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After waiting two weeks to see if the feeling would go away, I have decided to completely "restart" my aquarium. I am just not happy with it and no matter how many rescapes I do there are so many issues that just need to be fixed. I set this tank up almost ten months ago now, it was my first planted tank and first non-overstocked "actually going to care for my pets" tank. So I made a load of mistakes. Even though I have learned a lot and have been able to fix some of those mistakes, a lot remain. My substrate is now 8 inches deep, which takes a lot of water volume away from my fish. It was initially 4 inches deep but I have allowed mulm to accumulate and for the microfauna to reproduce like crazy. I love the mulm (so do my corycats) and all the microfauna but I really need to reduce the substrate all together. The plants are all over the place due to me rushing my planting sessions and getting frustrated. There is no sense of depth or reason to it and I think I could do a lot better. Algae is everywhere. My otos are making a small dent but a lot of it is spot algae and black beard algae. Wouldn't mind these in small amounts but it is really harming my anubias and other plants. The "pest snail" population is out of control. I don't mind my Malaysian trumpet snails but there have to be literal thousands of bladder snails in that tank. I feed my tank twice a week so again I just think the mulm is causing them to overpopulate. I cannot add an assassin snail or anything like that because of my mystery snail. There is not enough hides for my corycats who get bullied during meal times. They need more cover for being so shy and like a third of the size of my black neons. I want to add a hang on the back filter for more filtration capacity because my 20 gallon and two 5 gallon sponge filters are really just the bare minimum. I want my aquarium to actually have some sort of aesthetic appeal, which it does not have right now whatsoever The light I have used is starting to get kinda old and isn't bright enough anymore and I would like a new light - any recommendations? High lighting is preferred, I don't care too much on color of the light, my tank dimensions measure 30inches (length) x 12 inches (width) x 21 inches (height). notes: water parameters 6.8 pH gH 3-4 kH 8. Temperature will be 76 f or so stocking is otocinclus, pygmy cories, black neon tetras, mystery snail sponge filters dirted tank but it needs to be reduced lolz current plant species that haven't died from algae are various anubias, java fern, moneywort, and ludwigia. So basically. Any tips for someone who has experience and has done a crap ton of research but is just kind of failing at fishkeeping? My fish get great care but my tank hasn't been good in a long time. Pretty much anything because I am just really frustrated with trying what I already know and it just not being good enough. I've saved up some cash to help with funds so money isnt too much of an issue So basically aquascaping tips, plant tips, snail tips, really just anything. i feel so frustrated and hopeless about this tank someone help lol Side note - I will keep a bit of my substrate to retain beneficial bacteria and microbes, but I just really need to take a lot of it out

🐟 AQUARIUM RESCAPE PHOTOS! SCROLL DOWN 👇 FOR MORE INFO & THE BEFORE PICTURES 🌱🌿📷 ---------------------- THE BEFORE This was my first attempt ever at a planted aquarium, or an aquarium over 10 gallons. I had no idea what I was doing, which can show. This aquascape wasn't bad! But... I did not like it. Here were the major things I disliked: the grow light being oddly attached the fact that the wood pieces all blended in really well lack of rocks in the hardscape - just pebbles pebbles ended up covering a lot of the substrate nothing in the corners made it feel unbalanced, and since it wasn't really an island scape, it was just meh So, I did try to balance it out by moving more substrate in, and adding in some corner plants: And eventually I replaced the light with an LED grow light that doesn't just clip on and bend all weird, and I was happier. But I wasn't happy with it. So, when I was visiting some of my family members (who own land on a major river), I picked up some really pretty and angular rocks. When I got home, I sanded the corners down to be less sharp and boiled them. I found all the wood pieces in the scape in my own backyard wetland, and processed them myself too. During the rescape a lot of the dirt got kicked up (as my tank is a dirted tank), and so I ended up losing a bit of the upper-most substrate. (Miscommunication with parents - but oh well.) So I am heading to a local stream to get some river sand on Saturday, since the weather will be nice! So, I will update on my 30 gallon aquarium journal when I add in the sand. I am really happy with the result, so please be nice! ⭐🍀❤️🌈🤩

Heyo! I am getting ready to increase my stocking pretty soon, and since I am doing a rescape of my 30 gallon (110 liters or so) aquarium, I figured now would be a good time to mix in some new substrate. I've been reading up on honey gouramis and some sources say they will be super uncomfortable without a dark / black substrate, others say it doesn't matter as long as they are taken care of. So uh, which is it? Should I use dark substrate or does it not matter? Additionally, I have snails and pygmy corydoras. Currently I am using a mix of pea gravel and sand, with pebbles to accent. Is there a substrate that works best for gouramis (gravel, pea gravel, sand, etc)? Would this conflict with my cories & snails? My favorite type of substrate is what I have currently (sand and pea gravel / coarse sand), and I am good with replacing this to a different color but I would really prefer to keep the substrate sand or pea gravel. Is this okay? Thanks for helping!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not noticed this before because i had a breeder box in the way, but the righ side of my 20high is rather bare. The amazon sword is growing slowly, and so are the crypts. I like the coconut hut, but its height does not match that area of the tank. And rescape ideas? i like the jungle style side on the left, but not the bare opening on the right.

