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Long post regarding my tank

I did a big water change on Wednesday. I'm away this weekend but will do another monday.

My test strips show 0 ammonia and nitrates so not sure what's happening
 
If the problem is low water quality, I'd say ammonia and nitrates are not what you'd be looking for. In fact, most fish and plants can cope fairly well with those, at minimal levels. There's an issue with acidity and whatnot but that's a long roll to spread. The main thing would be bacterial populations in the water column. But this is me giving the "undefined nasties from poor filtration" a face, it might be there's more to it, more experienced contributors might pin it down better.
 
Would fitting a reverse osmosis system be benefitial?

Would I need a second tank to act as a sump, and would this mean I wouldn't need to dechlorinate water?

Does it replace your HOB filter?
 
If you have a sump and it has a section with filtration material, then yes, it is a filter. I've never used RO, don't know anything about it. I assume it filters out chrlorine though.
 
I'm probably overthinking things.

I am just wondering what I could do to sort these issues.

I am going to do another big water change this eve and add fert.

Will see how things are going.

I think if I loose another fish anytime soon I will be setting up my smaller tank and restarting the big one.
 
pollyandpear said:
Would fitting a reverse osmosis system be benefitial?
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If you have hard water, softening it by diluting tap water with softer Reverse Osmosis water can be beneficial for plant nutrient uptake.

I use RO in approx a 4:1 RO:tap ratio to get my GH and KH closer to where they might ideally be.

I don't have an RO system but instead buy RO by the litre from Spotless Water. Its about 4p per litre, cheaper still in other locations further afield.

Others harvest rain water instead, as an RO alternative. That might come with other considerations.

I am having issues with keeping my snails alive at the moment so I relate to what you are going through. I also lost a few lovely Bentosi tetra over the course of a month or so after buying them, for reasons unknown. It's very sucky to have to net out dead fish from the tank.

Speaking as a beginner things are confusing at times as we don't have the understanding or practical experience to fall back on (thank goodness for ukaps). But I figure that if I am doing the main things ok (eg water changes, keeping the filter running, not over-feeding) , then I'm not going to be too hard on myself. 🙏
 
Ok.

You need to start doing 50% or more water changes with an appropriate dechlorinator once or more a week. You tank is having husbandry issues. No other way to say it.

RO filters have nothing to do with the nitrogen cycle. Unless your water is liquid rock, RO isn’t going to help. So, put that to rest.

What is the filter that is currently in your aquarium?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yes I am going to do bigger water changes.

My water is definitely very hard, not sure about rock hard.

I use Seachem Prime, so 0.25ml per each 10L of new water.

My filter is the allpondsolutions HOB aquarium filter with UV 800 litres per hour.

EDIT - oh dear, I think I have been underdosing with my prime, looking at the chart again it should be 0.5ml per 10L I believe.. I wonder if this is the cause :(
 
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I appreciate this thread has been a whirlwind with everyone trying to help out as best as possible.
I think the key things here may be getting lost.

Filtration - is yours adequately turning over your water volume and providing good surface agitation? This is beneficial for gas exchange especially in your current setup. I know others have said your water movement looks good. But it looks pretty stagnant to me.

Water changes - large 80% water changes with properly dechlorinated tap water that has been heated to match the temperature of your tank is an absolute must for at least several weeks. You can then reduce this to 50% each week once things start looking better.

Planting - do you have a good selection of easy care plants that will be helping in filtering and oxygenating your water. More plant mass means algae has a harder time getting a foothold. Aquariums are a constant balance of plant health vs unwanted algae

Dosing - there are plenty of experts in this field on this forum. Get yourself a decent fertiliser if you don’t already, and dose it as per the instructions on the back.

Lighting - make sure you’re not blasting your tank with intense light over too long a photo period. Start low and build it up according to plant behaviour. Some floating plants can help disperse the light if its not adjustable.
8hrs a day should be a good number to aim for.

Maintenance - clean the glass, scrub hardscape, vacuum the substrate, do all this then let the filter clear it up. Then do a large waterchange and then clean your filter.
Adding a little beneficial bacteria after each water-change will further help your system.

Livestock- stop buying livestock, only add cleanup crew. I’m talking snails and amano shrimp which are fairly hardy. Don’t let anyone tell you they’re not, I’ve dumped amano in full marine tanks before and they’ve gone about a happy life unphased.

Lastly, do as much research into starting a planted tank as you can. YouTube and this forum are your biggest tools for this.
Don’t be disheartened and keep working at it.
 
Right thanks again everyon .I appreciate all the tips, and constructive criticism.

I am going to do a 50% water change now, which is 80L.

