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My 60ltr tank

Mark Allen

Member
Joined
20 Aug 2016
Messages
106
Location
Southampton
I bought a Superfish 60ltr tank with LED lighting at the beggining of July.

For soil I used Caribsea Eco Complete plant substrate, I added some rocks and a wooden bonsai tree.
For plants I wanted a grass and used Elocharis sp. mini tissure cultre and on the tree I tied Ludwigia mini red tissue culture. In the tank I planned to have a simaese fighter and some other little shoaling fish/shrimp.
I added a CO2 system and use TNC complete and Sachem flourish, lights on 08:00 to 20:00. Tank is at 24'C
This is what it started out like.
DSC_0142.JPG


The plants did great to start with and sure the Ludwigia was pearling. But then, it died.

DSC_0150 1.JPG


I talked to some people on a forum and decided it was because the roots were in the water and not in the soil it died. So I put some new in the soil, as I wanted some red plant. That also died. So something else is going on.

I then decided to start adding some Red Cherry Shrimp. I thought the betta wouldnt go down low and try to eat them, but he did. So I had to move him to my other tank. So I went and bought some minnows to go in there with the shrimp. Then the shrimp started to die, their back split and I could see white. I checked all my pH, KH, GH etc.... and everything was ok. I added some of the Tantora white stone, but they continued to die, all in the same way. Eventually all of them were dead. So I cannot put a finger on that. Some people say CO2 is bad, some say it isnt, so I cant be 100% sure on if it was that?

Back to the tank, the grass has taken a hit

DSC08334.jpg


DSC08337.jpg


Theres still some healthy green growth and its spreading, but something must be wrong.

Then theres the diatoms, being a new tank.
Little bubbles are CO2 and my drop tester is blue as I have been messing around with the CO2 whilst the guppies were poorly (mentioned below)

DSC08332.jpg

I also added a few guppies now all the RCS have gone, but for some reason I think some of them caught Columnaris and have passed on.

Basically this has been the worst tank I have ever attempted. I've never had so much death and algae problems.

Any help or answering death of plants/shrimp would be much appreciated. I think I've covered most things, but im sure you will have more questions to ask me.
 
Hi sorry your having so much trouble with your tank :( I've found ukaps really helpful, it's a great resource for setting up a planted tank!

Initially when you first add plants it can take time to establish in a tank so it can be helpful to run your light for a shorter period (6 hours perhaps) and you can increase this in a few weeks.

Having more plants to begin with is also beneficial as it tends to be more stable overall which is useful when your new to running a planted tank & using fast growing stem plants (hygrophila difformis, Ceratopteris thalictroides) are useful as they use nutrients quickly before algae can! Adding a floating plant is good too!

I'm a non co2 low techy & have avoided ludwigia mini red as it's not suitable for my tank's & looks nice as a stem plant grown planted in the substrate & have seen it planted onto hardscape but maybe hard if your new to planted tanks. There are easier alternatives like attaching moss or smaller varieties of anubias to wood to achieve a 'tree' effect.

I'm sorry about you losing your shrimp & fish - I'd be inclined to wait until you have healthy plant growth before adding anymore & this also gives you flexibility with your co2, good luck!
 
Royal mail literally just delivered some plants for this tank.
I was going with moss, but when I saw this little red plant, I thought it would look much nicer, turns out I was wrong, lol.

Yes I'm waiting 32 days before adding fish as they recommend this with a Coloumnaris outbreak. I'm also not going to try shrimp again, unless I definitely know what went wrong.
 
Don't blame you, it sounded like a horrendous experience with your shrimp :( perhaps if you start a thread in the 'inverts' section of ukaps you might yield a better response from more experienced folk? I've only kept Amano shrimp which are a fairly hardy species compared to cherries.
 
Yea, I'll pop a thread in their too. Just wanted to mention here incase it shed any light on other issues.

I do have 1 really tough shrimp. I saw him this morning whilst putting the plants in.
 
