This is my first time ever doing a planted tank. With lots of TikTok and Reddit research this is what I ended up with. Please tell me how I did and how I can improve. Thank you!

My two Betta girl tanks (right is a recent re-scape) and my mini shrimp tank. I'm considering a 4th... That's how it goes right? 😂

An overgrowth of vallisneria, ludwigia, and algea—first time seeing vals flower. Lots of danios (CPD), cherry shrimp, and bladder snails in there. I've had to cut back the top growth so I can begin to tidy up inside the tank. After seeing the sad mess of algae and decaying plant matter, I have half a mind to wrangle the fish and do a tear-down. My options are:

1) Tidy up and increase circulation, hope algae goes away over time

2) Tear down and reset the 10 gal

3) Tear down and set up in a 20 gal

I took a short video of some of my aquarium. I plan on doing it partial rescape later this year.

Melanotaenia nigrans.

40gal breeder tank filled with South American native species.

Filtered with an Aquaclear 70 HoB and Aquarium Co-op large sponge filter.

Light is a WeekAqua MK900 pro set to RGB 48/47/48 at 63% power, 94% fan for 7 hours.

Plants:
- Myriophyllum mattogrossense
- Nymphaea sp Peru Maldonado (hidden in the back)
- Amazon Frogbit
- Ludwigia Sp Mato Grosso
- Mayaca Fluviatilis
- Salvinia Oblongfolia
- Hyptis Lorentziana

Livestock:
- 24 Black Neon Tetras
- 11 Panda Corydoras
- 8 beckford’s pencilfish
- 2 farlowella vittata
- 1 laetacara dorsigera
- 1 banjo catfish
- Amazon Tiger Shrimp (Euryrhynchus amazoniensis)

This tank is meant to replicate a habitat that you’d actually find somewhere in nature- nothing like a Dutch or “Planted” tank. A key philosophy for this tank is to keep things a little “dirty”- algae is actually necessary for this tank (farlowella food).

Hope you enjoy.

This is bottom of my scuds tank. I thought it was just a scratch, but I'm not sure.

It's not leaking though.

This is the product I got. https://www.petco.com/product/imagitarium-blue-betta-cube-kit-25-gallons-4783217

Obviously no fish. Just scud culture tank.

Been working on this bowl for about a month, it´s almost 3 weeks at this point just has 5 harlequin rasboras, may add a couple others but leaving it as is for a while as it settles properly. zero amonia and no nitrates present when fish were introduced 2 weeks after filling with water. it also has 5 amano shrimp, still lots of tanins that i hope to slowly reduce, i do a 2 liter water change every morning.

Bowl has an air stone and is heated. Hope to add a couple other fish species with time as it becomes capable of handling the load, maybe some galaxy rasboras, or ember tetras, don´t know yet. But loving how it looks.

Here's my tank setup I just started using co2

I have fluval stratrum as the substrate. Should I still be fertilizing aswell? Any recommendations? It's a 20gallon tall stocked pretty well.

This is my first tank ever. not that cool looking compared to the stuff i see here. but I'm pretty proud of it.

got some skittles running around. looking to get a tiny schooling fish for this 12 inch cube. what should I get?

I love that I got into the hobby of aquaristic. And I'm really happy with the results.. 😎

Hi all,

This is mine and my girlfriends first aquarium. It’s a shaker 252 which I’ve painted as wasn’t a fan of the colours.

I’ve done a lot of research for a long time and have created a thick nutrient layer & root tabs capped off with sand. I have CO2 injection & as you can see plenty hardscape & shells we’ve collected from around the world.

The advice I want is specifically around plants. I’d like some bushier plants for the background. But dunno whether to trim and spread what I already have or to get more bush plants but not sure what to get?

Seeded with my dad’s filter media.

For reference water parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5ppm
PH: 6.6

Stocking:
1 x Electric blue ram
1 x Red honey gourami
13 x Green neon tetras
8 x Endler guppies
1 x Marigold bristlenose pleco
6 x Albino corys
6 x Sterbai corys
2 x Amano shrimp

There are currently tannins but waiting for them to pass alongside routine water changes.

Open to any feedback but would prefer to chat about plants.

I put only slow growers in here so that they would grow slowly and now I'm like "howww long is it gonna take for them to grow innnn 😩." but I know once the tank gets to the point I like it, I will not have to be trimming out handfuls every week. hopefully I will start loving it in a few months.

Hey everyone! This is my first planted aquarium and I’m looking for feedback and advice from experienced planted-tank keepers.

It’s a 36-gallon freshwater hybrid/modified Walstad setup. I’m trying to create a heavily planted, stable ecosystem and take my time before introducing any livestock.

