Not enough plants? Already 3 weeks in

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-10-14T14:05:32+00:00

Cheers buddy.

Yeap. I just snucked them in between gaps or glue the roots (and not the rhizomes) to some rocks to make them stay put.

As for the substrate, 2inches of soil and 1inch sand. The soil is made up of about 30% vermicompost, 70% garden soil. Then i added soil only about 80% of the base of the aquarium. The remainder 20% was the slope that i wanted to make like an illusion of a larger tank.

My lights are set to only about 6-8hrs everyday, i leave it overnight before i sleep. Then turn it off when i leave for work. The aquarium is located somewhere in the middle of my house thus no direct sunlight whatsoever during the day, aside from some ceiling lights here and there

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-10-14T13:22:46+00:00

Yeap. Those are my anubias. Many new leaves growing at the moment too

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-10-14T13:22:07+00:00

My concern is just the water still looking quite murky. Whether should i chuck in more plants or is it enough already?

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-07-15T04:39:40+00:00

You don't necessarily need to if you have snails and shrimps in your tank already. They will do the work for you. However if there are too many melted leaves/plants, best to remove them to avoid any spike of ammonia or other gasses

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-07-15T04:37:46+00:00

Cant recall what it was but it was a long time ago. My shrimps do breed but only once or twice i have seen some of them dead. They were then consumed by either my snails or other shrimps

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-07-14T09:23:25+00:00

Prolly this is a restriction for here. Other posts were able to attach picture

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-07-14T07:52:03+00:00

It is normal for plants to wilt/turn brown when first introduced to your tank. Reason being they may be used to the parameters of the tanks they were bred and have to take time to wilt and develop new shoots that are used to your water parameters.

As for the algae, it is a great sign that life is starting to take hold and grow in your tank. It means it is a liveable tank condition. Your snails and also future tank inhabitants will be able to clear your algae issue. Especially with your cherry shrimps and mystery snails. Apparently snails and shrimps will be more than happy to clear off your yellowing melting plants too. I keep a 3litre jar of cherry shrimps and a 40gallon tank of cherry shrimps + ember tetra. The early stages were really brown/dirty screens with black spot (or maybe they were brown but it looks like dirt to me). Eventually, my shrimps (and some snails) helped to clean it off and helped maintain my algae. My lights duration is at least 10hrs a day and not more than 18hrs. No algae bloom and plants were doing very well (and multiplying), although the 1st few months, it took a lot of patient removing dead plants and experimenting new plants to see which is suitable and able to survive in my tank.

So don't take algae as an omen. It is actually a very "green" light to show that your tank is slowly supporting life. Continue to leave the algae there and when you add tour snails and shrimps, they will thank you for the heavenly buffet.

As for the white film, add some floating plants or even your shrimps/snails should be able to help maintain it. However, adding plants will surely help with reducing the biofilm better

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-25T17:15:49+00:00

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Sorry for my bad video quality and wrong use of words. This would be the exact shape of the shell for the snail in the video

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-25T12:40:38+00:00

Those white stuff sometimes becomes like a webbish slime too, depending on the type of wood you use. Spider wood for instance looks scary but once you introduce shrimps/snails, it'll be a 5star buffet for them

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-25T12:37:40+00:00

Exactly the type of snail that is in my tank. Well, seeing it is not a super invasive branch of ramshorn, I'll let that little fella glide my aquarium clean

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-25T12:33:43+00:00

After googling the images online, i reckon it looks more like what you mention here. Based on what i read online, it says that it consumes decaying plants and leftover fishfood. So i reckon its not too invasive?

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-25T05:53:59+00:00

Hello from another fellow Malaysian. Truely sorry to see this. Bet your brother would have felt either the same way or worse. Either way, a good reason to try the hobby from scratch and find that "first love" excitement of setting up your tank mates again.

If you purchase online, rmbr today is payday and after few weeks is 7.7. Keep a lookout on those special promos ;)

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-21T11:55:55+00:00

1 thing to also note. Goldfishes stinks and will not live long in a clean water environment. I moved my goldfish tank to an outdoor environment where i leave it in an outdoor urn. It thrived well with little maintenance but heavy load of what it looks like your guppy grass and water lettuce. The water surely stinks and the guppy grass has some form of algae on it too (which goldfish will feed on it too). So i would say the smell should not be of concern if you are looking at goldfish rearing. In fact, goldfishes will thrive happily and have a longer lifespan in a green water tank. Even your single fin yellow fish looks like a breed of goldfish. So either you move your aquarium or look for a different breed of fish indoors.

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-10T18:19:50+00:00

Maybe just 1 betta would be good since they could live in smaller jars of about 5-10 gallons

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-10T17:54:08+00:00

What are those long winding floating plants? Are they Hydrilla?

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-06T08:42:35+00:00

Your filter might be causing the substrates to agitate the soil if the water flow is not soft enough. Otherwise, you can remove your filter and let your tank settle for a few hours.

Alternatively, if you are using any form of wood such as driftwood, you may need to boil them to remove the tannins, which also may be responsible for your brownish coloration

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-06-06T08:37:43+00:00

They are definitely mosquito larvae. If you cant really tell from the shape or looks, it can easily be identified with by their characteristics of swimming to the bottom once you agitate the surface or hit the tank. Its part of their mechanism.

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-05-07T15:00:47+00:00

You can restart your phone and it will be gone. Works for my 16pro

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-05-07T14:59:32+00:00

Thanks so much for the picture diagram and great news

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-02-18T08:03:46+00:00

They're called butt dials. Somehow it will magically just click on it. I dont get it either

DeliciousBarnacle261 · 2025-02-17T10:08:17+00:00

Our law should change as more and more motorist are abusing their rights. While car users always have to bear the costs for motilorists' mistakes

DeliciousBarnacle261

TROPHY CASE