Joel Steen

Just planted this maybe 3 weeks ago. Used easy green and root tabs. I have soft water so I used equilibrium and I’ve also been using excel every other day. I also just replaced my old light with aquarium co ops light. 55 gallon. 9 hour total light 4 morning 5 evening. Set at 80 percent intensity. I’ve only been using that excel for a few weeks now and notice a bit more algae. 2 questions. The sword looking normal? And is it the light or excel casing the algae? I didn’t use the equilibrium after the most recent water change. I was going to try these wonder shells instead fyi.

Sorry it took me a minute to get back. Had to deal with the kids and wanted to get up to date numbers. My PH is about an 8 to 8.2. Ammonia is nill and so are nitrites. Nitrates are maybe 30 ppm. I also have this light below. I have it on a timer for 3 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. It’s a 55 gallon tank. I haven’t been adding anything to the tank other than a little bet of easy green barely once a week. I have troubles with black beard algae always trying to invade and I’m constantly battling that. I have no clue if I have to much or too little of something and I’m struggling. Ok I’ll try that. Could I just float them until I’m able to do that?

Any idea what’s going on with these ferns. Normal? Or not. this floating plant I have grows like crazy but it’s a lil brown at times. Any reason for that?

Hello, My Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus is probly about a year old. Nothing seems to have changed with the overall setup but I’ve noticed the stems have started to get real thin and pieces break off from time to time. The middle portion of the stem usually doesn’t grow leaves. Any ideas.

Hi. I had these two plants. They were doing well and growing then all off a sudden they did this? I don’t believe I changed anything but who knows. Any ideas?

I’ve got this bulb just sitting on top of the gravel and my snails keep pushing it to get under it. Picture 1 is how I found it, with the Lily’s kind of sneaking up from the bottom. Should those Lily’s be on top like in picture 2. I don’t see any roots in picture 3 and picture 4 is a better angle. Idk which side to place it on and can I push it into the gravel a bit to keep my snails from moving it?

Is there a way to know there’s a balance issue prior to getting a bunch of algae?

It says the PAR rating is 72 at 12 inches. I dunno what that converts to for 20 inches. Is that considered low, medium, or high

Man. I’m doing so bad I’ve even got Cory commenting lol

Hello, I could use some help because I’m clearly struggling. I tried planting cryptocoryne wendtii 2 different times and it grew this algae (anyone know the type?) second time it grew on a cryptocoryne Lucens and it’s on some of the old growth of this Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus'. My lights are on a timer set for 8 hours total (2 in the am, 6 in the pm) 55 gallon tank with Nicrew Classic Led plus light from Amazon. I water change about 20-30% a week. Been testing my water and my Nitrates don’t get above 40 ppm and it’s barely at 20 ppm weekly. I was adding root tabs once a month. I thought I wasn’t getting enough nutrients because of the low nitrate level so I was using Co-op liquid fert 2x per week and the co-op carbon stuff daily. I’ve since tossed out all but the octopus and plan on replanting once I figure out what I’m doing wrong. Two much nutrients? Too much light? Not enough?

Accidentally rolled my bulb over when I was cleaning the tank. Could anyone tell me which side is the roots and which is the top. I’m guessing the side closest in the picture is the bottom?

Thanks everyone. We’ll wait and see what happens. Like you said not everything is doing poorly. This two seem to be doing well and they’ve both nearly doubled in size

I have two Monte Carlo’s that don’t look so hot. I am using root tabs and ez green. I was using an old fluorescent light but recently upgraded because I don’t think I was getting enough light. Do you think that’s what it is or something else. I also have a red scarlet that basically melted away. That’s normal right and the roots should be fine?