My Tank Looks Terrible

[steveg]

OK folks,

I've had my Juwel Vision 260 up and running for about 12 months now and to he honest ive had nothing but problems with it. I've almost thrown in the towel more than once.

Most of the fish have died, the lass at the aquarium said i was feeding them too much so ive cut down on the food and the deaths seem to have stopped ........for the moment.

Currently got in the tank -

3 x Clown Loach
3 x Black Widdows
1 x Molly
2 x Guramies (sp?)
1 x Silver Shark
1 x Bumble Bee Loach (??? think thats what its called)
1 x Red Crab thing
2 x Mountain Shrimp (again think thats what they are called)
<= 3 Coolie Loach (not seen any for quite some time, so im assuming they could be MIA)

All fish pretty small, the biggest is the silver shark and the bumble bee thing at about 4.5 inch each.

I have the standard Juwel filter running and a Fluval 204 filter

The substrate is river gravel, well thats what I was told its called its just fairly fine gravel really, bout 3mm diameter

I have absolutly no idea what any of the plants are called, most of them I bought from the local aquarium, the ones that looked like spider plants are long dead as are the ones that looked a bit like ferns - looking at the tank closely now - most are dead, the only one that looks like its doing well looks like long ribbon like leaves, that is shooting off all over the shop a bit like a spider plant does.

I think thats it.

The deal is I was getting LOADS of algee on the front of the glass, well everywhere really so I reconed that they were getting too much light so i went from turning the lights on in the tank when i went to work to when I got home from work (they went from 7:30am - 11pm to about 7pm-11pm).

Anyway the long and the short of it is this - theres dead leaf matter all over the bottom of the tank, most of the plants seem to have uprooted themselves, they dont look healthy at all and some have died off completely, some are totally covered in algee and the whole thing looks a right mess, on the plus side im not getting no where near as much algee on the front of the glass.

Now ive been threatening to get rid of the tank and get a piano instead but I love my fish so im going to have one last crack at it, you look at some of the pics on this forum and they look amazing - I want mine to look like them !!!

After reading the forums I have gathered that for a planted tank I may have to upgrade the lighting, can anyone suggest what kind of lighting I would be best investing in - I had a look in my local aquarium and there are that many to choose from I just bailed out and decided to go back when I had a bit of better idea of what I wanted. I remember from when I was a kid we had a tropical tank and we had these growlux tubes, do they still do these ?

The tubes that are in there, one looks like a standard flourescent tube and the other looks like its got a bit of pink in it, now im no expert but would i be best getting something with more of the blue spectrum in it and poss buying some relectors.

The tanks getting another £100 spending on it (plus maybe a bit more for some extra fishies)

Im seriously considering ripping all the plants out and starting again, but I dont want to end up in the same pickle that im in now.

Thanks for reading my long ramble, please help me to get a beautiful tank.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Ste...

 

[Themuleous]

Well steve, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle. First off please dont give up this hobby can be hugely rewarding (and hugely frustrating too! and more often than not!) but it sounds like you could have a few problems going on here so I think we need to deal with them one at a time and to be honest I would worry about the fish dieing before you start on the planted side or you might find you get overwhelmed and give up and thats not what we want.

This isn't strictly planted but I think we need to take things back to basics. Sorry if this is teaching you to suck eggs but better we go over everything than miss something critical. And before we start, this could take a good few weeks to sort so be patient, it'll be worth it

How much do you know about keeping fish? Are you aware of the nitrogen cycle going on in the tank and new tank syndrome? And do you test your water at all?

I guess it would help to have the tank stats too, any that you have, eg. pH, KH, GH, NH3/NO2, size, lighting (number and watt of bulbs), water changes and how often and size. The more the better

Sam

 

[Neal]

I can spot a few problems with your stocking that may be causing you some problems, now sorry if this is going to seem strict sort of, but it will save you problems!
Bala sharks and clown loaches grow too big for your tank, so i'd rehome them.
Black widdows are shoaling fish and need to be in groups of 6 or more, so get 3 or more of them.
Bumble bee loach isn't a real name, so you will have to find out what it is. Is it a bumblebee goby? If so, you will need to rehome that as it needs brackish (slightly salty) water.
The red crab, I don't know much about them, but that could be killing fish, and you need ledges for it to stand on so it can come out of the water, to be on the safe side i'd rehome it, but research a bit more about them first.

