pdmeighen

I rebooted my 55 Gallon Aquarium putting in new substrate and gravel and planting the few surviving plants - Crypt Wendtii - Green, cryptocoryne wendtii red, amazon sword, echinodorus, annibus and dwarf hair grass. I also placed root tabs around the plants. It's been up and running for about 2 weeks now. Still have not added any fish. I'm planning to add more rocks which I will attach Java Ferns and a few other plants when I see what lives. Most of the plants are doing ok but there have been a few leaves dying here and there.

I considered cichlids but have read that cichlid's are not good for planted tanks.

If I use something like Eco Complete and then add chlorinated water will the chlorine kill the helpful micro organisms in the substrate?

I was thinking Dwarf Gourami and compatible tank mates

Since I decided to clear out everything, I started a new topic called "Rebooting a 55 Gallon Tank" under general.

I've posted several times in the last few days in the introduction forum under the subect "I'm new also..." After struggling with the dreaded "Grey Gunk" for at least six months I've decided to start over. I'm taking out the water, gravel and substrate. Please feel free to recommend subtrates and gravel for a 55 gallon - fresh water - planted tank. Currently I have a fluval 307 filter, Coralife Seascape LED Aquarium Light and 2 "generic heaters". May upgrade some of this later.

Thanks for all of the responses. Here's the lastest pictures from my tank. There are no fish and I've not added any food. The plants were added on Sunday and there was nothing on them so the stuff in these pictures has appeared over the past 2 days. Also the water smells very musty. You can smell it as soon as you walk in the house. A google search for musty smelling water suggests: "usually a sign that excess waste is in the tank, and usually excess food. To correct the problem, change out 50% of the water, wait one whole day, and then change out 25% more of the water." I just did a 75% change and used the siphon to clean up any debris by pushing it down into the gravel and sucking up anything that looked like it didn't belong. I guess that tomorrow I'll be doing another water change. Do you think that I should remove the plants first? I've order new plants and am debating if I should add them or not. I'm also thinking that I should not add any living fish/shrimp/etc. Should I remove everything - substrate, gravel, etc and start over? Is there actually a fun part to this hobby? Water test results are: Hardneess - 120 Free Chlorine - 0 Nitrate -0 Nitrite - 0 Carconite - o Alkalinity - 40 Ph - 6.0

Correct, this is fresh water.

... and I'm having issues. I have a 55 gallon tank which has been active for about 5 years. I've had a series of problems but I'll spare you the details including everything being cover with "Grey Gunk". Everything died - snails and fish. The plants weren't doing too well. I removed everything leaving the soil substrate and gravel. Next I drained 3/4 of the water and replaced filter media (which I probably shouldn't have done). Yesterday I added water, some rocks and some plants. I plan to add more in the coming weeks. There is still some Grey Gunk (see picture) which I vaccumed out. When the vaccum touch the Gunk it released a cloud. I'm wondering if the Gunk is a fungus and the if the cloud was spores. Next steps - add Neocaridina Shrimp which I'm hoping that will eat the grey gunk and some snails. Anyway please feel free to offer any suggestions and recommendations on what the Grey Gunk is and how to fianlly be freee of it.