Ok, with this being my very first post here, go easy on me, I'm still soft and tender!!! 
Anyways, although I'm a salt water enthusiast at heart, I'm biding my time with a small 10g fresh water system (being a student, I can't quite afford a SW system yet.... someday....sigh ) So far the fish have been great. It's stocked with about 5-6 adult guppies and 10-15 juvinile guppies. I also included a couple of clown loaches about 3 months ago to keep the snails under control. I've been trying plants off and on for a while with no success and this is what I need advice about.
Currently I have about 6 plants (Crinum thaianum I believe; tall corkscrew grass-like blades) but they seem to be stunted in growth. When I first added them, they extended to the top of the tank. Now it seems that as soon as the blades get longer than 3 inches, they fall off!!
Also, the LFS guy told me to supplement with Flourish once in a while. After doing that the algae started getting out of control so I stopped. Well, now it seems the algae is here to stay. Scrubbing the glass clears it for a week or so but it always comes back strong. I'm also getting filamentous algae growing from the substrate. Also the detritus on the bottom is horrible! My poor loaches stir up clouds of fish poop when they swim (Should I vacuum the bottom or leave it as nutritious little vittles for the plants?).
The substrate is just regular gravel from Petcetera. I'm filtering the water with a small hang-on-the-back machine. The filter contains a sponge as well as a bag of mixed charcoal and ammonia filter media on top of the sponge. Last year I had an undergravel filter but it lays dormant under the substrate with two uplift tubes (airstones inside) as eyesores. I've aquascaped with rocks from the local river and that's my little 10g in a nutshell!
Any help for this clueless newbie would be much appriciated! Thanks!
Anyways, although I'm a salt water enthusiast at heart, I'm biding my time with a small 10g fresh water system (being a student, I can't quite afford a SW system yet.... someday....sigh
) So far the fish have been great. It's stocked with about 5-6 adult guppies and 10-15 juvinile guppies. I also included a couple of clown loaches about 3 months ago to keep the snails under control. I've been trying plants off and on for a while with no success and this is what I need advice about.Currently I have about 6 plants (Crinum thaianum I believe; tall corkscrew grass-like blades) but they seem to be stunted in growth. When I first added them, they extended to the top of the tank. Now it seems that as soon as the blades get longer than 3 inches, they fall off!!
Also, the LFS guy told me to supplement with Flourish once in a while. After doing that the algae started getting out of control so I stopped. Well, now it seems the algae is here to stay. Scrubbing the glass clears it for a week or so but it always comes back strong. I'm also getting filamentous algae growing from the substrate. Also the detritus on the bottom is horrible! My poor loaches stir up clouds of fish poop when they swim (Should I vacuum the bottom or leave it as nutritious little vittles for the plants?).
The substrate is just regular gravel from Petcetera. I'm filtering the water with a small hang-on-the-back machine. The filter contains a sponge as well as a bag of mixed charcoal and ammonia filter media on top of the sponge. Last year I had an undergravel filter but it lays dormant under the substrate with two uplift tubes (airstones inside) as eyesores. I've aquascaped with rocks from the local river and that's my little 10g in a nutshell!
Any help for this clueless newbie would be much appriciated! Thanks!
