My Planted Aquarium is now 5th month old

Learned many things in this 5 months journey. Cheated by different shopkeepers. It is ok! all in the learning process. May be I have lost few thousand bucks but can help help many fellow hobbyists so that they don't get cheated.

After installing the timer and the solenoid valve for Co2; scenario of my tank drastically changed! All the fuzz algae gone! All the hair algae gone! Now I can deduce that these fuzz and hair algae were due to fluctuating Co2 level and timings. fluctuating light timings may be a cause though. any way I got rid of these nuisance algae.

I didn't have fish except few mollies in my tank. i kept them to clear up the fuzz alagae. they are not required any more. my tank is now algae free!

So, I purchased 6 Herquelin Rasboras, 6 Rummy nose Tetras and 20 Neon Tetras. All of them are nicely schooling. Neon Tetras school when in large group.



By this time my HC (Hemianthus Callitrichoides) have started spreading. HM (Hemianthus Micranthemoides or Pearl weeds)are growing nicely and they are crawling too. Even these could make a very nice fore ground plant!

If you are in search of timer and the Co2 assembly, solenoid valve etc .. you can ask me at drbndhar@gmail.com: I can ship it to you. The price is cheaper than what you expect!

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My planted tank is now in 4th month

Photo of my planted aquarium at 4th Month

Learnt so many things in this short journey of planted aquarium. One thing I realize on the way to your journey. You can learn the basic know how from different forums and books or, articles but your experience is bound to be unique. May be due to your environment, local water quality and of course the care you give.





Utility if timer and solenoid valve in an aquarium:

Reason - 1:
A month back I lost all my fishes Penguin tetras , and harquelin Rasboras in few hours! I was not at home. I asked my 12 years old son to on the light and open the Co2 valve. He did so rightly and left home for playing. Suddenly power went off for 3 hours. When he came back, he found all the fishes are dead and floating. The reason was co2 without the light!

Reason - 2

I went for vacation last month for a week and asked my maid to turn on and off light at the particular time. she may tried but definitely did not maintained time. Moreover from the previous bad experience of losing fishes I removed the pressurized Co2 and added a DiY Co2 again for those few days. When I came back, I was shocked by seeing my tank. Most of the leaves were full with beard algae / or fuzz algae. Plants were looking sick. HC s were fully covered with dense fuzz, and hair algae! I removed most leaves and many plants immediately. Changed 80% of water. Within a few days tank became healthy.

Moreover most of the time at the time of starting and ending the photo period nobody remains at home; but it is absolutely essential to maintain the schedule.

Thogh read at manuy places timer is a god investment ; I realized it in a hard way.

Ultimately I bought a timer and a solenoid valve and now my aquarium is fully automatic.

Hobbyist cancontact me to my mail if you need any help regarding purchase installation and know how about timer, pressure control valves and solenoid valves. Now I know the technical things :). The materials are available in Kolkata; if you are outside kolkata, or, India I can ship them to you according to your requirement.

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