My 10 gallon tank is presently filled with half-dead plants, algae, and animals that are probably on the verge of death. My 5 gallon tank, which is filled almost entirely with rain water and has peat moss under the gravel, has turned dark brown yet still has a pH over 8. I put isopods in it, hoping they'd reproduce and I'd have a lot of them, but while they're still alive, they don't seem to be thriving like I'd hoped.
Like a month ago, I spotted these tall cylindrical flower vases at the "Everything's $1" store, so I bought a dozen to stick individual plants in, in hope that they might grow better with the "leave it alone" technique that has been benefiting that jar of snails as well as the original larger cylindrical flower vase. However, these plants seem to be doing no better than the plants in the 10 gallon aquarium.
I wasn't able to find the "organic potting soil with some kind of compost" that this YouTube video suggested, so I just put some peat moss in the bottom of each vase and covered that with aquarium gravel. ...and, that doesn't work.
Also in that video he mentioned that algae grows only on dead plant. I think that's true. I noticed when I first got the plants that algae would be all over them except for the end of the stem where the plant was still growing, and I assumed that was just because algae only grew on certain days when conditions were right and that was the part of the plant that had grown since the last time algae grew, but in watching the plants more, like some of them basically every leaf that was originally on the plant is covered in algae, and new leaves that grew since are completely uncovered, so I don't know why but it seems like my plants are nearly dead when I plant them. IDK if the store killed them or if they too are sensitive to water changes like the fish are, or perhaps the water just isn't nutritious enough and so the bulk of the plant dies and then a small part starts to grow in proportion to how much plant nutrition is available and so that part doesn't die.
On the bright side, I only have one that seems to be completely dead. Otherwise they all have some small part of them that is algae-free which presumably will start growing well should I figure out how to create the conditions that the plants need.
Anyway, it's a month later and the stores are starting to stock spring stuff now, so I looked again and I found this stuff which claims to be "organic" (I don't know what that means or why it matters) but doesn't claim to contain any compost, and this other stuff that claims to be compost but doesn't claim to be potting soil.
They only added up to $9 so I was like "fuck it, I'll mix them together."
I'm slightly concerned that the potting soil might contain some ingredient that isn't good for the plants or possibly the animal life. So I think what I might do is empty out these flower vases and put different mixes of potting soil, manure, and peat moss in them, and add some of those isopods too, and then leave them to see which ones thrive. Then whatever works best I'll probably try in the 5 gallon tank before I mess with the 10 gallon tank again.
I thought this was an interesting disclaimer:
The implied warranty of merchantability is merely "it is what it claims to be." In other words, if you buy a bag of flour and it turns out to be a bag of shit, then it fails the implied warranty of merchantability and you're entitled to a refund. However, it seems that the manufacturer of the bag of shit that I bought doesn't want to guarantee that it's actually shit.