Setup:
Soil base capped with sand
Driftwood and rock hardscape
Sponge filter running 24/7
Eheim heater running 24/7, maintaining around 77°F
Heater positioned beside the sponge filter for circulation and heat distribution
NICREW C10 LED currently using its built-in 24/7 mode

Plants:
Vallisneria
Amazon Sword
Water Wisteria
Crypts
Anubias
Java Fern
Java Moss
Hornwort (currently floating)
Duckweed

Some older leaves are browning/melting as everything transitions. I’ve removed only completely dead material and am trying to leave partially healthy leaves alone. I had to replant a few Val and Wisteria that came loose and untangle some of the Val, but now I’m trying to keep my hands out of the tank and let everything establish.

Water testing:
Day 1 – Aug 31
pH: ~7.8–8.2
Ammonia: ~0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Day 2 – Sept 1
pH: 7.2

Ammonia: ~0–0.25 ppm (very slight green tint)
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.5 ppm
Temperature: ~77.2°F

There are no fish, shrimp or snails in the tank yet. I’m doing routine water testing and want the system established and stable before introducing livestock.

I’m also curious about the NICREW C10 24/7 mode. I currently have it running the factory sunrise/daylight/sunset/night cycle. Would experienced planted-tank keepers leave it on the 24/7 mode during establishment, or would you recommend a shorter/custom photoperiod?

Mainly looking for pro tips for the next few weeks.

Anything you notice about the setup, cycling, lighting, plants, filtration, or anything you wish you knew when starting your first planted tank would be appreciated.

It's a fluval flex 9 so it has limited space already, just wondering if there's enough space for the inhabitants (6 daisy's blue ricefish, 3 pygmy corys and snails) now as the plants have really taken off? Thanks ☺️

I just installed this in my living room, and it’s currently cycling.

Took some plants from a setup I have outside and I need some lighting suggestions for the plants.

This is a 4-5 gallon no filter, room temp shrimp and snail tank

Hey everyone,
I need some help. This is my first planted tank (140 liters / ~37 gallons) and I'm slowly running out of ideas. The tank is 3 months old now, and I've been battling a massive diatom (brown algae) plague for a while.
The main issue: the silicate (SiO2) level in the tank is permanently off the charts on my JBL drop test. I tested the water straight from my RO filter (Arka myAQUA) and the silicates there are exactly 0. Also, I have absolutely ZERO stones in my hardscape – only driftwood.
Because of this brown algae coating, my plants have completely stopped growing. I recently did a trim, and even Limnophila sessiliflora, which usually grows like a weed, hasn't bounced back at all.
I just got back from a one-week vacation (haven't tested the water again yet, but visibly nothing has improved). Before leaving, I turned the light down to 6 hours a day at 40% intensity. Over the whole week, the fish only got one Tropical Supervit tablet to minimize waste while I was gone.
My setup and routine:
Water & changes: 100% RO water, doing ~30% water changes once a week.
Substrate: Yokuchi Jiban Soil
Light: Chihiros A II Max
Filter: Aquael Ultramax BT
CO2: Standard CO2 cylinder setup
Ferts: Aquaforest (AF Macro & Micro)
Plants & Livestock:
Other than the Limnophila, I have Rotala 'Blood Red', Ludwigia 'Super Mini Red', and Hydrocotyle tripartita.
My livestock includes Otos, Pygmy Cories, Dwarf Pencilfish, Ram Cichlids, and shrimp (Amano & Neocaridina). The cleanup crew is definitely there, but they just can't keep up with this amount of algae.
My question to you guys: since my RO water is clean and I have no stones, is it possible that the Yokuchi Jiban Soil is leaching this insane amount of silicates into the water column 3 months after setup? What would you do in this situation – should I just throw some silicate remover (like Silicate Clear) into the filter and wait, or do you have any other ideas?

105L (27.7gallon) tank and filter off gumtree, added my own light, substrate, sand, hardscape and plants! Planning some crystal red shrimp, nerite snails, chilli rasbora, maybe some dwarf catfish, I am also admiring otos. This is the start of my 3rd week cycling, going to cycle for another 3 weeks before testing and thinking about adding any kind of fauna

Before and after and a 10 year old made this. any help going further is appreciated!

With a fzone regulator. Someone on Facebook used it for 4 months and now they’re moving. I’m really excited, I’ve been thinking about starting CO2 since I started, but couldn’t justify the cost as a student.

This is my first tank, I'm so happy about how it turned out, shrimps and fishes have been here for two week and seem to have taken their mark quickly, all very healthy.

I'm thinking about adding some more moss but I'm afraid to overdo it.