# Brand new and growing algae. Help please.



## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Hi to all

This is my first post, my first ever fish tank and, obviously therefore, my first ever NPT. It pains me that my first post happens to be a problem so before I get to that let me first say thank you to everyone here. This forum, the information and advice within it have been invaluable in my making it this far and inspirational for me to continue despite the many hiccups and errors I've encountered already.

I am growing some fine algae and I'm not certain how to proceed. To begin with I'm having trouble identifying it precisely with Silk/Thread/Hair/Filament and I'm sure there were a few others all seeming like possibilities.

My tank is four days old, 45.5cm x 25 x 25 (odd size I know I made it myself), water is currently clear and my tests so far are as follows:


```
Date          pH[pH]    TEMP[°C]     NO2[mg/l]   NO3[mg/l]   NH4[mg/l]
    30/10/2019      7.000       25.000      0.000       3.000       0.000   
    31/10/2019      8.200       27.000      0.000       3.000       0.250   
    1/11/2019       7.400       26.000          -           -       0.250     
    2/11/2019       7.800       25.000          -           -       0.250
```
The first reading on the 30/10 is actually water straight from my tap prior to starting. I have "very" soft water in that it is rainwater. It is supplemented by town water and stored in a tank the town water has a much higher PH. I don't have the equipment to test KH/GH yet (waiting on the postman) I did take it to the local pet store who had trouble with thier own equipment so gave me an inconclusive conclusion of "very soft". To that end I added ground up "Shell grit" (basically just small clean white shells) in with the gravel.

On the first day the water was cloudy and the PH had shot up. By the second it had cleared and the PH dropped a little, I did a 25% water change anyway.

Light is a Phillips CFL 15w 6500k Cool Daylight. 9.5Hrs On (9:00am - 18:30) 5hrs OFF, 4Hrs On. The tank itself is in a well lit room but not in direct sunlight and the 9.5Hrs with the lamp on mostly cover the time when the room it lit by daylight.

I have no livestock, apart from three bladder snails courtesy of the LFS (A lesson learned) which I have currently removed to a small jar although they were in there for two days before I noticed them so I am expecting their heirs to show up eventually. Which raises another question I was trying to decide on, do I keep them or try to eradicate them? I should say that I live in Tasmania and many things are prohibited here including all but Mystery snails so perhaps Bladder snails are an optional alternative to your usual Nerites etc? The tank will eventually have a Betta in it if that makes a difference.

Anyway. Now I have algae.
I've read many things ranging from, leave it and it'll sort itself out to run around shouting and yelling until you go blue and pass out.
The algae has only formed on the one plant so far which is (I think) a Rotala Wallichii, possibly a bad choice to start with from what I have read but it was "sold" to me. All the other plants seem fine, in fact the Rotala seems fine otherwise. Water is clear and besides worrying about this new intruder I was quite happy with it.

Not certain what other information you might need, hope you can help put my mind at ease.

Misty

I hope the post looks okay I did preview it but being my first on the boards who knows.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Hello there! Welcome to the forum and I wish you good luck with the NPT!

I can't give advice on algae since I am a beginner in the game just like you, but I can see your NO2 and NO3 readings look really good so far! Did you measure with a liquid test? I have the impression that they are more accurate (but more of a hassle too?).

I'm sure someone experienced will jump in and give you good advice. In the meantime, it would help describing how densely you have planted, or maybe post a full tank pic.The plant density will effect the rate excessive nutrients are absorbed, so this will lead to algae control as far as I understand.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thanks for the welcome. I should have thought to post a tank image, I knew there would be something.

Todays tests were:

PH: 7.6 Temp: 25 Ammonia: 0.25

I didn't post them earlier as I like to do them at the same time every day in case light/temperature etc have a bearing.

Currently I have (The name may have been changed to protect the ignorant, or by the ignorant, that being me of course):

Broad-leaf Amazon Sword / Cryptocoryne willisii Crypt / Dwarf Hairgrass / Mayaca / Rotala wallichii / Water Wisteria / Duckweed ( The lady at the shop was very happy to get rid of that and couldn't understand my happiness to take it)

The amazon sword is looking a little tired but not yet worryingly so. The Crypt is again a little wan in colour but looks strong enough. The Dwarf Hair Grass seems unchanged since purchase. The Mayaca and Wisteria are going nuts growing out of the water at the top of the tank.

I apologize for the disarray I am awaiting a new heater, heater guard and thermometer, for now I used what I have. The photo was taken today.

Oh I almost forgot. I added a sweet potato (Cliche I know but Foo the Flowerhorn was whom brought me to this path) it has been in water in my window sill for a week. I added it to the tank yesterday and it began to throw down roots immediately. I was hoping it may help with the initial burden of getting things started while I figure out which plants work and which don't.


