Hello,

I have a planted tank that isn't doing so well anymore. This is partly
due to my lack of time on it and partly due to the way the wind has been
blowing, the alignment of Jupiter as opposed to my lunch yesterday, etc.

I want to revive the tank and have it blooming as it used to do, but am
not sure where to start. I don't want to do anything too drastic in case
I get an algae explosion. I would like some advice on how to revive the
tank in a controlled manner.

Brief tank history is that is a 140 litre, freshwater tropical tank.
Substrate is Aquagrit, lighting is via three Triton 48" fluorescent
tubes on for about ten hours per day, filtration is by two Fluval 2s,
one each end. The tank has been running for about 18 months and was
doing fine until a couple of months ago when growth stopped and plants
started looking rough.

The light bulbs are probably too old, having been there since the tank
was used before, so that could be one issue, although I'm not sure why
it would suddenly affect things.

If you look at http://fish.alansilver.co.uk/Mark2/ you will see more
details. The picture there is from last June. As you can see, it was
doing fine. The amazon sword on the right had exploded !! It's growth
was tremendous. I was fertilising with Tetra Flora Pride and
occasionally adding Flora Sticks under the main plants.

I had a DIY CO2 kit in there, but I took it out as it didn't seem to be
making much difference. In the good old days it helped, but when the
tank started its problems, I took it out.

I'm not sure if I've said too much or not enough. Please feel free to
ask any more questions if I've missed out anything. Any advice on how to
revive the tank would be appreciated.

Advice that is reasonably easy (due to lack of spare time) and
reasonably cheap (due to having spent loads setting up our new tank, see
http://fish.alansilver.co.uk/Mark3/ for details) would be appreciated.

TIA

--
Alan Silver
PSG Fish Tanks - http://fish.alansilver.co.uk/