colored shrimp, but alas lack of space for it. Its super frustrating that anything I want or need I have to order online. There are no speciality aquarium shops anywhere near me. Shipping live fish/shrimp is expensive and risk death. Regardless of it all, I love it.

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