Ready To Just... Give Up...

I'm not sure what word would describe how I feel about my aquariums at the moment. But they don't make me happy.

My main tank, the 29 gallon... all my plants look like . My dwarf sag is turning pale with brown spots. Crypts are all melting from the tips. Frogbit is turning pale and dissolving. I don't understand... I dose macros and trace every week with 50% weekly water changes. The glass is getting tons of green spot algae. I'm ready to just tear the tank down and get rid of it all. I never get to see it and nobody appreciates it. All they do is pile their band equipment in front of it then get angry at me when I say something.

The shrimp tank, a 10 gallon, crashed. Out of 60 shrimp and 2 crayfish, I have a handful of cherry shrimp left. It's ugly. It's bare. I hate it.

My best tank is a 2 gallon nano, sitting bare save for a single nerite and cherry shrimp.

Call it burned out, call it frustrated... I don't know. I may have to get rid of it all after Christmas anyway because I may be moving out of state. I don't even know if it's worth keeping anything anymore. The only fish I want are my betta and wild-caught Okefenokee sunfish. I had prepped for Taiwan bee shrimp but I'm even questioning that now.

Is it worth trying at this point?

 

Yes! Never give up on your aquarium. Be patient and it will reward you. But if you feel you really want to move on and take on another occupation, that's okay too.

 

Yes! Never give up on your aquarium. Be patient and it will reward you. But if you feel you really want to move on and take on another occupation, that's okay too.

I may have to get rid of them in 4 months anyway...

 

You're not alone. Let me tell you a story...

About six or seven years ago, I went through the exact same thing as you. All my tanks were failing. They were gross and covered in algae. All my plants were dying, but my black beard algae and hair algae were thriving. My family was encouraging me to just give up on the tanks already, because it looked so disgusting. And you know what I did? I gave up. I tore down all my tanks, I gave away all my stuff, and said good riddance to this useless hobby.

I took a break for around a year. It was very relaxing to finally be free from all the water changes, algae, dying plants, and stress. But after about a year, I really started to miss my tanks. I missed having something to look at and take care of. I missed feeding my fish everyday and watching them swim around, even if it was for only a minute or two everyday. I got motivated again to start keeping fish after I saw some outdoor tubs and minI ponds with plants and fish in it. That's what inspired me to get back into the hobby. The majority of my "tanks" are just outdoor tubs, lit up by the natural sunlight and just packed with fish and plants. I absolutely love this hobby now. It is so relaxing to go out in the fresh air and watch your fish whilst the birds chirp. It is especially beautiful when the sunlight hits the tank and the whole tub is illuminated by the sun.

Take a break if you'd like, it really helps. But the most important thing is that you need to rediscover your passion for the hobby. There's no point in continuing something that doesn't make you happy anymore, especially when it's a hobby and not a job.

My main advice is: DO NOT SELL OR GIVE AWAY YOUR EQUIPMENT. Give yourself around 3-4 years before you decide that you're totally done with the hobby. I completely regretted giving away all my old equipment. I had to spend a lot of money to get back into the hobby and I could've saved myself a few hundred dollars if I had just kept all of my old stuff.

 

I feel you Importance Of Quarantine

 

If you do take a break, don't get rid of your tanks and equipment. For a while anyway. If it's not fun, then it's not fun! But you may decide to start over when you get to the new place. You'll think..."That spot right there would be perfect for my 29 gallon tank."

 

Your main tank sounds like a build up of organics. You might need to do bigger water changes for a while or you can add purigen to deal with it.

I agree if you do take a break keep everything for when you want to get started back up.

 

Your main tank sounds like a build up of organics. You might need to do bigger water changes for a while or you can add purigen to deal with it.

I agree if you do take a break keep everything for when you want to get started back up.

The substrate is aquasoil so siphoning it isn't an option. I agree there are lots of organics, but the plantload has always made up for it in the past. Lately it's just been failing though, I don't know why... I haven't changed anything.

 

The substrate is aquasoil so siphoning it isn't an option. I agree there are lots of organics, but the plantload has always made up for it in the past. Lately it's just been failing though, I don't know why... I haven't changed anything.

I don't know too much about aquasoil, but is it possible that it's lost its potency now? It is quite possible that if you've been using it for a few years now, the nutrients might be gone from the soil. If you've had the aquasoil for multiple years now, it might be time to start putting root tabs under the substrate. You might also find it beneficial to add some hornwort, guppy grass, or anacharis to remove the excess nutrients from the water.

 

I don't know too much about aquasoil, but is it possible that it's lost its potency now? It is quite possible that if you've been using it for a few years now, the nutrients might be gone from the soil. If you've had the aquasoil for multiple years now, it might be time to start putting root tabs under the substrate. You might also find it beneficial to add some hornwort, guppy grass, or anacharis to remove the excess nutrients from the water.

