Hello from Singapore

Welcome Robin.

Couple of questions.

1. How old is the tank?
2. What is your current dosing routine?
3. Co2 - yes/no, pressurized or low tech?
4. Lighting - what lighting are you using and how long is your photo period?
5. What are the tank dimensions?

Welcome.

First thing I will recommend is reduce the lights. With new tanks is always best to start with lower light and slowly increase after everything has settled in. Usually take a couple of months or so.

Next advice will be to not rely on BPS and instead us PH as a way to know how much CO2 you are adding. Usually a drop of 1 ph is the min target. 1.2 ph drop is better and more is great.

Clean up any visible algae and treat with H2O2 or Excel. GDA you can let it sit for completing its cycle for 2-3 weeks. Thread algae you will need to pull out manually or dose Algaefix. Do 2x water changes per week for next couple of months.

Dosing wise, I see you are using some soil. If it's Amazonia you don't need to dose for first few months. If it's heavily planted you can start dose after a few weeks.
Dose phosphorus on same day as nitrogen. I don't see any Iron source in your dosing. You will need some of that. If you want to follow Seachem dosing routine follow their dosing calendar. Many people have good success with it.

http://www.seachem.com/downloads/charts/Plant-Dose-Chart.pdf

Eventually think about dry ferts since Seachem will become very expensive. You can still dose at Seachem levels but make your own solutions, or if you decide to change up you can do so.

You're already on the right track with your thinking.........

Robin W said:

I think i should balance my light and CO2 well first as adviced by so many here. Still trying to figure it out though.
Any advice is more than welcomed!

Click to expand...

rajkm has give good advice to start on the journey of turning the tank around for the better. I have nothing more to add other than reiterating what rajkm has already said.

I'd hold off on the dosing until your plants start telling you they are in need of something. Aquasoil will supply most if not all the plants will need for a while, as already mentioned let the plants tell you when that is. If you haven't done so already start a journal and as you see changes in the tank post pictures so some of the more experienced poster can guide you along the way.

Few more bigger, 60-70% water changes for a couple weeks to help fight the algae.

Reduce the intensity of your light. Run one light for a couple hours then both lights for couple more hours and finally back to one light for the remaining photo period.

As for Co2, get a hold of a Ph pen or monitor and start taking readings. Take a reading of fully degassed tank water. Pull some out of the tank and let it sit for 48 hours to completely degas al Co2. This will become your baseline number. Take another reading just before your Co2 comes on for the day and another just before lights come on. As rajkm has said you'd like the drop to be at least 1 point, the more the better. Then take a few readings throughout the time frame that Co2 is running. By doing all this you get an understanding of what your actual PH drop is in your tank. You'll want to watch your live stock if you have any. If you see them gasping for air at the surface time to reduce the amount of Co2 your adding.

Finally, keep the tank clean. Remove as much algae as you can from around the tank. Cut and remove dead and dying plant material. Keep your filter clean. If you do get in and really mess around in the tank, do a water change. Learn these habits early and it will become second nature as the tank matures.

Oh ya, read, read, read and read some more. But remember you can not paint your tank with the same brush as the next guys tanks. You need to experiment and see what works and doesn't work in your tank.

Again welcome.

I would say that since it's been 3 months you should be fine dosing.
Work on your CO2 and continue dosing to Seachem recommended doses for now.

By testing your Ph you have an idea if you are supply a 'good' amount of Co2. I've always been told to aim for your Ph to drop one full point before lights come on and remain there or lower during the duration of your photo period. By doing this you are insuring that you are not limiting the amount of Co2 available to the plants.

Now in saying that and not to complicate things anymore there are many factors that can affect Co2. But to make it easier and not to have to worry about these factors at this point I would just supply the tank with as much Co2 as you can get dissolved. Aim for that 1 point drop before lights come on. By doing this you can take Co2 off the table as being an issue and focus on other things like light and ferts.

One of the problems we have is we change to many things at once. By doing this we can never really sort out what is cause issues in the tank.

Supply ample Co2, lower light intensity, couple 60-70% water changes a week, make sure you have good flow and keep the tank squeaky clean. This alone will go a long way to success, all that will be left to worry about is your nutrient requirements.

Sounds so easy doesn't it...........

That is correct, higher the light, higher the plant, and taller plants (closer to light) all lead to increased CO2 demand.
PH liquid tests give you a close approximation and harder to read because you need to correctly pick the color match, but if the best you can do then it's fine.

The trick is to slowly increase your CO2, 1/4 or less at a time and monitor your fish and shrimps closely. Do it on a day when you are home and can monitor every 15-30 min. If fish show stress, back out the i last increase, run a airstone to ease the fish, once the fish are fine, turn off the airstone and Let this setting run thru the day still monitoring. If fish show stress, back out a little more. If everything looks ok for the day, run this for a week and then try the increase again while monitoring. If the result is same, you reached the max your fish can take.

Another thing to consider is surface agitation. Increased surface agitation means better gas exchange and allows you to add more O2, which also allows you to add more CO2.
I run a skimmer, which keeps the surface clean, and have light agitation which keeps gas exchange healthy and allows me to add more CO2.

You are on the right track.
Soils generally have enough nutrients for first few weeks or months. So dosing can wait.
Lights, I think can still go lower but leave it for a few days and see how it goes.
Fish will react to quick changes.. like I said bump the CO2 slowly.

That looks good. You should start your CO2 about an hour before. It will help you get the drop quickly and provide stable CO2.

Try https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php