A well done planted aquarium can be a beautiful addition to any home. They are miniature functioning ecosystems that never cease to amaze.
Difficulty Level: Intermediate to advanced. Keeping a planted aquarium is an advanced skill. These days, there is a lot of information available that can help you along the way and make this a bit easier.
Tank Size: 17 gallons
pH: About 6.5. To control pH, use a slightly acidic substrate like Fluval Stratum, ADA Aqua Soil, or a slightly acidic garden soil. We used ADA Aqua Soil in this aquarium. Adding Carbon Dioxide also naturally lowers pH when it reacts with water to form carbonic acid. To raise pH use calcium hydroxide. Calcium hydroxide also helps buffer the pH.
Alkalinity: 3-4 dKH. Calcium hydroxide is added to the aquarium top off water to help raise and buffer the pH. 1/2 gram per 10 gallons water raises the dKH by about 1. Add it slowly so it doesn’t raise the pH too high. Calcium hydroxide reacts with C02 to form bicarbonate and carbonate ions which buffer the pH. It also adds calcium which helps our aquarium livestock. I use Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime. It is pure calcium hydroxide.
Nutrient Mix: See Aquarium stock on our nutrient mixing page for instructions. The stock was dosed at 1ml/gallon 3X per week. With a 30 percent water change once per week. You can stretch out the nutrient dosing schedule and do a water change every two weeks if necessary.
C02: ~30 ppm. CO2 comes on an hour before light on. Turn off at lights off. Make sure your drop checker is green when light turns on.
TDS(500 scale): 100-180ppm
Livestock: Amano Shrimp and Harlequin Rasbora
Plants: HC Cuba, Alternanthera Reineckii, Vallisneria Spiralis, Monte Carlo, Cameroon Moss – won’t use again. Too invasive in the aquarium, Eriocaulon Vietnam, Eriocaulon Malayatoor.
Temperature: 78 degrees F.
Management: There are many great websites on managing planted aquariums, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I’ll mainly look at the problems I had and what to do about them. Lets start with algae.
Black Brush Algae (BBA): The problem started near the CO2 diffuser seen in the 6 month picture. This is a common problem in a high CO2 and flow area created by the nearby rock. I switched to an inline CO2 atomizer, spot dosed the BBA with Excel and kept the CO2 levels as stable as possible. This helped a lot. After major tank maintenance, where a lot of debris was stirred up, the aquarium was dosed with a single full dose of Excel. This seemed to control the problem.
Blue Green Algae (BGA) aka Cyanobacteria: BGA became a problem in the right rear corner near the Vallisneria. It ended up just being a poor circulation/flow problem to that corner. The outflow lily pipe was moved closer to the water’s surface. This brings more oxygen rich water down from the water’s surface and helped control the problem. Always plan your aquarium around good water flow. A 3-5 day black out works for serious cases of BGA. Spot dose hydrogen peroxide for minor cases. I had a terrarium that became overrun by BGA. The population of Daphnia exploded and ate all the BGA. Might be something to look into in the future.
Green Dust Algae (GDA): The aquarium glass turning green can be annoying but luckily it is easy to wipe off. Turning down the lights helped with this problem. Having a healthy established plant mass taking up excess nutrient really helps too.
Surface Film: Easily solved with a surface skimmer. It will also help mix oxygen from the surface into the water.
Plant Selection: A lot of green carpeting plants like HC Cuba and Monte Carlo were used in this aquarium. They look great, but as they grow, the new growth covers the old growth. The old growth will start to break down and cause algae problems. Every so often, you need to trim them back almost to the substrate, or just pull out and replant new growth. I don’t recommend using a lot of carpeting plants for beginners.
Hardscape: A lot of hardscape was used in this aquarium. If you are a beginner, try to avoid this. It is much easier to keep algae off plants than handscape, so plant lots of plants!! Also, plan your layout around good water flow.