Quite Discouraged

[orangepunkins]

so

Hello I'm hoping this will help of my many problems that are occuring in my tank. I have a 55 gal with a few plants. 3 to be exact. I have a sand with gravel on top for substrate. I have an algae issue. My plants are now dying. I have a 2 bulb shop light that sits on top of glass lids. I do not have co2. I so wanted to do a low light tank. I even went to the extreme of taking black fabric and enclosing the tank so no extra light will get in. So pretty much I cannot enjoy my tank because it sits behind this black fabric. I have my times for 7-12 and the off from 12-4 and back on from 4-7. I started back on with the liquid fert. for now I have ordered some osmocote root tabs and I haven't gotten those in yet. I would like to rescape the whole tank to black sand. I would save 95% of the water and put back into the tank but i'm afraid of throwing it into a new cycle again. My fish are very happy. I do have 1 problem fish a Pleco. He is useless he flips his tale and rips the leaves of my plants. I'm going to find him a new home soon. I do not know what to do. Any advise I will be appreciate of. Thank You

 

[FishyFreak]

Sorry if this is late, but tell me these things and i will give you some info.
1. How long is your light on each day?
2. Some plants require high lighting.
3. What is your weekly water change schedule?
4. What is your stock?
This could all help.

 

[BBradbury]

Your Tank

Hello orange...

You've made tank management too difficult. You have too much going on in the tank. I have several 55 gallon tanks that are low tech and very easy to manage. You need to start with the tank water. 99.9 percent of the things that go wrong with a tank are because the water isn't clean.

To maintain pure water conditions, you must change at least half of it every week or two, no slacking.

I don't mess with the lighting. I have the lights on a timer set for 12 hours on and 12 off. A couple of florescent T8s or T12s from the hardware store is enough for plants like Anubias, Java fern, any of the mosses, Hornwort, Anacharis or Pennywort.

Chemicals aside from Seachem's "Safe" have really no place in the tank water. If you have a reasonable number of fish in the tank, you don't really need extra fertilizers. This stuff will cause water chemistry problems.

Change a lot of tank water and change it often and the fish and plants will take care of themselves.

B