Your plants, I get the impression most of them aren't aquatic, a good way to test is, if you take it out of the water, does it flap or is it able to hold it's weight? If it holds it's weight, 90% of the time it won't be aquatic. Also, your problem with the algae can be sorted by buying an algae eater or using lots of fast growing, cheap plants that will outcompete the algae for nutrients, but you will need to keep lots of plants if your going to do it that way.
Anymore questions just ask, and i'm sorry if I seem like i'm telling you off, i'm not. Your just a newbie who fell into the trap that everyone falls into, and goes out and impulse buys any fish they like, I used to do it. The best way to be is to look at fish on the internet, if there is any you like, research about them, see if they can live in your tank happily, and live happily with the other fish/creatures, and if so, buy it. A good rule of thumb is 1" of fish per US Gallon, but I don't really stick to a rule of thumb, and my tank is overstocked and overfiltered, but if I could turn back time, I wouldn't overstock my tank.

Neal

Neal

 

[steveg]

K, just reinstalled xp on my computer so am back online

Ok, first the bumble bee loach i think is a bumble bee catfish, certianly looks like the ones i can find on the net. About the clown loaches, my tank is 121cm x 62cm x 46cm which certianly looks big enough, and the lass at the aquarium said they'll be fine in my tank and they dont seem to be having any problems, however, im going to do a bit more research on the subject. To be fair though this lass really knows her onions, and the aquarium I bought them from is no tin-pot affair.

I asked about the crab needing something to stand on out of the water when i purchased it but i was assured that it would be fine just kicking about in the bottom of the tank, also its not very big and is not responsible for the fish deaths, most of the time i get to sit there and watch them die slowly......

I'll bag some more black widows when the tank is sorted - dont want to get any more until the plant situation is sorted out.

Anyway, the hood has 2x38w floursecent strip lights, one just looks like a plain white one while the other has a slight pink tinge, no reflectors are installed.

I did at one point have a CO2 unit thing working, however after purchasing this on one of my spending sprees I discovered that It is woefully too small for my tank and virtually useless so didnt bother buying any refills for it, especaially after having a proper look at it I could have made my own for far less than the 20 quid I paid for the dam thing, I am right in thinking that i could probably have got away with a slightly messed with plastic bottle, sugar and some brewers yeast ?

Also ive not been putting any plant food in the water, didn't think I would need it. Was probably way off the mark with this aswell.

I dont have any stats for the water quality, the aquarium do a free test if you take some water down there, last time i took some down they said it was fine apart from a small amount of ammonia, which got me a nice telling off, and some much needed advice on my overfeeding. The deaths stopped after this...



Oh and I bought all the plants from various aquariums stores and I cant see them selling plants that are not for aquriums...

 

[jcosgrove]

Your going to need to get some sort of fertiliser for the plants, as well as co2 if you want them to thrive.

 

[Themuleous]

I did at one point have a CO2 unit thing working, however after purchasing this on one of my spending sprees I discovered that It is woefully too small for my tank and virtually useless so didnt bother buying any refills for it, especially after having a proper look at it I could have made my own for far less than the 20 quid I paid for the dam thing, I am right in thinking that i could probably have got away with a slightly messed with plastic bottle, sugar and some brewers yeast ?

Hell yeh you can! People do it all the time! Saves them a fortune! I take it, its a hagen nutrafin system? The kit is good but the sachets are crap so your idea of DIY yeast (most people use Allison's baking yeast) is a good one that works well on smaller tanks under 150lt, over that and you start needing multiple kits which are a pain to clean and refill. And with a 260lt tank I think pressurized CO2 is your only option.

I dont have any stats for the water quality, the aquarium do a free test if you take some water down there, last time i took some down they said it was fine apart from a small amount of ammonia, which got me a nice telling off, and some much needed advice on my overfeeding. The deaths stopped after this...

Well it sounds like you sorted the water quality issues, but I'd still want to test the water myself regularly, ammonia is the most toxic form of nitrogen to fish so best to be on the safe side.

Although I will say I'm surprised you had to any problems the fish load is quite low ofr such a big tank and you say you had two filters as well. Did you add all the fish in one go? That could have overloaded the filter for a few days (even weeks in some cases). Also did you cycle the tank at all before you added the fish?

Oh and I bought all the plants from various aquariums stores and I cant see them selling plants that are not for aquariums...

I think you might be surprised there, I've been on some of the biggest shops the UK has to offer and they still sell non-aquatic plants. Only the shops that truly stock plants and all the equipment don't sell non-aquatic plants, most others will 'because they look nice'

Can I suggest you read the pinned articles on lighting, CO2, EI, etc at the top of the planted forum, these should provide you with most of the info you need to get started. Then you can ask more specific questions after that

Sam