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So I just got this Scarlet Temple in from Aquarium Co-Op about a week ago, and when I finally got it out of the packaging, it already looked a little rough. Which was expected since it had been in a dark box for way too long because the USPS in my area is terrible. Anyways, I planted all of the stems apart with Easy Root Tabs and I suspected something was wrong when the plants didn't bounce back within the first day of being planted like all of the other plants I've gotten from Aquarium Co-Op. the still looked pretty mangled from shipping. at first I thought I could've been a light issue, so I increased the light from my Fluval Plant 3.0 but all that did was cause the hair algae problem I've been having to get worse. I also thought it could be the salvinia/duckweed blocking out the light so I removed most of them, and it did nothing to improve the plant. The stems all seem to be fine (not mushy or anything), but the leaves are melting away and I don't see any new growth. Not sure if it's a lost cause, or just a matter of time because I've heard this plant can be tricky. I also need to mention I also had a bit of trouble with Ludwigia Repens but those stems eventually bounced back and have new growth. I'm not sure if its a red plants needing more light issue or what. I'm dosing EasyGreen twice a week, and basically every plant in this tank is thriving. No CO2; which I thought could be a problem, but I've heard that this plant can be grown even without CO2, it'll just have a duller color. I've only just "rehabilitated" this 20 gallon tank, but I've had it set up for close to 17 years, though admittedly I haven't really been taking care of it that entire time. It just recently become a planted tank at the beginning of this year. TL;DR: I'm not sure if my Scarlet Temple is dying or just converting. pH: 6.7, GH: ~200ppm, Nitrite: 0ppm, Nitrate: 40ppm

Been trying to make cheap planted tubs for propagation and rooting trimmings. I have a dirted indoor 50 gallon rubbermaid pond and a dirted indoor 40 gallon tuff stuff for this purpose. Today I set up 2 more, two large concrete mixing tubs from Home Depot, 13$ each for the tubs,24 x 36 outer dimensions, 8 inches tall, 20.9 gallons when filled to the rim, I’m going to use this journal to document my progress. Dirted with a thin layer of miracle grow organic garden soil: used pea pebbles to cap (full bag for each): did 100% water change like 6 times on each: using a single 32 watt ge balanced spectrum grow light for each: No heaters, but I am going to get sponge filters for them. Had some Val runners I trimmed out of another tank, maybe 9 of them, planted them in one of the tubs:

So this might be a little long (I guess it all relative). Just saying beforehand. I wanted to start a 10g planted tank that wasn’t all epiphytes at the beginning of the year. I heard gravel and sand with fertilizer was best for beginners, so I set it up with some pea pebbles (not fun to plant and it was a horrible substrate for plants) and some pool filter sand (first picture). One day this nasty (what I presumed to be) staghorn algae came along and absolutely wrecked my tank. But what I saw it loved the most was my parrots feathers leaves, which had been growing pretty well beforehand. I say presumed because I’m still not sure if it was. There was regular staghorn algae on the broader leafed plants but the one on the parrots feathers were very short, almost black, and killed the plants via blocking out their light (basically 2nd picture but a lot, lot worse. The 2nd picture is just the effects of the new algae.) Anyways, I had to dump that out. Weird thing was the sponge filter I had going seemed to have the highest amount of algae concentration on the plants near it. But besides the point. A couple months back I decided to cover everything in sand (3rd picture- except fast forward a couple months till now. I guess I didn’t take a picture of my tank at the time.) , since I could not for the life of me root anything in the pea pebbles but sand you just dropped it in there. Of course, they weren’t the healthiest. Also a couple months back a green hair algae took over my tank and yesterday I managed to remove as much as I could off of the things I could but there was still some on the plants, plus a ~50% water change. And at this time I was dosing Easygreen once a week or 2. So I’m not sure if any of the prior events was based on the inconsistent light (I had a timer, but the tank was near a window) and dosing (I was skimping trying to make the Easygreen last longer by trying to get it to 1 dose/2weeks. also forgot to mention my HOB was already cycled. Ammonia: 0ppm, Nitrites: 0 ppm, Nitrates: 10-20 ppm (they look wayyy too similar) So my questions are- how do I get rid of the algae on my plants? People say algae’s a good thing but it has decimated my plants over and over. And at the same time what should I do about my plants? I hear people say that you need a good plant mass first for fighting algae, but it seems like sand, and floating it especially (cuts off flow and gathers more algae, also noticed the stems of those plants rot for some reason (any idea how to stop that?). I wanted to to do a dirted tank but it turn out I just narrowly missed the local dollar per gallon sale. I was also planning to dirt the tank, and even though I have all stem plants (except Val) I just am desperate for some healthy plant growth without older leaves detiorating or everything being covered in algae. Do you guys think some terracotta pots with dirt could hold the plants over for a little bit and bring them back? What do you guys suggest I do? There’s just so many differing ideas on the Internet and YouTube (that and forums like these are where I get ~90% of all fish/plant info)- use ferts, blackout, don’t use all in ones, water change, etc. I just want to know something that I can do that will help. I want to water change but the whole “grow heathy plants first” thing doesn’t seem to work too well for me if I can’t dose, and my water sprite was looking kind of yellow. And I also plan to go with the terracotta pot plan since it seems simple enough. Also my light is set at 6 hours/day, have a budget Nicrew but forgot the name of the model, the metal case gets insanely hot though. The only plant that looks like it isn’t getting too affected by the algae is my slow Jungle Val (even a Seachem root tab under it didn’t seem to to have a lot of affect) and my new water sprite (some parts are looking dead or beat up tho). And forgot to mention the only things I have in there is 1 lone cherry shrimp and one (temporary resident) bamboo shrimp. And a couple pond snails. And the rest of the pictures is just the destruction the algae has made on my plants, the algae I pulled out, my light, etc. Here’s the pics: https://imgur.com/gallery/FPh05ki and I know algae is caused by an imbalance, an imbalance of what is what I’m trying to answer. Honestly at this point any advice would be appreciated, kinda sad when I look over at my tank.