Soil is around 2 years old, but I supplement with macros and micros. I have hornwort, duckweed, water hyacinth and Amazon frogbit for nutrient control.

 

Soil is around 2 years old, but I supplement with macros and micros. I have hornwort, duckweed, water hyacinth and Amazon frogbit for nutrient control.

Do you supplement with only liquid dosing or root tabs as well? The soil is definitely too old to be used. If you read online, there are multiple testimonies of people finding that their aquasoil becomes useless after just one or two years. Apparently the nitrogen leeches like crazy from the soil, so you'll notice great plant growth initially but it'll become way slower over time. To be honest, I'd just take down the tank and redo it, but with some cheap organic soil and a gravel/sand cap. The plants will probably do way better after that.

 

Do you supplement with only liquid dosing or root tabs as well? The soil is definitely too old to be used. If you read online, there are multiple testimonies of people finding that their aquasoil becomes useless after just one or two years. Apparently the nitrogen leeches like crazy from the soil, so you'll notice great plant growth initially but it'll become way slower over time. To be honest, I'd just take down the tank and redo it, but with some cheap organic soil and a gravel/sand cap. The plants will probably do way better after that.

I use dry fertilizers and a modified EI schedule. No root tabs as I though organics in soil and dry ferts were enough.

I know the aquasoils have a finite lifespan. But I thought it was a slow curve downward.

There's no sense in redoing the tank if I'm moving out of state to live in a dorm though...

 

I use dry fertilizers and a modified EI schedule. No root tabs as I though organics in soil and dry ferts were enough.

I know the aquasoils have a finite lifespan. But I thought it was a slow curve downward.

There's no sense in redoing the tank if I'm moving out of state to live in a dorm though...

Oh, I didn't see that you were moving. If you started putting root tabs under the soil, I think you'd see a drastic change in the health of the plants, especially in the heavy root feeders like the crypts and the dwarf sag. I still don't know why the frogbit would be melting, but I really think that you should try putting some root tabs in the substrate, given that you've had the aquasoil for two years.

 

The substrate is aquasoil so siphoning it isn't an option. I agree there are lots of organics, but the plantload has always made up for it in the past. Lately it's just been failing though, I don't know why... I haven't changed anything.

As your plants are dieing they are adding to the organics in the water. To much disolved organics will slowly kill your plants. Even with purigen I still do a 75% once every 6 months to remove excess organics.

Do you supplement with only liquid dosing or root tabs as well? The soil is definitely too old to be used. If you read online, there are multiple testimonies of people finding that their aquasoil becomes useless after just one or two years. Apparently the nitrogen leeches like crazy from the soil, so you'll notice great plant growth initially but it'll become way slower over time. To be honest, I'd just take down the tank and redo it, but with some cheap organic soil and a gravel/sand cap. The plants will probably do way better after that.

Aquasoil can last for much longer then a year or 2. The soil in my shrimp tank is 5yrs and 3yrs in my main tank. There shouldnt be a problem with his soil if he is dosine EI.

 

Aquasoil can last for much longer then a year or 2. The soil in my shrimp tank is 5yrs and 3yrs in my main tank. There shouldnt be a problem with his soil if he is dosine EI.

Modified EI... as in only 1/3 of the recommended dosage since it is low light and no CO2.

 

Modified EI... as in only 1/3 of the recommended dosage since it is low light and no CO2.

1/3 is fine. EI is good in that its designed to be changed depending on what you need.

 

I hate to bandy around the phrase "nutrient deficiency", because it can sound really vague and unhelpful a lot of the time. But it might be worth thinking about (if you haven't yet already) about some of the ways in which ferts, after dosing, become biologically unavailable to plants.

Most of the issues tend to revolve around iron (and it certainly sounds like some of your plants are suffering from iron-deficiency-based chlorosis): it can precipitate when dosed with phosphate, and many iron chelates are unstable in alkaline conditions (DPTA is better than EDTA over 7 pH). If you're using the Flourish ferts, their iron component is quite unstable and becomes unavailable to plants generally after 24 hours.

And I suppose the other thought is to increase/decrease ferts to test out its effects on your plants. If you can source a phosphate test kit to get a reading from your tank water, it might point to whether PO4 is either too low or too high (and its relationship to GSA).

I don't think you should give up, but it does seem like a breather is needed.

 

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I appreciate your input. The issue is though that I am dosing dry fertilizers, with my dosage of phosphate and iron/trace being one or two days apart, usually.

Friday, I dismantled all my aquariums, gave my fish and plants to the store for credit, and am selling off my tanks and equipment on LetGo. The only tank I have kept is my 2 gallon nano with shrimp, as I can take it to college after Christmas. I would have to give up all my tanks then, anyway.

I'm frustrated and upset over how poorly the tanks were doing for the past several weeks. While I have several tanks to care for at work my involvement at home is, for the time being, minimal to nonexistent.