Hello, I'm sorry to bother you.
Over the course of the past few weeks I've been attempting to set up a small (35 litre) aquarium in my bedroom. It's taken me a lot longer than usual due to sickness (I've been housebound for several years but decided to give it a go with a lot of help from my mother) and throughout that time has also caused a lot of stress. I've never had live plants before and wanted to give them a go so I did a lot of research and chose the classic, easy-to-grow plants Java Fern, Java Moss and Christmas Moss - I also bought a banana lily (Nymphoides Aquatica). The java moss has been put in my killifish fry aquarium and has had no problems but I've had a fair amount of grief with the other plants (with the exception of the banana lily and Christmas Moss, though those are new and were added yesterday).
I've made plenty of mistakes with this aquarium and am learning more every day however I have a recurring problem that I can't quite seem to solve. The problem is regarding a strange white gunk that appears on the plants. Now, we actually tore down and re-scaped the aquarium last night as this problem got out of hand and I thought I'd fixed it by trimming up the plants (removing dead/dying foliage and bad roots) but it's already making a return. I thought the gunk may have been decaying foliage, this is what the research I've done has told me but I'd love some confirmation.
The aquarium has no fish in it yet, it contains a single piece of driftwood. The Java Ferns were planted as my brain farted and I mistook them for another plant however they are no longer that way and are instead resting on the gravel in the bottom of the aquarium (I used sand up until a couple of weeks ago, but now I'm using gravel that is a couple of mm in size) - I'm wondering if this may be the problem. From what I know Java Ferns need to be rooted to something, I thought I could trigger this effect by resting them on the gravel and hope they take root there but I could be sorely mistaken.
The lighting is going to be replaced soon but right now is a single LED lamp designed for smaller aquariums such as mine; I can't get the exact wattage but it houses 32 bright white LEDs and is often used with Nano aquariums. I'm wondering if that may also be the problem - inadequate lighting. The aquarium I'm using currently does not have a lid so I've been looking for a light that can hook onto the rim and doesn't cost too much to run (being housebound I run up the electricity bills a bit).
I have a sponge filter I had been using for the aquarium; I've removed it for a while but am keeping it wet as it seemed to have a good amount of bacteria growing. I have added a mechanical filter to the aquarium temporarily and it is a "200L/H Aquarium Internal Fish Tank Filter Pump" in the hope it will remove some of the gunk.
I am not fertilizing the aquarium as I don't want to deal with that sort of thing, I also don't have the funds for a CO2 system and don't think I could cope with one.
I can't describe the gunk very well; it's a whitish translucent goo that I can see covering some of the roots of a couple of Java Ferns and attached to a couple of leaves (it looks like a streaming white fish poo). I'd love to get some advice on how to remedy this as I do nothing but look at this aquarium with a worried expression and that is not why I decided to invest all my time and energy into setting it up.
Thanks for your time.
Over the course of the past few weeks I've been attempting to set up a small (35 litre) aquarium in my bedroom. It's taken me a lot longer than usual due to sickness (I've been housebound for several years but decided to give it a go with a lot of help from my mother) and throughout that time has also caused a lot of stress. I've never had live plants before and wanted to give them a go so I did a lot of research and chose the classic, easy-to-grow plants Java Fern, Java Moss and Christmas Moss - I also bought a banana lily (Nymphoides Aquatica). The java moss has been put in my killifish fry aquarium and has had no problems but I've had a fair amount of grief with the other plants (with the exception of the banana lily and Christmas Moss, though those are new and were added yesterday).
I've made plenty of mistakes with this aquarium and am learning more every day however I have a recurring problem that I can't quite seem to solve. The problem is regarding a strange white gunk that appears on the plants. Now, we actually tore down and re-scaped the aquarium last night as this problem got out of hand and I thought I'd fixed it by trimming up the plants (removing dead/dying foliage and bad roots) but it's already making a return. I thought the gunk may have been decaying foliage, this is what the research I've done has told me but I'd love some confirmation.
The aquarium has no fish in it yet, it contains a single piece of driftwood. The Java Ferns were planted as my brain farted and I mistook them for another plant however they are no longer that way and are instead resting on the gravel in the bottom of the aquarium (I used sand up until a couple of weeks ago, but now I'm using gravel that is a couple of mm in size) - I'm wondering if this may be the problem. From what I know Java Ferns need to be rooted to something, I thought I could trigger this effect by resting them on the gravel and hope they take root there but I could be sorely mistaken.
The lighting is going to be replaced soon but right now is a single LED lamp designed for smaller aquariums such as mine; I can't get the exact wattage but it houses 32 bright white LEDs and is often used with Nano aquariums. I'm wondering if that may also be the problem - inadequate lighting. The aquarium I'm using currently does not have a lid so I've been looking for a light that can hook onto the rim and doesn't cost too much to run (being housebound I run up the electricity bills a bit).
I have a sponge filter I had been using for the aquarium; I've removed it for a while but am keeping it wet as it seemed to have a good amount of bacteria growing. I have added a mechanical filter to the aquarium temporarily and it is a "200L/H Aquarium Internal Fish Tank Filter Pump" in the hope it will remove some of the gunk.
I am not fertilizing the aquarium as I don't want to deal with that sort of thing, I also don't have the funds for a CO2 system and don't think I could cope with one.
I can't describe the gunk very well; it's a whitish translucent goo that I can see covering some of the roots of a couple of Java Ferns and attached to a couple of leaves (it looks like a streaming white fish poo). I'd love to get some advice on how to remedy this as I do nothing but look at this aquarium with a worried expression and that is not why I decided to invest all my time and energy into setting it up.
Thanks for your time.