I emptied my aquarium
As the title suggests, I ended up emptying my aquarium. The reason was simple — I was moving. But before I got to that point, a few things happened that I want to share.
Lighting experiment and first issues
When I upgraded the lighting, I lowered the light intensity a bit. At first, the plants responded well — they grew faster and looked healthier. But that only lasted until green algae started spreading aggressively.
My old NO3 test from Rataj kept showing low values, which didn’t make sense. So I decided to buy new tests. Rataj wasn’t in stock, so I picked up Zoolek — it’s cheaper, but unfortunately the instructions are only in Polish. They could’ve at least included English. Functionally, though, it seems more accurate than Rataj. And that’s when I discovered the NO3 levels were actually very high.
More tests and adjusting fertilization
I also bought tests for phosphorus, potassium, and iron. Phosphorus and potassium were high as well. Apparently, after lowering the light intensity, the plants consumed fewer nutrients. So I stopped all fertilizers except Seachem Flourish and Seachem Flourish Iron.
After some time, nitrogen and phosphorus levels returned to normal, and the algae stopped spreading so quickly. Potassium, however, stayed high for quite a while.
The plants eventually started growing rapidly again, and after a while the nitrogen level dropped to an unmeasurable value. You can clearly see in the video how much the carpet plants spread.
Lesson learned: if your plants aren’t growing well, reducing light intensity can help. But you need to measure your water parameters regularly — it’s easy to miss an imbalance.
Losses among the fish
Meanwhile, my last angelfish died. Only two young males remained, and they don’t get along. The last serpae tetra also disappeared. I didn’t want to buy new fish since I knew I’d be moving and relocating the whole aquarium.