The two rocks are sandstone from the garden, washed, rubbed with vinegar (and a drop of nitrite solution from my test kit, or nitrate, I cannot remember which it was now) and alcohol then doused several times with boiling water. I also have several of the same rocks still sitting in water and for four days ahead of the initial tank set up, I have been checking the PH and seen no change whatsoever. 

The soil and gravel look deep in the image but they measure in at exactly 1" each.

My algae isn't rampaging or anything yet as you can see but I didn't want to leave it until too late.

EDIT: Whoops I forgot to answer your question. I am testing with liquid, API Freshwater test kit.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Your tank shows a very nice start for a beginner. Smart that you counteracted the very soft water.

Adding the sweet potato is ingenious. But keep an eye on it to see that it is actually growing, not rotting. (I might try this myself with an avocado nut.)

Main thing that I would address as soon as possible. Tank photo shows that you've got the stem plants all bunched up together. I would spread them out a little so that they have "their own space" for soil nutrients, water nutrients, and light. With stems all bunched up like that, the stem bottoms could easily start rotting. Before planting, make sure to cut off any rotten bottom parts.

As to algae, you might have to accept just a little. That hair algae can be removed manually with an old toothbrush. (I have to remove a bit every week or so from a couple of my tanks.) 

Snails are good.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thank you Diana although I wouldn't use the word "smart" to describe my journey thus far. The learning curve has been so steep I've suffered altitude sickness a few times and I always feel like I'm learning what I should have known just after I should have known it.

I was worried I may have put too many of the shells in but couldn't find anything to indicate measures so moved on from that concern.

I can't take credit for the sweet potato the idea belongs to Foo (



), but I did read (in your book I think) that surface plants are important and I had a redundant feeding hole in my tank lid so...

I will get onto those bunches as soon as I can. Unfortunately my planting tweezers haven't arrived yet so it's an awkward job but it'll be done by this evening.

My one remaining snail has been reintroduced to his empire, s/he didn't look happy but I'm sure the LFS would be glad to give me a couple more.

I will stop worrying about my algae and enjoy it a little instead, it does actually look quite pretty. It doesn't seem any worse and perhaps even a little less this morning, that's probably more an indication of my own state of mind though. While I have the plant out of the tank for separating is there anything I could/should do to reduce the algae or is it best just to enjoy it as part of the whole process.
To be honest the one aspect of all this which amazes me most is just how quickly things change, one minute there is no algae the next the plant is covered in it. That sweet potato for example, I awoke this morning and the roots are over an inch long compared with the photo above taken yesterday evening (just 12 hours prior). I swear if you stare closely enough you can actually see things growing. I don't know what I'll be like when I have fish but even now I just can't stop watching all the activity.

At first I - being technical minded - was focused on the tests as a measure of health but I am quickly learning to listen to what the activity is telling me and just enjoy it all. The sudden appearance of the algae did panic me a little though and I wondered if I needed to get it out before it reached a point where it was no longer possible. Your reply helps enormously, I shall my buy myself a new toothbrush today.

There is a gel like substance around the base of the potato but the roots look healthy and the part above water is still very firm so I don't think it's rotting but I shall monitor it. I have mint and oregano in my window sill just now, if they root they may well replace the potato since the tank is adjacent to my kitchen, although I haven't researched as far as the possibility of eating plants grown in an aquarium yet.

Thank you again and especially for the book. It's sometimes like trying to decode some alien language for a non-chemist like myself but you've done such a great job of layering the information that even a beginner like myself can take something away from it immediately and then return again to learn the next layer of complexity as my understanding grows.


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

MistyPhi, your approach to the tank setup looks really diligent, I am sure you will learn a lot and get great results! Good luck and have fun!


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

I managed to separate out the stem plants, I was simply demonstrating my ignorance by assuming that the little bits of lead wire twisted around the bases were meant to stay in place. I must say they look much better now though.

The job also mean a 15% water change too since I don't have tweezers and the displacement threatened to flood the kitchen. I wasn't going to do any water change this week since everything seems to be going quite well but I'm guessing it won't do any harm, especially such a small one.

The sweet potato has 2" roots now although it still doesn't show any signs of putting out growth above the water line. My wisteria is also throwing down roots (see image) from part way up the actual stem. I was surprised by this but it's good to see.

Neither of the two plants I de-bunched showed any signs of rot, in fact most of the stems seemed to have healthy roots, or root. I still have a lot to learn about the difference between stem plants and normal rooting ones, I had assumed that it meant they drew their nutrients from the water directly through their leaves and stems but since they are all putting down roots that's obviously not the case. I shall have to read some more.

About half an hour after putting my snail back in I was looking for him and found two others. I had read they breed quickly but WOW! [smilie=b: I guess I didn't get them all after all, I thought it was unlikely but can't believe how well they hide, or how fast they move.

My algae is certainly no worse than it was and although I say this with caution it does actually seem to be a little thinner if anything. I didn't remove any during the de-bunching operation nor did I rinse the plant since I wasted the minimum disruption possible and I figured wrenching them from their homes again was more then enough.

