Isaac M

My 29 gallon planted aquarium(my oldest aquarium, maybe 4-5 years old) is being replaced with a 40 gallon reef tank. I will add a picture of the 29 gallon tank in its more prime form below: Last time I kept a reef tank was around 10 years ago when I was 14-15 years old. It housed a firefish and blue-green reef chromis. The firefish eventually passed after a few years and someone I knew gave me a maroon clownfish that he had in his sump(pictured below). I find it kind of funny now that I jumped into a nano reef before I even dared try growing a live plant! I only have one picture of it: I have been doing a lot of research to update my knowledge and it has been a lot of fun. Given that I like to keep my aquariums as low maintenance as possible, I will be going easy with soft corals only. I have since scaped the aquarium with dry rock that I had bought many many years ago (maybe 8 years ago) but never used. I also filled the aquarium to test for a leak. This aquarium will not have a sump or a skimmer. The equipment so far will be as follows: Lighting: 2 AI Prime hd lights Filtration: Canister filter with coarse sponge, chemi-pure elite and purigen Circulation: 1 Tunze Nanostream 6015 pump on each side Sand: Dry Fiji Pink Sand I will be growing some chaeto behind the rocks. It worked well for me in my nano reef back in the day. I will also be purchasing a ro/di unit for mixing my own saltwater. As of now, my projected stocking for this aquarium will be an ocellaris clownfish, yellow watchman goby, royal gramma and a firefish. I will be posting the build for this aquarium here so all the other details will come with future posts.

The next aquarium update is for my 10 gallon neon tetra aquarium and 5 gallon shrimp tank. The 5 gallon shrimp tank will be going back with my girlfriend and she will be keeping a pea puffer in there. I will be taking the blue dream shrimp out and be adding them to the 10 gallon neon tetra aquarium. I have already added some and they have done great. The build and journal for these aquariums:

Hello everyone, I wanted to start a journal that was centered around my journey in all my aquariums. I figured this would be a great time to start this as I will be changing 3 of my 5 aquariums. For starters, I will begin this by providing an update on my 40 Gallon Breeder organic soil aquarium. The build and journal for this aquarium is here: I will start with the bad news, I was never able to get the crypts to fully bloom. The flowers would grow up between 8-12 inches tall and then lose their shape. I am not sure if I would have to lower the water line to get them to bloom. I had around 10 total flowers. The other bad news is that my sterbai cory fry all developed sort of a bloated belly and did not make it. The good news is that I have been feeding heavily still and have another 20 plus cory fry. These fry do not appear to have the bloated belly issue so far. I added gravel to the breeder box as I did notice that the shrimp would pick at the fry from underneath. The other good news is that the aquarium is thriving. The plants continue to grow well and I am loving the overall jungle it has become. I even had to drape the pothos over the light as it was in the way. Like Cory mentioned in the recent Aquarium Co-Op video, all aquariums are an experiment and I have been learning a lot from this aquarium. I will attach some pictures below.

Hi @MaeDae871, would you be able to post a picture of the aquarium? It would be very helpful in being able to identify what kind of algae you are dealing with.

Hello @bobhed, the first step would be to identify the algae. It is a little tough for me to see but it looks like it may be staghorn algae. Would you be able to compare your algae to pictures of staghorn algae online and confirm that for me? Would you be able to provide additional information as well like water parameters? Lighting? Fertilization schedule? Water change schedule? Age of aquarium?

Hi @Allison, assuming a double dose of easy green means 16 pumps total, then I would not be too worried. That is only about 6-7ppm of nitrates. I am not sure how many plants you have but if they are growing like crazy, I do not think you will have an issue. You may actually see better growth from your stem plants if anything.

@Spewing_nonsense_ yes that looks like an anubias flower! I love the excitement as well! Congrats on all the success! I will attach a picture here of anubias flowers in my old aquarium. It is not the best picture but it is all I have available on my phone right now. The flower on the left was eaten by the cherry shrimp, the one on the right is what your flower should look like after it opens up.

@Hobbit what about siamese algae eaters? That and amanos may be a good match for your aquarium. They will add some more nitrates into the aquarium while also being able to snack on some of the black beard algae.

@H.K.Luterman I never get tired of looking at that catfish! Haha but I am a little confused, is the red light red because of the red scarf (looks red to us because the light is reflecting off of it) or because of an actual red light? From my understanding, the red light spectrum is helpful for plants.

@CosmicAshhole Fluval stratum would be considered an aquasoil, it is really light so I would recommend what @Maggie mentioned with poking holes in the root tab to help release the air so it will not float back up.

