I have been playing the part of a planted aquarium enthusiast for the last 6 months or so and have moved all over the map with regard to setup. To make this short and to the point, I have four tanks now that are planted to varying degrees and all very different. All of them are poorly fertilized, one has pressurized CO2, one with DIY, one with Excel, and one with just algae. My filtration ranges from under gravel to sump and back again. I have fish in all the tanks, but some of them seem to have an extreme like for ripping my plants to shreds. Some plants grow great in one but not the other, some just look horrible, some just will not grow at all, and worst yet I have another tank that I am thinking about setting up with all of this mess.
Confused or disoriented? Welcome to my world. I find everything fascinating and can sit for hours and just watch the plants or fish or shrimp...but...there is some cohesion missing with all of this. I feel overwhelmed, perplexed, or even just plain stupid when it comes to all of this.
I am looking for advice to bring some order to this chaos, preferably without taking down any of the tanks. I have not provided specifics because I really do not want to change setups. What I want is to learn from each and be able to experience which is best and adjust accordingly.
Do you log your tanks, keep a journal, take photo logs, just sit and watch? I love this hobby, but I just feel like I have thrown (literally) this all together that I am just trying to bring it back under control. What would you all do, anyone been in this situation before or am I just being stupid? I feel like I have discovered a new disorder and its some weird combination of ADD and OCD but only occurs when in the presence of fish!
Any advice or overall ridicule is welcome.
Confused or disoriented? Welcome to my world. I find everything fascinating and can sit for hours and just watch the plants or fish or shrimp...but...there is some cohesion missing with all of this. I feel overwhelmed, perplexed, or even just plain stupid when it comes to all of this.
I am looking for advice to bring some order to this chaos, preferably without taking down any of the tanks. I have not provided specifics because I really do not want to change setups. What I want is to learn from each and be able to experience which is best and adjust accordingly.
Do you log your tanks, keep a journal, take photo logs, just sit and watch? I love this hobby, but I just feel like I have thrown (literally) this all together that I am just trying to bring it back under control. What would you all do, anyone been in this situation before or am I just being stupid? I feel like I have discovered a new disorder and its some weird combination of ADD and OCD but only occurs when in the presence of fish!
Any advice or overall ridicule is welcome.