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What do do during first few weeks/months of new aquascape

ojustaboo

Member
Joined
15 Mar 2011
Messages
200
There appears to be tons of advice and YouTube clips out there on the web, on setting up an aquarium and on maintaining an established one. There seems to be little advice on what the beginner should be doing to the plants (if anything) on a daily/weekly basis for a newly setup tank.

Someone here replied to a pic of my new aquascape, saying “looking forward to this when it starts filling in”, I really don’t know where the difference lies between filling in and needing a trim :) (I don’t know how big/much I should allow each plant to grow before trimming/cutting it back).

I will watch more YouTube vids from the usual well known people, maybe that will give me more of a clue. Any good guides out there please?

Aquarium Gardens have been great answering my questions, giving advice on temperature, water changes etc, I’m following their advice religiously, but while I’m sure they would be happy to help, rather than hassling them every other day, there must be guides out there explaining what do do in the first few weeks?

Many thanks
 
I'm interested in this too.

I'm 19 days into my first Aquascape and I've trimmed a bit of moss so far, but I'm too scared to trim the Eleocharis and Monte Carlo at the moment, because any time I seem to nudge something - it has a habit of popping out the substrate and floating up. I feel like I need to let the roots grow in before I start chopping away.

Also, I am just "having a bash" at fertilising, throwing in a bit of this and that with water changes.
 
For the first week, I do daily 80% water changes, I then reduce them to 3x a week the week after and then 2x a week. I keep my lights at 6 hours a day for the first month. I will give the plants a trim after around 2 weeks if needed and replant them. I dose ferts from day 1.
 
@ scraper joe,
Good point I have just set up a 40ltr with Hydrocotyle tripartita two weeks ago .
I read to give your set up at least three weeks + berfore trimming any carpet plants .
Thus.. this is what I tend to do pending on its rooting into the substrate. Plant and wait is my motto!!
Water changes not every day for me. Every third day.
 
For me the most important thing early in tanks life is basic maintenance. Plenty of water changes and making sure you remove any detritus and bits of decaying leaves.

Remove any signs of algea, and pinch off any leaves that are not healthy.

Leave the plants to grow and gain strength and then start to trim and shape them when good and strong, exavtly when to trim depends on the growth vigour.
 
For me the most important thing early in tanks life is basic maintenance. Plenty of water changes and making sure you remove any detritus and bits of decaying leaves.

Remove any signs of algea, and pinch off any leaves that are not healthy.

Leave the plants to grow and gain strength and then start to trim and shape them when good and strong, exavtly when to trim depends on the growth vigour.

Many thanks all.
I appreciate as with many things in life, we all have our own particular way of doing things, this seems particularly true when it comes to new tank maintenance.

For example, AG advised daily 75% water changes for two weeks, then every other day, then every three days until at around 6 weeks, I should be down to once a week, when they still recommend a 70% water change. That all seems fine to me, but then I look at the Tropica app and it says something totally different.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not questioning AG advice, they have been superb, I’m simply saying for the beginner, when you look at two peoples advice, they often seem to have little in common.

My two weeks are up tomorrow, today I was too ill to change the water. Yesterday I thought the drop checker wasn’t as green as it usually is, was going to up the bubble count, but tiredness set in, I fell asleep and forgot. Today I’ve been really tired all day, I noticed the bubble count out of the diffuser wasn’t as fast as it had been this evening (couple of days ago I moved cables around in cabinet, might have knocked it accidentally), the co2 was about to switch off, so I left myself a note to alter it first thing.

Then I noticed strange pearling, looking from a distance like it’s pearling nothing, where there were no plants. You’ve guessed it, thin green hair like algae.
so 11 days of 75% water change, 1 day not doing it and not correcting the CO2 and algae appears :(

I tried to remove it all, there wasn’t huge clumps of it, but many plants had one or two hairs of it. Then I look again and I notice a tiny bit more etc. I removed all I could see but I suspect I didn’t get it all.

Tomorrow I will turn the bubble counter up a bit so drop checker goes yellow (no fish/shrimp in yet)

Then there’s the condition of the plants, most are doing superb. But there’s one or two where the tips of every leaf have turned brown. This is where I believe a video from some of the experts showing their daily maintenance on a new tank would be really useful to many of us. Are my plants healthy when just the very tips are brown (personally I think they are) should I remove just the tips (I’ve been led to believe this isn’t a good option as the plants have to work much harder to repair the damage), should the leaves with the brown tips be removed (which in one case would leave a leafless stem) etc etc etc

I appreciate all the great advice people give me and others, but in some situations for new aquascapers, I think a video showing what to do when xyz happens, would be a valuable resource . Tons out there showing experts setting aquascapes up, tons showing them a week or so later, but so far I haven’t found one showing the day to day upkeep of a new scape, what to look out for, what leaf is good/bad/needs trimming/needs removing etc
 
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