@Caroleinwv were you expecting to see an increase in pH because of the increase in TDS? pH typically only increases as kh increases. If you are expecting your kh and ph to increase because you are topping off, it is possible that the kh you are adding into your aquarium is not enough to keep up with the kh being “used up” by the nitrogen cycle. This can lead either to a lowering of ph or it can stay the same if the kh added by topping off is balanced with the kh being used up by the nitrogen cycle. I would test for kh specifically however to get a clearer picture. I would test the kh of the aquarium and the kh of the tap water. I apologize if I am still not clear on the question exactly. I am sorry to hear about your surgeries and the difficulty it adds to your hobby. I would try adding a top to your aquarium if you do not already have one to minimize evaporation. Topping off with a mixture of RO water (I think you mentioned you bought a system) and tap water may help as well.

Hello @Caroleinwv, have you read about old tank syndrome before? Usually if top-offs are being done on an aquarium, it introduces more minerals into the aquarium since they do not evaporate out. You either need plants and/or a water change to remove the minerals from the aquarium. TDS readings are tough because they do not specifically measure for one known compound in the water. I think it would be helpful if you found your local water report online and reviewed that. Mostly anything, even the iron as you mentioned will increase the TDS reading. And iron will not show up in your ph, gh or kh test. Your TDS will also increase(and can increase significantly) if you add liquid fertilizer into the water since they are meant to add nutrients into the water. Do you have your test result for your gh? kh?

Hi @Demobanana, I I agree with @xXInkedPhoenixX, please do not give up. I have found that there is so much information available now, it is hard to know what to believe. I would highly encourage you follow 1-3 sources of information at most and learn from them rather than attempt to mix multiple resources together. Regarding the issue of algae in planted tanks, most algaes come from a lack of proper balance (and stability) between lighting, nutrients(this can include fish stocking), plant mass and carbon dioxide. So if one or all of these is high and the others are moderate or low, then the factors that are low will limit the plant growth. The algae will then take advantage of the factors that are high or are in excess. Algae will provide the balance your plants could not provide essentially. Looking at your aquarium pictures and post, I am no expert in Nicrew lights (I have never had one) but visually, it looks very bright in your pictures. At bare minimum, it is a moderate light and if not, a high light. You also have very light stocking and hardly dosing Easy Green. Bacopa is a slow growing plant, it is a good beginner plant but is still a slow grower. Wisteria and water sprite are also good beginner plants but will need sufficient nutrients to not develop a nutrient deficiency. I would also assume you have low carbon dioxixe but that is usually not a big problem (especially if you float plants) unless you have high lighting. So what does this all mean, I personally think your light is too bright for your aquarium, even at 6 hours only. The intensity is just too strong. I would attempt to dim it or just purchase another light that is not as strong. I would also increase dosing of easy green. I would only use organic soil in the aquarium or pot if you wanted to grow more plants that enjoy nutrients at the roots (bulb plants and plants that spread through runners like crypts, val, swords, etc). These 2 things should significantly help your aquarium with growing plants and reducing algae growth. I will not lie, all tanks will have some algae, but it should not be engulfing your aquarium. For your reference, here is a guide on plant nutrient deficiencies: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies I hope that helps! Hang in there, you got this!

@Hobbit I have a 55 gallon very similar to what you are describing. I also recently had green hair algae as well. But I have gained control of that by dosing some easy green to help my stem plants grow faster and compete against the algae. The black beard algae I just leave alone however. I find that it often attacks things that do not move much, anubias leaves, bolbitis, driftwood, rocks, filters, etc. All the research points towards carbon dioxide levels though, I have multiple co2 systems I dont use so I dont know, I may eventually experiment with it and see if it does anything haha I would try adding some easy green and more fast growing plants to your aquarium though and see if it helps clear things up. Maybe some additional amanos would help as well.

@ND1990 yeah that is a very fast growing plant. I would increase my dosing. I would personally add a second day of dosing of another 8 pumps for a total of 16 pumps a week. Then after 2 weeks or so, observe the plants for any nutrient deficiencies. Then adjust based off of your observations. The following link is helpful for diagnosing nutrient deficiencies. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies

@ND1990 I would increase my dosing of easy green. Increase your dose slowly and pay attention to how your ecosystem reacts. You did not mention which hygrophila you have but most hygrophilas are fast growing plants so they serve as a great indicator. 8 pumps of Easy Green will only give you a little more than 3.5 ppm of nitrates in your 75 gallon. So I think you can definitely add quite a bit more of Easy Green to your aquarium depending on the amount of plants you have. Easy Green also has a significant amount of potassium (around 2.6 ppm of potassium for 8 pumps in your 75 gallon) in it so it should address that issue quite well. I hope that helps!

Hello @ND1990, Easy Green does provide potassium. It is on the label as “Soluble Potash” or K2O. How much are you dosing? What are the tank inhabitants? Do you have a picture of the aquarium? What are your nitrates?

