New Aquascaper here

[Anon_05]

Hello all so i recently changed from my standard 55 gallon glass tank to a new 55'' acrylic tank that i have begun aquascaping in i have so many questions but i want to start with a few big ones for me. So attached below are the current pictures of what it looks like. My first question is the brown algae and green algae growing everywhere? my plan is to eventually remove the top off this tank when i bought i didnt know it was covered -___-. I'm kinda clueless still how to maintain these aquascape tanks but i am learning and trying. Tested the water levels they are great all across. It's been setup now for a month. The light is normally centered i had just added some shrimp lol.

The lighting im using is a fluval plant LED 6500k 59 watts 48-60''.
Filter is Aquatop CF500uv mk2
Co2 tank is the 1 liter aluminium cylinder set from oista
The media inside the filter that it comes with and i added the matrix rocks as well, have the UV light on.

 

[Wills]

Hi this looks interesting! Gorgeous Angelfish you have there! Can you share a picture of your tank from the front square on so we can get an idea of the over all scape design?

From what I can see in there I would move your stem plants more towards the back and also split up your carpeting plants. With carpeting plants you want to split them up into little bunches called 'plugs' and plant them about 1-2 inches apart, then as they grow they spread into each other covering a bigger area like a mesh. At the moment it can only grow out from your square so it will be much slower.

I think in a tank this big some bigger plants like Amazon Swords or Lace Plants might be a good way of adding a bit of impact.

Wills

 

[Anon_05]

Hi this looks interesting! Gorgeous Angelfish you have there! Can you share a picture of your tank from the front square on so we can get an idea of the over all scape design?

From what I can see in there I would move your stem plants more towards the back and also split up your carpeting plants. With carpeting plants you want to split them up into little bunches called 'plugs' and plant them about 1-2 inches apart, then as they grow they spread into each other covering a bigger area like a mesh. At the moment it can only grow out from your square so it will be much slower.

I think in a tank this big some bigger plants like Amazon Swords or Lace Plants might be a good way of adding a bit of impact.

Wills

Thank you for your response Wills! haha regarding the plants my fiancée did say that i never listened to her lmao will do! here you go with the pic! my plan after i removed the top was the raise more driftwoods and lower the water level, i wanted to eventually add some little vampire crabs so they can come out the top from time to time lol. I jsut dont know how much Co2 i should be releasing or if im using too much lighting throughout the day causing algae perhaps? ill be replacing the black output and input tubes with the glass lily pipe you see hanging on there lol i havent gotten to it yet haha. That brown algae and some of the green is urking me, is that normal at first?

 

[Wills]

Thank you for your response Wills! haha regarding the plants my fiancée did say that i never listened to her lmao will do! here you go with the pic! my plan after i removed the top was the raise more driftwoods and lower the water level, i wanted to eventually add some little vampire crabs so they can come out the top from time to time lol. I jsut dont know how much Co2 i should be releasing or if im using too much lighting throughout the day causing algae perhaps? ill be replacing the black output and input tubes with the glass lily pipe you see hanging on there lol i havent gotten to it yet haha. That brown algae and some of the green is urking me, is that normal at first?

Cool thanks for the updated pic

2 sides of this that I want to try and work out, firstly lets chat about the fish.

With a Co2 injected tank you have to be super careful with the number of fish (especially with big fish like the angels) as you can suffocate them if you inject too much or if you dont have enough plants to use the Co2 and convert it to oxygen.

Using aqua soil and Co2 can also lead to fluctuating hardness and ph. Its also good to know what these factors are so you can get the right fish in the tank too. I think you mainly have softwater fish from what I can see but if you can give us a list or species and numbers that would be great

Secondly, with the scape I think you need a lot more plants, especially if you want to use Co2 as you don't have enough at the moment to convert Co2 to o2 (if you are injecting the amount of bubbles per second I'd expect here). Do you know the names of the plants you have? From your pictures I can see Anacharis, Red Camboba (I think?), Ludwigia, maybe some Rotala Rotundifolia at the front right? And I think the carpeting plant you have at the front is Monte Carlo? Most of these plants would be fine if you turned off the Co2, the Monte Carlo might fade but I'd be tempted to have a think about doing this unless you can add a lot more plants to the tank.

In terms of if you get the chance to replant - think of plants in terms of background, midground and foreground. Backgrounds are your big plants like Swords, Lace Plants, Java Fern, Vallisnera and stem plants like Hygrophilla, Hydrocotyle and Limnophilla species. Mid ground are some of the smaller stem plants and large to medium cryptocorynes as well as some of the epiphites like Anubias and Bucephalandra. The foregrounds are small crypts and carpeting plants like monte carlo, hair grass and Lilaeopsis or Helanthium.

With the way you have the sand and the soil you may also run into trouble over time as they will blend together, to keep them separate you need to make a wall with your hardscape otherwise the heavier of the two grains will eventually merge into the other due to circulation and gravity.