Thanks again for the help.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Looks much better. The burden of the stem plants must have been relieved by the removal of those lead weights. 

I would not worry about the snails. They do more good than harm.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

First, welcome to APC! I missed your thread earlier. The tank looks very good for being so new, and you are getting the best advice possible from Diana.

What does spring look like in Tasmania?


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thanks Michael.

Spring is undecided but welcome none-the-less. Some very hot days hence my tank temperature reaching 27deg but mostly the heater is still working a little to keep things at 25.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

My tank is 6.78 gallons and has been alive for eleven days now and has grown three types of algae (Hair, brown and some gel looking stuff which I am guessing is green slime I managed to get one photo with all three.). All showed up in the first week and although they arrived suddenly none have developed further than their initial appearance. Out of the three the brown is the most prolific, covering some of my gravel, plant leaves and my heater. My bladder snails are growing and breeding happily though and the bigger two of the bunch are making great headway at clearing up the brown stuff. I am not concerned about any of the growths in fact it is wonderful to see my tank so alive, perhaps it doesn't fit many aquarists idea of a perfect frame in which to display beautiful fish but I am delighted that it seems to resemble a small slice of a natural pond.

I read in a recent post that someone was having difficulty with floating plants preventing the light reaching their other plants so I included an image of my raft. It's just the top from a plastic container, I cut out the middle. I use a normal hair comb to move excess duckweed outside of the raft allowing light to reach the rest of the tank. Again I can't take credit for the idea, it was Foo the Flowerhorn once more but I didn't have any of the acrylic tube he used so this was the next best thing.


So to my question... can anyone identify the small creature in the images attached. It is green in colour and resembles a small fragment of foliage. Capturing one and taking the images proved very difficult since they are extremely alert and quite fast swimmers. They appear to be ovoid in shape and the one in the images is actually quite a large specimen. The first ones I saw I just thought were bits of plant matter being blown about in the heat currents from my heater but now I have a lot more they are obviously alive as you can see from the way he is swimming about the syringe in the images. Hopefully the syringe gives an idea of scale but if not they are smaller than a pin head, perhaps the size of a grain of salt or sugar.

I'm guessing that when I eventually add my fish there will probably be far fewer of them but right now they are fascinating to observe.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Can't identify the interesting little creature, but I can say that your tank is looking awfully nice. 

You spread out the stem plants and it looks like they're growing like weeds. Overall, you're getting the kind of plant growth that should be the target of any new setup. 

This 6.7 gal tank looks like a "fun tank" where you can see nature in action. Thanks for sharing your journey with us!


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## zahtar (Sep 29, 2019)

Looking good MistyPhi! I don’t have a clue about the little creature, but I got to say that the plastic container cover was a clever idea! Easy to make, rigid, floaty and effective! I used a polyethylene tube and got the result I wanted, so there are other alternatives as it seems.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Mystery creature is a puzzle. Two guesses:

1. Planarian. Usually these have a triangular "head" at one end, but not when they have recently divided, a form of self-cloning.
2. Leech. There are non-parasitic species of leeches that are sometimes found in aquaria. 

Both of these eat detritus, and neither will cause problems. Send us more photos if you can.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

The green creature is a protozoan of some sort. A microscopic picture would be good to ID. Probably paramecium species.


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## terryna (Mar 16, 2018)

Subscribed to this one


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thanks for all the feedback. I did some searching of my own and I believe that my visitors are these little fellows:






https://skfaquatics.com/forum/articles/shrimp/seed-shrimp-ostracoda-podocopida-r32/

The video really is worth a watch for a young girl she does an amazing job of describing the shrimps and her microscope footage and that of the Planeria is very interesting.

I shall try to get a better photo today but I don't have any equipment to do microscopic I'm afraid best I can do is macro. 
I've also discovered another little creature this morning which I suspect might be the Planeria mentioned in the video link above. I shall try to get a photo of those also. They appear as tiny 1mm long, green, thread looking creatures on my glass. They are probably elsewhere too but being green like the other creature they are amazingly well camouflaged in my little jungle. At first I figured the second creature was again little bits of plant matter until I noticed one moving and then another.

I shall do my best with photos but I don't have the volumes the girl in the video has and catching these things is a challenge in itself never mind photographing them.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Phew that was hard work but fun, I've never done any video editing or uploading before so I hope this all works and that the site I used is acceptable (I have lots of adblockers etc so forgive me if it is heavy on ads)

I extracted one of the little fellows and put him in very shallow water in a plastic lid (like a Pringles lid) as the syringe was distorting the images I believe. The shallow water prevented the shrimp from moving away (hence the circular movement), it did eventually make its way to the round lid seam where it seemed to latch on and remain still.

