ChrisKhan
Aquarium Advice Newbie
So I wanted to start a small 5 gallon planted tank for a betta and maybe a few pygmy corys and was inspired to aquascape it like all the pros and cool photos on the internet so i proceeded to buy a whole bunch of stuff. Hardscape wood, ADA soil, driftwood, variety of plants, etc. I got the tank and soil first so I dumped the soil in and leveled it how i wanted the tank to look in the end. I didnt recieve much else besides the very small driftwood pieces so i thought, hey might as well water log them. I put them in the tank and poured about a gallon of water into the tank. Big mistake. The soil leveling was ruined and the water was so terrible. So i kept pouring treated water thinking it will eventually settle down. I waited a day and night and lo and behold, nothing changed. So i plugged in the filter thinking THAT would help. nope. AGAIN NOTHING CHANGED.
So by now I received marimo moss balls (which are each like 90% brown, can I revive these? or should I toss them? This is a whole other issue, but i digress here) and my LED light for the tank. Remember this is a small tank so the light is relatively powerful for 5 gal. I set up the light and throw some seachem flourish in the tank to help the moss balls. About 4 or 5 days go by and i take a good look at the driftwood. They are absolutely COVERED in this fine white hair algae! The water is still very murky but not as bad as before. I still had the filter running so that might have contributed to the mess. Anyway i took the driftwood out and scrubbed it clean and dumped 95% of the water in the tank. I thought the algae was some kind of fungus or something extremely harmful so i panicked (AND DIDNT DO MY RESEARCH). Then I thought i should put regular tap water in the tank to help disinfect the soil and whatever stuff was in there. I figured the chlorine in the tap was enough to deal with it. SO.
What should I do from here out? Im kicking myself for not waiting for everything to arrive and set up the tank the way pros do in their tutorials and also basically draining the soil of its nutrients Im still waiting for live plants and other hardscape materials to arrive by 1/2/19.
Any suggestions?
So by now I received marimo moss balls (which are each like 90% brown, can I revive these? or should I toss them? This is a whole other issue, but i digress here) and my LED light for the tank. Remember this is a small tank so the light is relatively powerful for 5 gal. I set up the light and throw some seachem flourish in the tank to help the moss balls. About 4 or 5 days go by and i take a good look at the driftwood. They are absolutely COVERED in this fine white hair algae! The water is still very murky but not as bad as before. I still had the filter running so that might have contributed to the mess. Anyway i took the driftwood out and scrubbed it clean and dumped 95% of the water in the tank. I thought the algae was some kind of fungus or something extremely harmful so i panicked (AND DIDNT DO MY RESEARCH). Then I thought i should put regular tap water in the tank to help disinfect the soil and whatever stuff was in there. I figured the chlorine in the tap was enough to deal with it. SO.
What should I do from here out? Im kicking myself for not waiting for everything to arrive and set up the tank the way pros do in their tutorials and also basically draining the soil of its nutrients Im still waiting for live plants and other hardscape materials to arrive by 1/2/19.
Any suggestions?