A Beginners Guide
Helpful tips:
- Don’t use airpumps or air driven filters. Aeration of any sort will drive CO2 out of your aquarium, and render nutrients inaccessible to plants. Undergravel filters are also unsuitable as they pass oxygen-rich water around the roots, a situation alien to plants (which can kill them), as in the wild they grow in 'still' mud. Use an internal or external filter, which will turn over the aquarium volume not more than twice per hour when clean and position the filter outlet at least 2° below the water surface
- Don’t overstock your aquarium or over-feed the fish (especially with rich foods such as Bloodworm)
- Maintain your tank every 2 weeks. A 25% waterchange will remove harmful waste products and at the same time replenish minerals and trace elements. Do not over clean your filter sponges. Slow biological filters work better and are better for plant growth. Prune fast growing plants as excess growth on the surface can block out light for mid and foreground plants
- Include plenty of fast growing plants from the outset and aim for 80% of the base area to be covered with plants to provide the right biological balance. You also need to have algae eating fish such as Ottocinclus catfish, Siamese flying foxes, Black Mollies and algae eating shrimps such as Caradinia japonica
- Do not use coarse gravel, as fine gravel is far better for root development
- Keep the aquarium out of direct sunlight. To reduce algae, try the following light regime achieved with a simple plug-in timer; 4 hours in the morning, followed by a ‘siesta’ where the lights go off and the tank receives only daylight. Finally 6 hours light in the evening. This does not affect the plants, but manages to upset the algae