I have attached photos which clearly show the seam of the seed shrimps (if my supposition is correct) shell. In the video what amazed me most of all is all the other life you can see swimming about, there were better shots of these extra organisms but the shrimp was out of focus so I edited those parts out. I measured the small circular lid seam shown in the video to be 3mm diameter:

Seed Shrimp Video

If I thought getting this little fellow was hard you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get the other one. The lid didn't work since the creature is virtually transparent and I couldn't see where he went in the syringe never mind the lid so I had to get one actually on the glass of the tank which caused all kinds of focusing issues. After an hour this was the best I could do, if you watch carefully you will notice I accidentally caught another slightly larger specimen entering the shot lower left. I estimate these second creatures to be about 0.5 - 1.5mm in length

Unidentified creature video

I have to say a little part of me is grossed out by all these things living in my tank and me putting my hand in there but it is the tiniest part of me. In the main I find all this incredibly amazing and I'm having so much fun, I can't thank enough Diana, Foo the Flowerhorn and everyone else who has shared information to get me this far and I don't even have fish yet.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

The worm crawling on the glass is indeed a planarian.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thanks for the confirmation mistergreen. Co-incidentally I was watching videos on Planaria as you posted they are amazing creatures with incredible powers of regeneration. Apparently if you cut the head of one in half it will regenerate two heads and continue to live. This playlist is extremely informative for anyone interested:

Planaria

The second video being the most informative.

Mine are very small compared to the ones in the videos so I presume they must either be juveniles or a different species perhaps. They eat algae, snail eggs and seed shrimp so I can see a balance forming here already, my algae is certainly remaining in check.

With all this life in my tank and my readings being pretty good I am considering buying my fish this week unless anyone advises against it?


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

*Just some gratuitous photos and blather* from a proud aquarium owner. You can see my otter in the background is as eager to see fish added as I am, if not more so.

I may however have to hold off on the addition of fish for a while since my PH shot up from 7.2 to 8.2 over a single day. My ammonia went from 0 to 0.1, my nitrites are still at 0 and my nitrates have dropped from my original 0.3 to 0.2. I was surprised to see the change after so long with nothing happening. 
My Catappa leaves arrived yesterday and I dropped three small pieces into the tank, hopefully they will reduce the overall PH which I certainly have room for. They have coloured the water nicely already the only concern I have is the softening effect on the water since my tap water is already very soft. My GH/KH test kit hasn't arrived yet though so I have no way to test.

I did a 20% water change yesterday due to the high PH and not wanting to do one after adding the Catappa as it'd remove the tannins too. I was on the fence about it since other than the PH/Ammonia rise there aren't really any current problems but this is only the second in two weeks and I think I read somewhere Diana considered that acceptable. Since the PH of my tap water is 7.0 it should bring that spike down a little in the short term and give the Catappa time to do its work as I didn't want my plants suffering.

*Some information too...*
As you can see most of my grey slime algae is gone, there is still a little of the brown algae on the substrate and a couple of leaves but it has drastically reduced, the green hair algae has pretty much vanished too. My creatures are doing well, thriving but not over producing, there seems to be a nice balance of the three visible seed shrimp, snails and planaria just now. I'm hoping it continues at least until I add my fish.

*Some questions...*
My new heater arrived which has a built in thermometer, it's great since it's so compact and lets me open up the middle of the tank as originally planned. It has raised a question of temperature however. I placed a thermometer in the opposite corner to my heater and noticed a variance of up to three degrees in temperature I am guessing due to the water in the tank being so still. When I have a fish in the tank stirring things about a little perhaps it will even out? Is this variance a concern? I ask since this is such a small tank and my next will be much longer by four times, I will have a heater at both ends but the center might see a large variance.

*Some experience...*
I have learned so much already and yet I realise I have so much more to learn. One thing I have learnt, or am learning still, which isn't in the books nor have I read it in the forums but I feel is extremely important in developing my NPT. Patience. The title of this thread (I wish I could change it now) demonstrates my panic at the smallest change in my tank. I am learning not to knee-jerk react to every nuance but rather let them rest for a little while and give nature a chance.

My only regret so far is adding the shell grit to the gravel. Without a test kit I have no idea what it might be doing, I am not concerned though, my regret comes from it being irreversible. In hindsight I might have placed the grit inside a short length of nylon stocking or similar so that I could easily add too/reduce or remove it at any time. 
My lesson. 
If there is a way to do something which gives the option of reversal then look for such a method.


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## zolteeC (Dec 26, 2017)

Hello MistyPhi

Your tank looks good to me and the most important thing is to see new growth on the plants. This is a good indication that nothing is missing from the tank that prevents growth. A new NPT that is set up correctly should typically show signs of new growth in the first 1-2-3 weeks (depending on the plant species). Usually plants are growing quite fast in the first couple of months or so. 

