220 g

There is just not enough plant biomass for a soil sediment aquarium.
I would add a lot more.

I would also add another filter and another AM 1000 reactor.

I do not think algae is an issue of fertilization either way, but you do not have hardly any nutrient demand due to no plants.......

With more plants, you will have more demand.

I would add Excel or Easy carb and make sure to get the filter/better CO2 and do more water changes until you can add more plant biomass.

If you plan on leaving the areas open with plain sand, I hope you did not add soil under the entire sand sediment. You can block the light with screening and limit light in the open non planted areas, and add light only where the plants are.

Otherwise, buy, get more plants and add them as soon as you can.
Then another filter/good CO2.

New tanks have trouble starting up, often due to bacteria, no biomass etc, so more water changes and good care, add more plants etc is required.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

I'd add as much plant biomass as you possible can, cheap plans for now, you can remove them as the other plants come in that you like and phase the other cheap plants out.

I'm a strong believer of good current and plenty of filtration.
This is partly forthe fish, but also due to all the leaves and other material that plant tanks produce as we trim and keep plants. Gardening is messy

I noticed several other very experienced plant business folks do the same thing, Amano, ADG, several LFS's that have nice planted displays.

It seems we all do this, and independently of each other.

When the filters clog, the tank does poorly, so adding an extra large filter makes up for that and allows us to clean one filter at a time and give the cleaned filter some time to mature after cleaning before cleaning the next filter.

This also mixes the water better and allows you to use different plumbing options, 2 or more CO2 reactors etc.

Hope all is well in Dubrovinik, I lived there many years ago as kid.
Fond memories.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Haha, I wish.

I lived there in the late 1970's, Tito was still in power back then.
I went all over, Kotor, Sarajevo, Zagreb etc, Mostar I had good memories about.
Sad and surreal to see what occurred in the 1990's and beyond.
I use to run around that old Seawall pathway and play soccer with 3 good friends.
We left our doors open, never had a single worry, the people treated us extremely well and where extremely nice. Yes, even in the 1970's, it was tourist town, everyone spoke to me in German because they had never met or seen people from the USA. I have art and wool rugs from there in my home today.

I would had never predicted that in 1000 years what occurred later.
Great food also!

There was a nice little place by the river in Mostar that served excellent pasteries right below that 1/2 moon bridge, which I understand is no longer there after the War. The country opened my eyes in many ways, both in terms of culture, food, art, social, religion, politics. I was out of my element but quickly found it "home" and missed it when I left. The same thing happened about 4 years later when I lived in Mexico.

I came back and hated the shallow pretentious American friends
If I came to region, I'd also like to visit Split. I never got a chance to travel there. I also would likely head to Italy for part of the trip.

I'd just keep doing more water changes and keeping the tank clean as you can(2x a week water changes are normal for new tanks until the plants grow in well). Add ferts soon though, wait 1 week, but not more than that.

If you can find some Easy Carb or Excel, use that also.

Tom Barr