I'm sure you are already all over youtube but have a look at this video and how he has set the tank up. From how hes done the substrate, the amount and style of hardscape hes done and then how he has positioned the plants (hes used some of the same species here that you have).

Hope this helps, sorry if I'm a bit negative but just got to be serious when using Co2 as it takes a while to get the hang of and can be dangerous if you don't do it quite right.

Wills

 

[MollyMan1]

Thank you for your response Wills! haha regarding the plants my fiancée did say that i never listened to her lmao will do! here you go with the pic! my plan after i removed the top was the raise more driftwoods and lower the water level, i wanted to eventually add some little vampire crabs so they can come out the top from time to time lol. I jsut dont know how much Co2 i should be releasing or if im using too much lighting throughout the day causing algae perhaps? ill be replacing the black output and input tubes with the glass lily pipe you see hanging on there lol i havent gotten to it yet haha. That brown algae and some of the green is urking me, is that normal at first?

The brown algae (diatoms) is completely normal at first and everybody will usually go through a outbreak of it after first setting up a tank, you can wipe it off with a sponge or magnet cleaner but IMO I think it would be better to let some type of algae eater use it as a food source as it doesn't harm any of the fish. You can also look up videos or articles about what eats it and any other info about it . About the green algae I don't notice it in the pic, but if you wanted to you could get a closer pic and someone else could identify that, as I am no expert especially dealing with algae. Love the tank btw .

 

[Anon_05]

Cool thanks for the updated pic

2 sides of this that I want to try and work out, firstly lets chat about the fish.

With a Co2 injected tank you have to be super careful with the number of fish (especially with big fish like the angels) as you can suffocate them if you inject too much or if you dont have enough plants to use the Co2 and convert it to oxygen.

Using aqua soil and Co2 can also lead to fluctuating hardness and ph. Its also good to know what these factors are so you can get the right fish in the tank too. I think you mainly have softwater fish from what I can see but if you can give us a list or species and numbers that would be great

Secondly, with the scape I think you need a lot more plants, especially if you want to use Co2 as you don't have enough at the moment to convert Co2 to o2 (if you are injecting the amount of bubbles per second I'd expect here). Do you know the names of the plants you have? From your pictures I can see Anacharis, Red Camboba (I think?), Ludwigia, maybe some Rotala Rotundifolia at the front right? And I think the carpeting plant you have at the front is Monte Carlo? Most of these plants would be fine if you turned off the Co2, the Monte Carlo might fade but I'd be tempted to have a think about doing this unless you can add a lot more plants to the tank.

In terms of if you get the chance to replant - think of plants in terms of background, midground and foreground. Backgrounds are your big plants like Swords, Lace Plants, Java Fern, Vallisnera and stem plants like Hygrophilla, Hydrocotyle and Limnophilla species. Mid ground are some of the smaller stem plants and large to medium cryptocorynes as well as some of the epiphites like Anubias and Bucephalandra. The foregrounds are small crypts and carpeting plants like monte carlo, hair grass and Lilaeopsis or Helanthium.

With the way you have the sand and the soil you may also run into trouble over time as they will blend together, to keep them separate you need to make a wall with your hardscape otherwise the heavier of the two grains will eventually merge into the other due to circulation and gravity.

I'm sure you are already all over youtube but have a look at this video and how he has set the tank up. From how hes done the substrate, the amount and style of hardscape hes done and then how he has positioned the plants (hes used some of the same species here that you have).

Hope this helps, sorry if I'm a bit negative but just got to be serious when using Co2 as it takes a while to get the hang of and can be dangerous if you don't do it quite right.

Wills

Haha thank you no worries! Ok so i have 2 angels, 3 danios, 3 neon tetras, 20 little ghost shrimp in there hiding lol, the little red ones are bloodfins and then regular small tetras. Yeah im definitely getting more plants i wanted to get some java moss (taxiphyllum barbieri) and add some amazon swords as well. I wanted to coat the birchwood and tall rocks with the moss as well. This was the look i was going for just raised more with rocks and the water a bit lower for the vampire crabs i wanted lol.

 

[Anon_05]

The brown algae (diatoms) is completely normal at first and everybody will usually go through a outbreak of it after first setting up a tank, you can wipe it off with a sponge or magnet cleaner but IMO I think it would be better to let some type of algae eater use it as a food source as it doesn't harm any of the fish. You can also look up videos or articles about what eats it and any other info about it . About the green algae I don't notice it in the pic, but if you wanted to you could get a closer pic and someone else could identify that, as I am no expert especially dealing with algae. Love the tank btw .

Thank you yeah it was like 95% brown algae the green was on the back side and i wiped it with the algae sponge. That's what i had read about the brown algae im just wondering when it will stop growing haha.

 

[Fishmanic]

Great looking tank. Your plants should fill out nicely in a couple of months...just in time to enter it in our August Tank of the Month contest!

 

[Anon_05]

Great looking tank. Your plants should fill out nicely in a couple of months...just in time to enter it in our August Tank of the Month contest!

Thank you! i can't wait till they grow, it will look much different once im done with it. Love this community thanks everyone for the input.