I need a better system in place for this as doing 8 10L buckets with a siphon is very long.

IF there is a bacterial issue in my tank, would the filter media need changing?

I clean the media in a bucket of water (from the aquarium).

I have LOADS of snails, all the amano shrimp I bought died so don't want to buy any more of anything right now.

I do want to get more plants, but until the ones I have are doing a bit better (some have brown spots and little holes in them) I will wait.

Questions - do you add a dose of fertiliser for the WHOLE tank or just added water volume - and do you add it at the end, or add a dose before adding the new water?

How you temperature match the added water- I always try and get them to the same roughly.
 
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Right done a 50% water change, added fert and primed the tank.

Let me see if this photo loads to show general water agitation.
 

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pollyandpear said:
I do want to get more plants, but until the ones I have are doing a bit better (some have brown spots and little holes in them) I will wait.
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Adding more plants now will help your existing plants to thrive, and improve your water quality. Cheap stem plants are good, as they grow fast. You can replace them later with fancier types if you like.
hth
 
pollyandpear said:
What cheap easy growing plant would you recommend :)
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Limnophila sessilifloria something or other I’m pretty sure that grows like a weed.
I might of murdered the name there as I’ve had a beer or two hahah

But as above, adding more plants now will help.

As for water temp, if you have a mixer tap, run it and test the temp with a thermometer, then mark that spot with a marker pen (this is what @George Farmer does on his tap)

Make sure the water is dechlorinated before going into the tank.
And buy yourself a long hose or something to siphon the water straight outside.
 
pollyandpear said:
I need a better system in place for this as doing 8 10L buckets with a siphon is very long.
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I found the same. I now use a small aquarium pump with a length of tubing to empty and refill at water change time. When emptying, the pump goes in the tank and the tube goes down the drain. When filling, the pump goes in the fresh water bucket and the end of the tube goes in the tank. Way quicker. I have a 18L bucket too.
pollyandpear said:
do you add a dose of fertiliser for the WHOLE tank or just added water volume
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When you are changing a chunk of water multiple times a week, this is a good question!

Little holes in leaves is possibly a potassium deficiency. So a dosing regime is definitely one of the things to work out and be... regimented about. I got a second hand auto-doser which means the ferts go in the tank even when I forget.
 
Yep, limnophila sessiliflora is the one. Probably my favourite plant. Give it light and ferts and it grows!

Maybe some limnobium laevigatum to go with your other floaters?

I have a spider plant with its roots in the tank and rhizome and leaves in the air - an option if you like that sort of thing.
 
Heteranthera zosterifolia (star grass) is another stem plant which grows like the clappers!
Another reason for small holes in leaves can be snail damage, you said you seem to have an excessive number of them. If the plants are struggling & deteriorating they can attract snails which will munch away at the leaves.
As you are doing 50% water changes I would dose ferts for the whole tank volume once a week as per the bottle. I add my fertilizer with the fresh, treated water.
As others have said a regular maintenance schedule at the start is very important to help with tank stability.
Don't give up on things, it must feel as though you are doing more things wrong than right at the moment but you can turn it all round & have the tank running smoothly.
 
Couple of random questions - long term, my water is hard, and the ph high.

According to a postcode seach on thames water it is 271ppm. or 15.2DH.

Are there certain things I can implement/ add to my scape to bring both down a little? If I was to rescape, would the addition of a ferrous rock such as lava rock help? Or drift wood by the additions of tannins? (I have drift would). I also read peat moss substrate beneath the gravel/ sand can help but can discolour the water.

And in regards to bacterial issues - IF my tank did have bacterial issues, how do you recover from those - is it just large, regular water changes? Do you need to treat the tank with anything? (I have esher 200 which I used after I lost a fish with a weird mark on body). If the issues were bacterial, wouldn't that bacteria be inside the filter, int he substrate and everywhere - would it just remain there?

Annoyingly I do not have a mixer tap so I just have to sort of make an assured guess!

So yesterday once I'd removed water, I added a dose of dechlorinator to the full tank and then added the buckets of water to the tank - would it have been better to dose each bucket individually?

If I wanted to get an external filter (mainly because the current filter I have looks awful, has to be hung on the side as I have two glass panels on my tank, and tends to get weird disrupted flow when the water level is below a certain point) do I need a sump or does the external filter just live, outside the tank.
 
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Honestly, I'd work with the water you have, there are fish and plants that prefer hard water. You could dilute with rain water or RO to bring the hardness down, but it's much easier to fit the inhabitants to the water than to change the water to suit the inhabitants. Rock/wood won't make any difference if you're starting out with hard water.
External filters/canister filters are separate to sumps and folk usually have one or the other.
 
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