Regarding to pH. It is somewhat normal that pH raises during the day because plants use up CO2 from the water. This is normal, and is more of a gradual change. Chasing target pH is often unnecessary and just misleading. If your soil is OK and your water is OK, then pH fluctuation should be pretty much reasonable. It is definitely worth checking your water hardness. Maybe your water supplier publishes analysis on the water on the internet? If your water is extremely soft, that can be an issue because it does not provide the necessary buffering capacity that prevents huge pH fluctuations. I doubt this is the case, but who knows. Also your soil may affect the water hardness of the water column.

What soil did you use?

I see some equipment in the tank. What is that exactly? There is one thing to avoid with these NPTs. Excess water flow and heavy air bubbling can drive off CO2 from the water column. C is the main macro what your plants most need. Fresh soil submerged should release plenty of CO2 (I guess the cap material has also an impact on the rate).


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thanks zolteeC funny you addressed my PH issue since I was in the process of writing this...

I am really struggling to get my head around my aquarium water tests and what if anything I should do.

My KH/GH test kit arrived today. It is a strip test kit which I know is less accurate than the liquid tests but when dealing in degrees of zero I don't think accuracy is my main concern.

Now as I understand it KH acts as a buffer to my PH and prevents wild swings. Fish poop, decomposing plant debris, snail poop etc should all produce ammonia right? Ammonia should raise the level of my PH which is what I am seeing in my tests as shown in the graph image of tests taken over the past two weeks since setting up my tank. So if I understand it correctly my snails and decomposing litter are producing more ammonia than my bacteria can keep up with and so my ammonia is causing my PH to rise? Once my bacteria begin making headway on the excess ammonia the resulting nitrites and nitrates should cause my PH to drop? If that's correct I think I understand it.

I found this pdf to be extremely informative.



> Pure ammonia actually has a basic or alkaline pH. In theory, ammonia should raise the pH of an aquarium. However, virtually all processes in the aquarium that produce ammonia, as well as the breakdown of ammonia, produce hydrogen cations. Since pH is the negative log of hydrogen cation concentration, increasing this lowers the pH, negating the mildly basic pH of ammonia. While ammonia has a basic pH, the processes that create it in an aquarium produce enough hydrogen ions to overcome this and lower the pH.


Now, I added the shell grit to my gravel which should cause both my KH and my PH to rise and indeed my PH has always been greater than the original water from my tap but my KH remains at zero and my GH which, if I am right, should be about 90ppm is actually only 12. Oddly enough my tank is doing really well but I suppose that is because the plants are getting what they require from the soil since my water contains so little nutrients as to be virtually non-existent, is that correct? 
I recently added Catappa leaves which should lower my PH (a good thing in my case) but also lower my KH I believe. At first I wasn't sure how this worked but as I understand it the Catappa produces acid which lowers my PH and also chews away at my KH buffer lowering my KH. Since my KH is already zero the leaves should lower my PH much more dramatically than they might do in a more balanced tank correct?

It seems to me that I need to raise both my KH and GH considerably but that I cannot afford to raise my PH. Since raising KH in any way directly raises my PH also I'm a little stuck between a rock and a hard place.

What are my options for possible actions if any and if there are options then do natural ones exist or am I looking at commercial products? Exercising my new sense of patience perhaps the best thing is simply to sit tight and see what happens, but conditions my plants can survive may not be so favorable for fish.

I have to confess that when I began all this I thought my pristine water would be an asset, had I known it might be such a huge obstacle I may have reconsidered and gone for keeping hamsters or something except that we can't get hamsters down here either. Since an established NPT requires so few water changes I also have the possibility of sourcing water from elsewhere, I am asking friends to collect samples of their own water (from their taps not personal  ) so I can test them.

EDIT: Whoops sorry I forgot to respond to your questions zolteeC.

The only equipment in my tank is my heater, the black unit on the side. As for soil I used potting mix which I washed several times pouring of suspended solution after two hours. I can give more details if needed but I suspect it won't matter in light of my KH/GH readings.
I should perhaps explain the table too. We are on rainwater here but when it runs low we are supplemented by town water. I was initially hoping that I could access the town water directly and use it to boost my KH/GH but as the table shows it's not much better than the mixed rainwater/town water which comes out of my tap.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

You are getting good plant growth, water is clear, and you have virtually no algae. Some newbies would kill for this! 

The shell grit layer is providing the hard water nutrients (Ca, Mg, K, etc) that your soft water lacks. The shell grit will increase the pH, KH, and GH, but the plants you have chosen may like this. If they are the species that can use bicarbonates, they will be very happy. 

I would be interested to hear what your GH readings are for your tapwater as compared to your tank. 

Heaters: I've had so much trouble with newly purchased submerged heaters--leaking toxins, not working, etc that it is a tender subject. The heaters--all different brands-- for my 8 tanks produce spotty results. I watch them closely for malfunction. I use gentle aeration to circulate water in tanks of 10 gal or less, but there are always cold spots in these tanks. The two shrimp bowls have no heaters. Fish and shrimp have just had to deal with it.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Thanks Diana, I never said I wasn't happy with the tank so far. In fact with all the life in it I am delighted. It's the fish I worry for. If my KH is so low won't I be subject to PH swings which I've read are fatal for fish.

