FamilyFish3
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I’ve taken over my daughters 13 gal tank that had a few plants, regular gravel and driftwood. Her platys slowly died off after about a year, so I’ve kept only her driftwood, plants and healthy filter media with the good bacteria. The pH was always high at 8.2 from our well water. So here is my experiment...
Adding Fluval Stratum, co2 and more plants to help lower the pH.
Yesterday I removed the water, replaced the gravel with Fluval Stratum and added anacharis, hornwort, jungle val, and hair grass to the Anubias, amazon sword and java wendti she already had. In researching substrate types, I saw conflicting recommendations on rinsing or not rinsing Fluval Stratum. DO NOT RINSE IT!! Just slowly ad water so the stream falls on a little plate to disperse the water gently. The photos below show how it looks after I added a little water after planting the hair grass. And again after putting it all back together. It was not very cloudy at all.
This substrate is very light so planting takes a steady hand and good tongs. I am adding co2 today. Testing out the little inexpensive Fluval kit for small tanks. ??
And here it is this morning - crystal clear.
I’m not a big fan of hornwort and will likely replace it with red ludwigia or reineckii then add Monte Carlo or baby tears to the bottom left. I have a Current USA Satellite LED light so the plants should do well.
I will update the thread in a few weeks with my progress. Depending on how low the pH goes, I may do shrimp and a small school of rummy nose tetras. Wish me luck!
Adding Fluval Stratum, co2 and more plants to help lower the pH.
Yesterday I removed the water, replaced the gravel with Fluval Stratum and added anacharis, hornwort, jungle val, and hair grass to the Anubias, amazon sword and java wendti she already had. In researching substrate types, I saw conflicting recommendations on rinsing or not rinsing Fluval Stratum. DO NOT RINSE IT!! Just slowly ad water so the stream falls on a little plate to disperse the water gently. The photos below show how it looks after I added a little water after planting the hair grass. And again after putting it all back together. It was not very cloudy at all.
This substrate is very light so planting takes a steady hand and good tongs. I am adding co2 today. Testing out the little inexpensive Fluval kit for small tanks. ??
And here it is this morning - crystal clear.
I’m not a big fan of hornwort and will likely replace it with red ludwigia or reineckii then add Monte Carlo or baby tears to the bottom left. I have a Current USA Satellite LED light so the plants should do well.
I will update the thread in a few weeks with my progress. Depending on how low the pH goes, I may do shrimp and a small school of rummy nose tetras. Wish me luck!