Moss wall!!! I am in the middle of re-scaping 3 of my tanks and I thought you guys would enjoy the process. I do not know exactly how I want everything to finish. But I am open to any suggestions during this journey. I really let the tanks go once my newborn came I finally have time, so it is time to step my game up. Tank #1 - 6 Gallon Neocardinia I let a ton of Subwassertang take over the tank. I already took it all out. My end goal for this tank is to convert it over to a Sulawesi Shrimp tank. Tank #2 - 50 Gallon Former discus (1 left) with Congo Tetras, long fin Black Rams, and Nessie the Blue Phantom Pleco. Redo the scape, scrap a lot of floaters. Tank #3 30 Gallon former Bonsai with Plecos, Fatso the loach, a Golden Wonder Killi and the shells of many eaten snails. I have no clue what I want to do with this tank. I was thinking musk turtle but I need to do a lot more research. Current #1: I took all the subwassertang and floated it into tank #3. I have a really fat Yoyo Loach (named Fatso) who eats all snails. So I want to let it hang out there so he can clear it out. Tank #2 is snail free and I hope it stays that way. Fatso already hunting snails: After asking for suggestions and doing some research, I figured out what I wanted to do with all the moss I have. I decided on adding a moss wall to Tank #2. I still want to leave it in tank #3 to clear out more snails, I found some while making the wall. I also hope that some extended time laying flat will help it to adhere better. I kept trying to figure out how I will get it to stay laying flat and close to the light. Turns out it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. It literally floats on its own. Attaching it to the back wall will be interesting now that I know it floats. Hopefully someone has some suggestions. Next Steps: Tank #1 - Order Salty Shrimp and start doing water changes to get the right ph. Not sure if I am going to leave the Neocardinia in or take them out. I also have some hard scape in another tank that I want to add that is covered in Algae. Tank #2 - I am on the hunt for the right piece of wood and place a big order for plants. The tank initially had crypts and stem plants. But Nessie decided nothing is going to stay and would uproot or eat them all. This time I am going for a lot of plants with rhizomes to attach to the wood and hard scape. Not sure if I want to leave the slate or go with different stones. Right now the pieces of slate on the right form a cave that Nessie owns. Tank #3 — No idea. Maybe some suggestions from you guys here. Maybe musk turtle but I have zero clue what they need. So first, maybe some research time.

Hello so im looking to rescape my aquarium as the substrate isnt to my liking i currently have 3mm black gravel along with some tetra fertiliser for the living plants i have various fish such as an eel ammarno shrimp wood shrimp hillstream loaches and various average fish like neon tetras The reason for the rescape is that the eel has dug up all of the fertiliser now and it looks horrible as well it has stained my water in the tank Im looking for some inspiration or ideas has anyone had any similar problems with this also he pulls plants out of the substrate so there floating in my tank lol Any help or ideas to prevent these issues would be appreciated Thanks

My original post about an issue in my best friends tank And these two videos are just to be able to better see what we were dealing with :: Video #1 Video #2 So after having a major surgery, and having literal weeks to think about my friends tank...I got to thinking........ "What in heck could this BE!?" There was ZERO odor to this...stuff...it was all but black in color...PEELED off of the walls, sponge filters and everything else in the tank...and shows up seemingly out of nowhere... What changed from a time when this WASN'T happening, up to now? And then it hit me! The ONLY THING that has changed at ALL...was her substrate!!! It was a mixture of small rocks/pebbles, shells, and sand, that her MIL had collected from a beach somewhere in the northeast, MANY many years ago......and it's been sitting in buckets, in a shed, for YEARS. And my friend...oy...she confessed to me, that she NEVER. EVEN. RINSED. IT OFF!!! (her MIL *baked* it all when she first collected it...but then it just SAT THERE! 🤦🏻‍♀️) So I did the only thing I could think of to do... Broke it down, emptied all 45 gallons, scrubbed virtually every inch of the tank, cleaned out the filter, replaced her sponge filters with some cycled spares from my own tanks, and started all over again with new, CLEANED substrate... And then went plant-crazy!!! 😁 Here is just the "before".. And this was the final result.. And here is a before and after!!! Now.....fingers crossed!!! It's been 3 weeks and not a single sign of the strange film-like algae to be seen!

Hey everyone, I am redoing my betta's 10 gallon. I wanted to scape a tank and the betta tank has just been a dumping ground for random plants. Just finished the hardscape! Will try to update you all as it progresses. PS, it looks better than what the pic shows.