It interesting about the heaters, I just noticed last night that this new one is making strange noises whilst it's heating the tank. I fail to see how it should make any noise at all, I shall be taking a closer look at it today. The releasing of toxins is worrying too, how do you know it released toxins (tests)? 

I also didn't realise you aerated smaller tanks, the opposite in fact I thought I'd read that aeration drew the C02 out of the tank or something along those lines.

The two images I attached to my last post give readings for tank, tap and directly accessed town water. But for GH they are:
Town: 25
Tap: 12
Tank: 12

KH is 0 across the board.

So you are saying that the shell grit may well have increased my KH already and added the missing nutrients but the plants could be absorbing any change?


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## jatcar95 (Oct 30, 2019)

MistyPhi, the water supply where I'm from is basically just rainwater, so it's very soft (2 dH and 1 dkH) and slightly acidic (6.8). I've added some Seachem Equilibrium and Seachem Alkaline Buffer to increase my GH and KH respectively. I know there are more natural ways of doing this as well, but this has worked for me. My pH did go up (around 7.4 - 7.6 now), but I think the plants are much happier now with the added nutrients. I'm not very familiar with the chemistry, but from what I've read, I think increasing KH will only increase pH so much - at a certain point, it will stop. So maybe you still have some room to increase the KH without worrying about pH much? Again, I'm certainly no expert, and still rather new at this, but just my 2 cents.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Your GH readings (12-25 ppm) indicate hard water. The GH (12 ppm) in your tank is very good. I don't know why the KH is zero, but it may not matter.

Daily pH swings within the range (7-8.2) you show are natural and will not hurt the fish. Worried hobbyists may be referring to pH plunges due to CO2 injection or the addition of chemicals? If you were seeing pH 5.5 to 6, then I might be concerned.

As to heaters releasing toxins, fish behavior is my guide. Attached is picture of one heater that gave me problems. Half of guppy juveniles dead in the morning. Moved the survivors to new water and some recovered. In a second occurence with a different heater but same brand, adult female guppies started behaving weird--not eating. I quickly moved them into another tank and they recovered immediately. Acute poisoning within 24 hours suggest neurotoxins, but this is just a crude observation; I would not take it to the bank.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Wow that heater even looks nasty. The first review or two I looked up were not good either stating that it just doesn't reach required temperature. I read the box too, why would they use "Silicon Carbide Crystals" they don't sound particularly healthy and are listed as a dangerous substance in some US states apparently. I will definitely be avoiding those heaters, thanks.

Now, I am really new so I am hesitant to correct you but surely you are confusing the US grains per gallon with ppm in the case of water hardness. Measured in grains per gallon anything above 10.5 would be considered very hard but measured in ppm or mg/l anything below 17.1 (1 gpg) is considered soft. 
I hope you are correct and I am wrong for the sake of my water but I checked multiple sources so I'm not optimistic.

Thanks for the feedback on my PH swings, I think all things considered I shall just wait it out and see what happens over the next week or two. I have just begun re-reading your book, I have learned some since my last read so perhaps much which confused me before will hopefully make sense this time around.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

Finally an update (Week 4), I have been wanting to get around to this for a couple of weeks but time slips on by.

My tank seems stable and I have even added my first fish ever, a welcome addition to our family, a female Betta called Melita. I can't believe how responsive and interactive she is.

*Rotting plants:*
All of the Ambulia I planted rotted away starting from the base and gradually working its way up the stem. At the time I didn't have planting tweezers so all I could do was sit and watch. Tweezers arrived eventually and I removed all of the Ambulia and as much of the rotting debris as I could. I presume it was this debris that caused another algae outbreak so I just bode my time and watched. Within a week of debris cleaning all the algae was gone again.
I managed to save three tips from the Ambulia. This time with the correct equipment I stripped the lower leaves and planted carefully using tweezers. All three are now growing and looking healthy which I am happy about since it's one of my favourites.
Not sure what happened to the original plants perhaps I was too brutal in planting without tweezers, perhaps it was due to my not stripping the lower leaves (thanks jatcar95 for your post mentioning this and for getting me interested in Ambulia in the first place). However when I returned to my LFS to buy my fish, all her Ambulia was looking sickly and rotting too so perhaps a bad batch.

*KH/GH/PH:*
Both my KH and GH have risen although they are still low at GH: 25 ppm and KH: 50 ppm. Perhaps the shell grit started working but I also began using Evian mineral water in my top up bottle. Not the best mineral water for KH but the best I cold find in the supermarket. I shan't use it all the time but I will get a bottle from time to time and use it in the auto top off bottle. We have a family joke that Melita is a little princess who will only swim in Evian. Perhaps they could use it in their advertising.
My PH seems stable at 7.7.