I always have trouble with tissue culture plants.They just melt like yours.I've given up on them and get potted plants now.
The Eleocharis could just be emersed growth dying.
A lot of tanks get diatoms when cycling/just cycled.
As Manisha said,reduce your lighting period to 6 hours for now.You could also get some Otocinclus.
I also lost all my cherry shrimp last year.Sounds like the same problem as yours.They had a problem molting and died.
Never found the cause,though possibly bacterial.
 
Lights reduced to 6 hours.

I went tissue culture to avoid snails, so I hope the new ones work too!

Water change due tomorrow, so Ill rub off some of the diatoms and suck out as much as I can.
 
How often are you doing water changes? Is your filter cycled? I've never used eco complete so i'm not sure, but most complete substrates release ammonia for 3-6weeks after first filling the tank.
 
Water changes once a week. I did a 50% this morning after cleaning most of the diatoms off first, so I could suck it all out.

I saw the cycle, levels rise and drop to zero.
 
How long did it take for the tank to cycle? Most kits are pretty inaccurate. My thoughts are that ammonia or nitrite is probably killed off your shrimp. Most people do 50% water changes every day for the first 2-3 weeks of the cycle.
 
Diatoms seem to be coming under control

Some of the tissue culture plants are not looking too healthy. Could be a low light issue?
 
Very sad to hear and see =[. I agree with what others have said and you may want to reduce your light period along with intensity.

It seems that most of your plants are* root feeders - this means that they need to root first before they start growing. Actually, you only have DHG Mini with nothing else. When you have too much light, especially intense light - you are going to give yourself grief because there will be nutrients available in the water column with not enough plants to use it. My hypothesis for mass melting is that the plants want to grow but are not fit to do so (due to lack of roots that have successfully latched onto the substrate to properly suck up nutrients and use the light energy) - which is why there is a lot of die off. This is why it is probably a good idea to start the light off not so strong, with a shorter period - providing enough light for the plants to grow while not allowing enough for algae to form. Once it starts rooting, you can slowly increase the intensity. From my experience, you don't need much light to grow DHG Mini anyway, just light with the correct spectrum. I have a chihiros light in my other tank on the 3rd lowest setting and my DHG + Monte Carlo are both carpeting and growing very well. You may also want to trim off the dead leaves a bit as a way to jumpstart the rooting process.
 
Diatoms seem to be coming under control

Some of the tissue culture plants are not looking too healthy. Could be a low light issue?

How powerful is the light? Tissue culture plants sometimes lose their leaves as the adapt from being emerged to submerged, don't panic yet. You need to be calm and let the tank balance, if you keep adjusting your lights and messing around with Co2 levels you're more likely to throw everything out of balance. Remove any dead or dying leaves and make sure to keep on top of it. The first few weeks of a planted tank are the hardest. To give you some hope, here is a comparison of my monte carlo carpet that almost completely melted away.

ou8v0r0.png


GoT2kak.jpg
 
OK, I'll drop the lights 50% and leave CO2 as is, so I don't change too many things.
Lights already reduced to 6 hours.

That's some impressive growth!
 
big water changes daily, probably 30%
that's really a conservative or small water change, most plant tanks are in the 50% - 80% changes (ie big would be the 80%)

I've used EC quite a lot - it's a very clean substrate
BUT it's not at all nutrient rich compared to ADA or Tropica etc soils

IME Elocharis sp. mini tissure cultre prefers the aquarium soils
- so persevere & baby it ;)


I also added a few guppies now all the RCS have gone, but for some reason I think some of them caught Columnaris and have passed on.
maybe ... at any rate, very unlikely to have anything to do with your tank or husbandry
Fungus etc diseases are a problem with modern (ie inbred guppy lines commonly available) guppies - pay attention to shop & stock ... look for a shop that really know guppies
it's unlikely that your tank was a disease source

As others mention, begin with a 5-6 h photoperiod
 
note some Bettas are dedicated shrimp hunters, others never seem to notice
 
I feel your pain... the exact same thing happened to my plants a few months ago, on my first ever planted tank... Some completely melted and some started rotting from the roots up.

I wish I could help you, but unfortunately I wasn't able to keep them alive. I'm starting again with high hopes though...

Good luck!
 
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