@Mitch Norton nice video! I enjoyed the voiceover, the aquarium is looking great! Definitely looks like black beard algae to me. I get that a lot on my older plants that grow slower (anubias, crypts, swords, bolbitis, etc) so I feel your pain haha seems to really attach to things that do not move much

@Guppysnail given the information you gave us, I would say your aquarium is balanced. Congrats! I agree with others, I would not add anything unless your plants begin to show signs of nutrient deficiencies. The following link is helpful for identifying deficiencies just in case: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies

I started with aquariums when I was 12 or 13 years old. I also did not have access to much money to fuel my new hobby. Given my age, I was not able to go very far to find a pet store given that I could not drive. I had a Petco about 10 minutes away and a Petsmart about 15 minutes away. I also had access to a really good local reef store which was 15 minutes away as well. But a local pet store opened up about 10 minutes away and they gave away a 10 gallon aquarium kit to the first customers (not sure how many). And to my delight, my aunt gave it to me not knowing what she had just started haha I may not have had access to stores with great freshwater fish or plants selection, but the one act of giving away aquariums started my hobby that has stuck with me the longest (over half my life now). Like @Streetwise said, I am forever grateful that my LPS cared enough to make it happen.

@BaRanchik the reason that recommendation seems weird by the seachem flourish calculator is because of the units. The units are in ppm of Nitrogen, not nitrates. At the bottom of the calculator, it mentions if using a nitrate equivalent, then divide by 5. So in order to add 20ppm of nitrates to your water, you would need 2 caps, not 10 caps. 1 mL of Flourish Nitrogen gets you about 1.7ppm of nitrates for a 10 gallon aquarium but the calculator rounds up to 2ppm. I assume it is done this way to simplify. As a reference, Easy Green gives you about 3.1 ppm of Nitrates per mL for a 10 gallon aquarium. To recap, use 2 caps or 10 mL of Flourish Nitrogen to add almost 20ppm (about 17ppm) of Nitrates to your 10 gallon aquarium. I hope that helps!

I was recently in San Diego, California and remembered that you did sailboat racing while looking out at the marina. Glad to hear you got back out there and enjoyed yourself! Beautiful pictures!

@Chlo its tough to say without the chart there to compare the color to but that looks like 0 ammonia across the board right? But yeah, it is likely that the bacteria was just catching up.

@ChefConfit that is a great idea to reduce mess when moving plants. What I do is simply pull up the plants a bit and then chop the roots by putting the scissors under the substrate and chopping. The plants usually bounce back without an issue.

My thoughts on organic soil aquariums in general is the same as my thoughts on aquariums in general, you should keep aquariums in whatever way you will enjoy them the most as long as they are healthy for the inhabitants. Personally, I am the type of person that is busy and enjoys feeding/ watching my aquariums. I prefer to spend time observing the inhabitants and making live baby brine or feeding frozen food rather than constant water changes, dosing liquid fertilizers and adding root tabs. I have found that the best way to do this is with heavily planted aquariums with organic soil or lightly stocked aquariums with only epiphytes. I have had and still have planted aquariums without the use of organic soil. I just rarely keep up with them due to my lack of time. I mostly do not keep up with the root tabs if I am being honest but they grow plants well also. My aquariums with organic soil use around 1”-1.5” of organic soil at the thickest point capped with a suitable substrate of at least the same thickness of the soil. I have successfully done this with black diamond blasting sand, pool filter sand and normal aquarium gravel. I just use Miracle Gro Natures Care organic soil. I typically sift it with a colander to remove the bigger pieces. All of my organic soil aquariums grow minimal algae (can typically go a month or more without scrubbing front glass panel) and often go a month or more without water changes. As far as longevity goes, my longest organic soil aquarium is around 3 years old now, maybe a little older. It is still growing plants without an issue. I actually supplement with liquid fertilizer sometimes because the floating plants and riparian plants take out all the nitrates. I have yet to have a failure in any of my setups. The key to this is to be prepared. Spend all the time, effort and money upfront and it will be a lot easier in the long run. I think a beginner can have success if they prepare enough as mentioned in the prior paragraph. I set up an organic soil aquarium for a family member who knows very little about aquariums and it has been doing great for almost 2 years now. All she does is trim the plants, feed her fish and do a water change every once in awhile. Her aquarium is mostly pogostemon stellatus octopus. I will include pictures of the tanks I have mentioned above. 29 Gallon with normal gravel only: 10 Gallon with organic soil capped with gravel: 55 Gallon with organic soil capped with black diamond blasting sand: 40 Gallon Breeder with organic soil capped with pool filter sand: 55 Gallon I scaped for family member with organic soil capped with pool filter sand: 20 Gallon Long epiphyte only aquarium: