Tank Has Been Running For Years But I Don't Think I Am Doing It Right..

The basics:

1 Betta Fish
1 little snail
5 gallon Fluval Spec V tank
Filtered media that came with the tank. I have removed the charcoal bag from the built in filter and put in a bunch of ceramic rings instead.
Basic black sand substrate I got from Petco (or something like that) when I first set it up because it's all I knew
Fish in cycle was run way back when
Timed light cycle - 12pm until 8pm lights on
Feed fish 1x a day 4 betta pellets


Picture:



Snail:



The tank has been running for a few years now and I want to know what I should be doing instead of just doing what I think I should be doing. What I am doing is changing out 2 gallons of water once a week, adding new with .5ml Seachem Prime per gallon, and wiping the glass with paper towels as it gets pretty dirty. When I vacuum out the water all the plants just blow around and I need to push everything back into the sand after every water change.

In the tank, as you can see, are a couple of plants, a rock, and two pieces of wood. I feel like some people, most of you all, have tanks that just run, don't get dirty, and plants are flourishing. As you can see from the picture the plants are just kind of there, and the tank on a regular basis gets cloudy, which is why I am changing the water once a week. It's fine, the fish has been happily doing this thing for years, but I just feel like I can be doing more, or changing something, or adding something, to make this even better. Thing is I don't know where to start or what to do. I added the snail to eat the algae but why is there algae to begin with? Where do I go from here?

 

You seem to have a very good maintenance routine. Weekly water changes are a must, especially in such a small tank.

Your algae might be coming from too much light, or not enough plants/plant growth, or both. You could add a little fertilizer once a week, a complete formula with macro/micros, such as Thrive C (for tanks without CO2). It would need a very small amount and the bottle would last forever. It might help with the algae.

As far as people having clean tanks that do not require maintenance, I don’t think so ! We all should be doing at least bi-weekly maintenance. I prefer weekly, less to clean and less algaes to grow.

Your tank looks very good and I think you are doing very well. Don’t change a winning recipe if it’s been working for years and the fish is happy !

 

Welcome to FishLore! I hope you find the site helpful and enjoyable

 

Thanks!

The tank looks good when it's freshly cleaned but then slowly builds up gunk over time.

So you say I might need more plants in there? If you take a close look at the picture you can see that even the big one has browning leaves. I didn't know much about live plants when I bought them, I just went to the store, got a couple, and put them in. A bunch have died off over time. They sit in there for a bit then begin to wither. I am assuming now I should be doing something?

For fertilizer, how does that all work? Is it based off the size of the tank or the number of plants I have? I can get more plants but I don't want to put more in there if they are all just going to die off on me again.

When I change the water, should I have all the build up on the glass or is that a symptom of something else going wrong? Should it all remain clear during the changes?

As for light, how many hours a day is recommended then if I might have too much?

 

Fertilizers generally go by size of the tank- or at least the ones I have used do. Algae build up is completely normal but you can lessen it by adjusting how much light it gets. I know light from windows generally builds it up pretty quickly.

Are you sure the leaves are turning brown? The picture with your nerite looks a bit more like something on the plant rather than the plant itself. It could be brown algae growing on the leaves.

Your lighting time seems fine to me but you could try going for 6 hours instead of 8 or adjusting the height of the lamp.

 

Your tank looks fine actually, there is nothing wrong with your routine (in fact, keeping that up for years is a great thing and the key to keeping a healthy tank with long-lived fish!)

I think there is something to be said about plant care, which is that mostly you don't seem to grasp what kind of plants you have. The big one in the middle is an anubias. It is very slow-growing (so that has nothing to do with your routine) and it looks very healthy. However, despite its thick roots this plant should *never* be planted in your substrate. It grows on rocks, wood and other hardscape. If you don't have anything to tie it to, it is better to just leave it floating/sitting on the substrate as it is on the picture, but do not bury the roots after maintenance, it will harm the plant. I think all that I see in the middle and the right is the massive root ball of this one anubias plant (except for something like a moss ball in the back)? Seems like it is very happy in there.
As for the plants on the left side, I find it very hard to see whether they are echinodorus (amazon sword) or java fern. Could you take a more detailed or close-up picture? If they are the latter, what goes for the anubias also goes for them and you should not bury the roots.

As for the browning gunk on the plant leaves, that is actually diatoms. You don't have to worry about that, it is completely natural. Many invertebrates and algae eaters actually love to snack on it, you could get another snail if you want cleaner leaves or just wipe it off during maintenance.

It is a little strange if your water gets cloudy after one or two week or so, every time. Mature, balanced tanks do not do that. Does it look dusty (whitish) or yellowish/brownish (still relatively clear). If the former it is bacterial bloom, and is most likely caused by something deteriorating in your tank (do you ever vacuum the substrate? how much do you feed your fish?), if the latter it is an algae bloom, and could be caused by overlighting, overabundance of nitrates, etc. and might be fixed by adding some floating plants or other, fast-growing plants like anarchis or water sprite.

 

When I change the water, should I have all the build up on the glass or is that a symptom of something else going wrong? Should it all remain clear during the changes?

Other questions have been answered.

Is the build-up on the walls slimy and transparent mostly ? If so, that is normal in a healthy tank and desirable. It is not harmful but it’s best to clean the glass when you do your maintenance, to prevent algae.

 

In my experience algae is most commonly linked to too much light or high Nitrates which often come from poor maintenance. Considering you got a good handle on maintenance I doubt it’s that. So maybe cut your lights down a bit. Also, make sure your not over feeding, your comment about cloudy water after a week is concerning and might be related to over feeding

 

What kind if mechanical filtration you have? Was it part of the charcoal bag? Mechanical filtration will help with the cloudy water and fragments in the tank

 

Lets see if I can answer everything:

Filtration, it's part of the Fluval Spec V tank, its the filter which had a charcoal bag in it and ceramic media. I was told a bit ago to get rid of the charcoal and replace with more ceramic. I did that. Was recently so I don't know the results yet. Having the charcoal in there for a few years, never replaced as I didn't know I should, didn't do anything anyway so this can't be any worse. I didn't get a bag of ceramic but just took a large handful of these and pushed them in the slot, as you can see in the second picture, taking from the side of the tank:







I have changed light to go on at 13:00 and off at 19:00. So 6 hours. The tank is close to a window so it will get natural light as well during the day.

Feeding, 4x of your standard run of the mill betta pellets once a day around 17:30

Closer pictures of the plants as requested:










I want more plants but I can't even keep the ones I have alive very well so afraid to start adding more. They do get browning and wilting leaves, on that first picture up above, the plant on the left, that one is basically gone, the leaves just become mush and melt away. I would gladly add some more plants that would add life to the tank and help out. The ones suggested, like an anarchis or a water sprite, my LFS has a spotty track record with keeping plants in stock so has anyone ever ordered online?

I vacuum the substrate, the black sand, when I do my water changes. This is when I normally move everything in the whole tank around to try to get under the wood, plants and so on.

 

That's biological filtration. I'm talking about mechanical filtration. Biological just promotes good bacteria to get rid of nitrates, but it doesn't remove debris or cloudiness at all. That's usually done with sponges or polyester type material.

But you do vacuum so that's technically mechanical filtration, but it means more work for you.

 

I would take a slightly different approach than cutting back the light to the bare minimum that the plants need. I think if you get the plants growing a bit more healthily the algae will mostly take care of itself. Just a matter of experimenting and getting the right balance of lighting and nutrients. I agree with the recommendation for small doses of Thrive C, assuming that you don't already have an excess of nutrients (primarily Nitrate & Phosphate) in which case more water changes and micro element ferts would be better.

 

I think you're doing it things correctly, beautiful tank btw! You can always algae eater but at the same time I don't think its compatible with betta fish

 

Wondering if your tank getting natural sunlight is not part of your problem?

 

I'd go along with the notion that you're doing pretty good if you've kept this going successfully for several years. You didn't mention your filter cleaning procedure. If you don't already, you should periodically pull out the foam and squeeze it a few times in the old tank water when you do a water change. You don't need for the water to run clear, just get rid of the heaviest muck that might be blocking the flow.

Charcoal has a limit to the amount of pollutants it can trap. That's why it needs to be changed out every six to eight weeks. You're probably not much worse off for not having it at all.

The ceramic rings are of somewhat questionable value but they certainly don't hurt.

If you want to jack up the filter performance a bit, I'd consider replacing the current foam with three solid pieces of foam of increasing density. Put a fine (30 PPI) block on the bottom, a medium (20 PPI) block in the middle, and a coarse (10 PPI) on top. You'll probably have to buy some bulk pieces and cut them to fit. Be sure to keep the top piece of foam below the slots at the top of the chamber. This arrangement will give you better mechanical filtration and probably better biological filtration as well. If you make this change, you should give the coarse foam a quick squeeze in the old tank water every week or two. The other two pieces you can probably leave in place for many months.

 

The snail just died.

How long are snails supposed to live?

You didn't mention your filter cleaning procedure. If you don't already, you should periodically pull out the foam and squeeze it a few times in the old tank water when you do a water change.

That's because I didn't even know I was supposed to be cleaning the filter! I'll start doing that next water change. Just put the ceramic stuff on the side and put it all back together when done?

 

It is my understanding that the ceramic rings are for the BB to form up on. I would most definitely keep them in the filter

 

That's because I didn't even know I was supposed to be cleaning the filter! I'll start doing that next water change. Just put the ceramic stuff on the side and put it all back together when done?

You don't need to go crazy with the cleaning, just give the foam a few quick squeezes in a bucket with old tank water. (As was recently brought up in another thread, if you forget to save the old tank water you can rinse the foam under tap water.) If you continue to use charcoal, that needs to be thrown out and replaced every 6-8 weeks.

The usefulness of the ceramic media depends a lot on the exact nature of it. The cheapest stuff is not much more than it appears -- rings of ceramic material with surface fissures. Others, like Fluval Biomax, are actually a sintered glass product that is extremely porous and has biologically active surface area far beyond what you can see.

If you've got the bad stuff, you'd be better off replacing it with foam. If you've got the good stuff, keep it. BTW, the actual price difference between cheap/bad and good is very small. 500 grams of Fluval Biomax, which is way more than enough for your tank, is only $8 at Amazon. If you don't replace the ceramic rings with foam or better rings then you should put the existing ones back in. They're better than empty space.

 

How can I tell if my stuff is good or bad?

This is what is in there now: I can switch to the Biomax stuff if it will help improve the water quality.

Anyone know how long the snail was supposed to live for? He died.

What should I do about that plant in the back? Do I need more plants?

 

Fluval Biomax would be better than the Imagitarium ceramic rings. Any true ceramic product is not going to provide remotely the surface area that a sintered glass product like Biomax will.

In looking at your pictures again it appears you have ceramic rings at the very bottom, in the cavity in the middle of the sponge, and then more on top of the sponge. If you get the Biomax, I'd put that in the bottom and in the cavity in the middle. Put your existing ceramic rings on top. Up there they'll break up the water flow and distribute it evenly over the top of the sponge and also trap the heaviest muck. They're absolutely fine for that purpose.

I can't help with the plants or the snail.

 

So I took the advice and did a few squeezes of the foam into the water, first time doing this since I have owned the tank, so several years. The amount of crud that came out was pretty shocking and this is the current state of the tank after two gallons of water change and what the water looked like that I pulled out:






Hoping this will clear up. I am going to need to change the water again in a couple of days because the sediment is already piling up on the bottom.

I was supposed to take the foam out of the filter area, put it into the tank, and squeeze, right? Or was it meant to be washed someplace else and not in the tank itself?

 

Anyone know how long the snail was supposed to live for? He died.

They live for around a year, but are also already a couple months old when you get them from the store.

I was supposed to take the foam out of the filter area, put it into the tank, and squeeze, right? Or was it meant to be washed someplace else and not in the tank itself?

I didn't catch where you were told to do that, but usually we mean swish it around in bucket of tank water, not in the tank itself.

 

Actually, maybe I should do a third gallon sooner than later, the dust has begun to settle and this is what the bottom of the tank now looks like:




Ugh...

I didn't catch where you were told to do that, but usually we mean swish it around in bucket of tank water, not in the tank itself.

Well I read that completely wrong..

If you don't already, you should periodically pull out the foam and squeeze it a few times in the old tank water when you do a water change.

Yeah, I thought it meant right in the tank.

Whoops.

 

Haha, don't sweat it. You didn't hurt anything, it just looks a bit messy now. We all make silly mistakes sometimes.

 

Oops... There's a lesson here about leaving well enough alone. .

I think I would stir it up gently so the trash filters out. Then in a day or two rinse the muck out of the filter into your discard water change water.

Anyway - from the tank pix prior to the filter incident, it looks pretty normal for a real life tank. I might add a couple more nerite snails.

 

So it will be better to just keep it agitated every so often over swapping out more of the water?

If I do a couple more gallon changes how long should I give the water before swapping? A gallon every other day would be okay so I can continue to vac up the substrate?

 

So to be clear here, IMO swishing out the filter media in a bucket of tank water is only good one time. After that your are washing it in dirty water. Think washing your cloths in dirty water.
There has been a lot of debate on here about the best way to clean filter media. The side IMO that I come down on is rinse it under the tap, the BB will not be destroyed, you also should have ample BB in the tank and filter. You also get a clean filter. I understand this is a controversial theory but I have been doing it for a year with no ill effects.

 

You're right about one or two good squeezes and then you're just cleaning in filthy water, but nothing says you can't drain multiple buckets from the tank or that you have to drain a full bucket each time. I'll sometimes use a smaller two gallon bucket. Fill the bucket from the tank, squeeze out the foam, toss out the dirty water, fill it again from the tank, rinse, repeat.

It should also be mentioned that you're never going to get the filter media to run clean and shouldn't even try. Just get out the worst of it and don't worry about the rest.

I don't disagree with your point about the use of tap water for cleaning media being vilified without good reason. It's not going to disinfect the media. I do think the use of tank water is preferred, but only by a small margin. Use tank water if you can, but don't be afraid to use tap water.