Hello everyone, I'm new here and also generally to freshwater. Feeling reinvigorated to do things right again and was hoping for some discussion.
In my living room I have a standard 4x2x2 120g aquarium. Currently running 2x aquafilter 110s with sponge and ceramic media, an airstone, and a Fluval 3.0 light. I believe the substrate is fluval stratum and some inert gravel but I don't recall exactly. Some large spider wood makes up the majority of the aquascape.
It has been setup for a little over 2 years now. When I first got the tank cycled I bought a ton of plants from the coop, basically 1 or more of everything they had in stock. We then placed assorted fancy guppies, sterbai corys and a golden ram cichlid in the tank which I ran in the low 80s for temp.
Initially the guppies bred like crazy and I was getting worried about the numbers but then they all started dying despite my efforts at the time and I lost the entire colony over an approx. 2 month time frame. I did everything I could think of at the time, even bought an electric meter to test for stray current. The ram died during this time as well. I spent a lot on meds to treat the 120g during all of this as my hospital tank didn't seem large enough for so many fish. It should be said that no visible diseases were apparent to me.
Having lost a bit of my steam the tank languished a bit during this time, most of the plants died aside from the crypts, anubias and 2 lily bulbs. But the corys actually bred, about doubling their number and this brought some excitement back to the tank for us.
The tank is now stocked with 16 sterbai corys, 12 pencilfish, 30 neons, 20 cherry barbs and 3 honey gourami. Populations are relatively stable with no notable losses or apparent distress.
Having maintained the fish now for quite a while I grew tired of growing mostly algae. The plants were growing very slowly and each leaf would be covered with algae not long after developing. Everything looked ugly. I bought and started running a co2 system for the tank last week. I dose easy carbon everyday and easy green sparingly to keep nitrates in check. I placed a few new plants and it's still too early to see if they'll prosper but the algae situation seems to have improved. I would like to be successful with the plants before considering adding any new livestock.
I finally bought a decent set of water tests and tested out everything today. I have also learned that my heaters keep the water 81 to 82 degrees no matter what I set them at so have purchased a temperature controller that arrives tomorrow. I intend to slowly reduce temp to 76-78.
Values:
KH dKH API test is <1 GH ppm API is 3 drops = 53.7ppm PH API, no change, 6.0 or less TDS Digital Meter 67ppm Nitrate 10-20 ppm Co op Test Strips Generally in agreement.
Anyways, I have an idea why I lost the guppies now. I also suspect temp as the main culprit for my difficulty with plants? I was considering adding a small amount of crushed coral to my filter just to get the PH to at least register at over 6.0? Trying to learn and do my best here, this hobby hasn't been economical so far! The tank is in my living room and I quite enjoy the fish and would like an attractive plant scape. I know I don't have a lot of questions and I wrote quite an essay but I just wanted to introduce myself and be involved.
Again, thank you.
I've included some photos for interest. I didn't do any particular maintenance so you could see a typical state. A 50% water change was performed approx. 24 hours ago.