*Plant growth:*
All my plants seems to be doing great with the exception of my Amazon Sword and my Crypt although neither are deteriorating so I shall leave them be and add liberal doses of patience. I have had to crop the Mayaca, Rotala Walichii and the Water Wisteria several times replanting the cuttings and so far all have taken. The Water Wisteria is actually a beautiful plant, at purchase it was long and leggy with big broad leaves which I considered too big for my 7gal tank. When cropped the plant is growing much denser foliage and the leaves are quite delicate and pretty looking.
My sweet potato is wild and invasive. I am thinking of removing it today and replacing it with a peace lilly I have growing in water since my strawberry, oregano and mint are not really ready. I suspect it has done a great job kick starting the tank with its rapid growth but now I am concerned it's taking nutrients my other more desirable plants might need. Besides that the root system is manic and it keeps trying to find it's way to my gravel/soil which would make a mess on removal so it's time has come and it's work is done.
My Banana Plant and my Monte Carlo are doing really well right now, I shall keep an eye on the Monte Carlo for when the soil CO2 depletes and it begins to struggle.
Dwarf hair grass shows very little signs of growth but looks healthy enough.
My duckweed was yellowing and I didn't want to be the first person ever to kill off duckweed. I thought it might be because I had the lid closed and there was too little air so I cracked it and inch or two. I will await the results.
Local stream scrounged Azolla is holding its own, looking good but not multiplying yet.

*Snails, Seed Shrimp and Planaria:*
Both shrimp and snails are doing well and neither have population exploded on me. Contrary to everything I read about Bladder snails their population seems to be remaining in acceptable numbers. As are the shrimp although Melita spent the first two days culling all the smaller ones and I'm guessing the snails too but I haven't actually seen her eating any tiny snails. 
I have observed the snails eating plants but only the sickly and decaying ones, they had a field day with my rotting Ambulia but I've seen no indication of them eating a healthy plant, in fact I now use them as another gauge of plant condition.
The planeria seem to come and go, never growing as big as the ones in the videos I watched, whether they are feeding on snail eggs and keeping the population in check or not I have no idea but things do seem to be happily balanced.

*Concerns: I have two concerns/questions. *

Firstly I have bubbles coming from the substrate. Quite large bubbles probably 6-10mm in diameter and streaming for several seconds. I have been poking the substrate gently with my tweezers and LOTS of bubbles come up. I was doing this daily for about a week but stopped the last three days since I bought Melita and wanted to give her time to settle. There is no smell to the bubbles and I have had them for over a week now with no detrimental effects showing in my plants. When I began the tank I could see lots of air pockets in the soil layer and I at first assumed it was those rising but unless I accidentally buried a canister of gas it couldn't possibly account for the quantities. I'm not worried at the moment since my plants look fine and Melita actually seems to like the bubbles, chasing them as they rise, but I am curious as to what may be the cause and how long it's likely to continue?
I did filter my potting mix and washed it about five times each time taking off the floating and soluble layers.

Secondly. Melita is not eating the food I bought her. I bought the food from a different supplier prior to buying my Betta. It's a Betta pellet "API Betta Food". I have tried soaking it before feeding but it just sinks and she doesn't eat it anyway. I have tried grinding it between two spoons since she is only small and the pellets are large she still won't eat it. She feasted on seed shrimp for two days so I'm not worried about starvation and yesterday I fed her mosquito larva from a container in the shed (clean water) I figured four or five of those would suffice considering her size but she ate about twenty of the things, in fact she ate them all. I have started two deliberate mosquito cultures but in the meantime&#8230;
Do I simply persist and when she gets hungry enough she will eat the API food? Currently she eats it then simply spits it out.
I could re-visit the supplier I bought her from and buy whatever she was feeding them but that's a little inconvenient prior to late next week. Do I need to be concerned? What options might I have?

Oh and a third question. I realise that the non-plant creatures in my tank will provide for my plants in time but I don't really want to crowd Melita with another female Betta in such a small tank. I'm worried that she alone won't be enough. I am still trying to catch some wild shrimp to add and I have the option of a Mystery snail (the only type we can buy down here). My Bladder snails do poop a lot and I have quite a few of them now (probably twenty or so). Do I need more non-plant population in order to keep the plants happy and are there options I may not have considered here?

My continuing thanks to all who post and help here. Seeing your developing tanks and hearing about your own issues continues to be a valuable source of information.

@jatcar95: I actually replaced my plastic lid rim raft with some plastic tube since the rim required a good amount of trapped air under it in order to float and it was easily disturbed. I had trouble gluing/securing the end of the tube, in the end I just dipped both ends in boiling water and inserted one into the other. Silicon nor superglue would hold the join securely even with a small piece of plastic pen case inserted to help give rigidity. 
How did you seal and join your tube?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Fish greatly prefer live critters over dry food. As long as Melita is eating so enthusiastically, don't worry if she's a little picky. Aren't we all?

I wouldn't worry too much about the gas bubbles. 

