polyesterkhakis
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I have a 29 gallon aquarium that has been setup for about three years, as a non-planted tank.
A few months ago, I became interested in planted aquariums.
I have bought flourite, and mixed it with my existing gravel.
I have a bubble curtain. I do 25-30% water changes every 2-3 weeks. I leave my light on(flourescent) 12 hours a day.
Usually have loads of algae
I have the following plants:
- Carolina Anacharis- very little left , either can't live or gets eaten
- Banana Plant - is doing great
- Onion Plant - does ok, usually gets a lot of algae
- Moneywort - looks very well alive, but it looks like it wouldn't mind dying because of the algae coverage
-Corkscrew Val - just added, is doing good
- Something else that came from walmart - its a swordtype with green and yellow bordered blades - its doing good except for algae
- Some other plants
I have the following fish:
3 New Gunea Rainbows
3 Dwarf Gouramis
6 Albino Corys
A few Amano Algae Eating Shrimp.
Now for the problem:
I checked my ph the other day, the tank has had these plants for about a month. My ph is 6, or maybe lower, but it matched the yellow on the aquarium pharmaceuticals card. I added some ph up that came with the test kit the other day and it didn't increase the ph any, i added some more earlier today. My ammonia was high also, but i put some AmmoLock in, and i regularly add stress zyme. I also add LeafZone Iron and Potassium. I don't know much about co2 injection, so ive never tried it, but i thought about using seachem flourish excel. The only think that has died is 2 out of 9 amano shrimps that i added the other day. The fish look happy, they have been in for a while. I also am thinking about ordering that seachem acid and alkaline buffer for the ph problem. Can anyone contribute to this situation. Oh yeah, i got the petsmart to give me some malaysian trumpet snails, they didn't live for some reason. I will do a follow up post with the latest ph, ammonia, and nitrate results.
A few months ago, I became interested in planted aquariums.
I have bought flourite, and mixed it with my existing gravel.
I have a bubble curtain. I do 25-30% water changes every 2-3 weeks. I leave my light on(flourescent) 12 hours a day.
Usually have loads of algae
I have the following plants:
- Carolina Anacharis- very little left , either can't live or gets eaten
- Banana Plant - is doing great
- Onion Plant - does ok, usually gets a lot of algae
- Moneywort - looks very well alive, but it looks like it wouldn't mind dying because of the algae coverage
-Corkscrew Val - just added, is doing good
- Something else that came from walmart - its a swordtype with green and yellow bordered blades - its doing good except for algae
- Some other plants
I have the following fish:
3 New Gunea Rainbows
3 Dwarf Gouramis
6 Albino Corys
A few Amano Algae Eating Shrimp.
Now for the problem:
I checked my ph the other day, the tank has had these plants for about a month. My ph is 6, or maybe lower, but it matched the yellow on the aquarium pharmaceuticals card. I added some ph up that came with the test kit the other day and it didn't increase the ph any, i added some more earlier today. My ammonia was high also, but i put some AmmoLock in, and i regularly add stress zyme. I also add LeafZone Iron and Potassium. I don't know much about co2 injection, so ive never tried it, but i thought about using seachem flourish excel. The only think that has died is 2 out of 9 amano shrimps that i added the other day. The fish look happy, they have been in for a while. I also am thinking about ordering that seachem acid and alkaline buffer for the ph problem. Can anyone contribute to this situation. Oh yeah, i got the petsmart to give me some malaysian trumpet snails, they didn't live for some reason. I will do a follow up post with the latest ph, ammonia, and nitrate results.