Your tank is progressing. I'm also impressed with the potato's growth,


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## jatcar95 (Oct 30, 2019)

Your Betta is very pretty! 😁 Your whole tank looks really nice. It feels good when things are working out! I super glued some tubing together to use when I first set up my tank, but I didn't end up using it. My floating plants just grow across the whole surface, and I keep them thinned enough to let light through.


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## MistyPhi (Oct 30, 2019)

An end of year update.

*Tank Age:* 7 Weeks, 2 Days

*Tests:* PH:7.9 / KH: 120 ppm / GH: 25 ppm / Ammonia: 0.15 ppm / NO2: 0 ppm / NO3: 0 ppm

*Plants:*


Everything is growing well, the Water Wisteria especially, it would happily take over the tank if allowed. 
I lost the Amazon sword, it never did much from the beginning and in the end the two remaining leaves were fading quickly so I removed them.
The crypts are finally beginning to take off, their leaves are dark brown to black which I at first thought was rot, I'm glad I left them to develop as they are now plentiful and add a nice colour contrast.
My banana plant is going wild and has done since the moment I put it into the tank, it currently has four stems to the surface although the lilly pads never open fully which is probably a good thing or I'd have to remove some to prevent them blocking the light.
The Ambulia continues to grow well although it's not reached the pruning and replant stage yet.
Mayaca is also holding it's own although it's currently in a slower growing stage as is the Rotalla.
My dwarf hair grass has begun to spread a little albeit quite slowly and the Monte Carlo is still going strong too.
Since I began leaving the glass cover open much wider allowing more air flow my Duckweed had also regained its green colour and the Azolla seems to be multiplying too.
The Peace Lilly is also doing well and is showing the signs of a potential flower. I replaced the sweet potato with the lilly as the potatoes root system was a little wild and entangling, the lilly has much more manageable roots although it too has begun to grow many smaller offshoots since entering the tank.

*Critters:*


The bladder snails continue to thrive and do their never ending work. There are plenty but they never get out of control, I think my little Betta (Melita) is picking off the eggs and perhaps the newborn.
My final seed shrimp didn't last much longer than my previous update, Melita is an excellent hunter and spends the days prowling her domain seeking anything that moves. I have the light come on at night and any small bugs attracted to it and falling into the water don't get to practice their backstroke for very long.
The planeria never returned either, I don't know if she was eating those too or whether she's simply too much competition for them.
Melita is doing extremely well and is a very interactive little fish. When she swims madly against the glass I'm not sure if it to demand food or whether she's attempting to escape and eat me too. I finally found a pellet she likes (Hikari Betta Bio-gold) they are much better than the oily API pellets and actually float on the surface although they don't get chance to do it for long.

*General:*
After my last update I removed the sweet potato replacing it with the Peace Lilly and did some pruning. The changes must have been dramatic in the tank as little Melita lost all her colour and developed stress stripes, she didn't look happy. After a couple of days everything settled but I learned my lesson. Now I don't do a blanket prune rather I snip a little here and a little there every few days or so as it needs it so that I don't upset the balance too much.

The Almond leaves are great and Melita loves to sleep under their cover but the original ones were decaying a little too much for my liking so I removed 75% of them an added new ones. Something I didn't foresee was the additive effect of the water colouring. For about a week it was probably a little too dark and I began to worry about the light reaching the lower plants but the colour seems to be settling now (or I'm getting used to it). I'm not sure what to do about this in future, perhaps I need to time my leaf changes with any water changes.

My PH is still high but to be honest I rarely do any water tests these days, I prefer to observe the plants and Melita and allow them to inform me of any issues. I haven't done a water change for over four weeks now and the tank has only had two small ones since starting, both in the early stages where the ammonia was creeping up. Things seems stable right now but I think the new year will see a small 10-15% change happening.

My top off bottle doesn't really work as designed since the duckweed clogs it so I have to lift it each morning and allow it to drain into the tank. I wouldn't be without it though since it comes to the same temperature as the tank and going by the tannin's there is a definite blending of the tank water and the bottle water such that when it does empty into the tank there is very little shock effect.
I'm still using spring and mineral water in the top off bottle rather than my dead tap water and with evaporation it requires about 300-400 ml/day.

I'm getting a lot of yucky gunk/debris rotting down through my gravel and turning the thin sand layer pink. I'm not worried about it since the tank appears healthy and I suppose this is nutrients for the plants. It's not excessive, nor particularly unsightly but I have to keep telling myself not to vacuum the gravel and to let nature do its thing. After Diana's advice I stopped prodding to remove bubbles and after a few days they settled down, I still get them occasionally rising but not in the same quantities as before.

Well that's about it. I'm very, very happy with my little tank it's an absolute joy to watch as life evolves and co-exists (or not). I hope you're all getting as much pleasure from your own little microcosms and that it continues into the new year.

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it, best wishes to everyone else.


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