I'm new on having aquarium. I have a 130litre aq. since Christmas this year and I have 4 Scalares, 5 "redeye" and 2 "scrubbers"(eating "mud" at the bottom") I also got about 4 green plants and a couple of red plants. The fish seems well, but the glass, plant and the sand gets green and muddy very fast. The water itself looks transparent and clear. After I clean the glass(window) everything turn green after only a few days. The plants also get a layer of green coats, and when a new bright green leaf is growing up, it turn into dark green and often die (getting brown and transparent) fast. Some of my friends that had aquarium before tells me that I put too much food in the water, but I can't beleive so. I give the fish very little food one time each day. Sometimes so little that I'm afride that the fish want to "jump on eating me" when I open up the top. (I give them "ThetraMin" food.

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If i were you i would get fake plants. I used to have real plants, and I had the same problem. Now i have fake plants, and its doing fine.

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Live plants are kinda finiky, some of them need just the right amount of light, or they die, others need proper PH.
My suggestions for anyone who has live plants in an aquarium are....

dont over feed the fish

keep a close eye on PH levels (I keep mine around 7.1-7.5)

whatever filter you use, make sure you change or clean it as often as is recommended by the manufacturer.

for algae control i let the snails breed freely, they dont hurt any of the fish, and they keep the plants and the tank clean.

too much or too little light can harm the plants also. find out what plants you have, and arrange the proper lighting.

once the plants are established don't move them around too much, it stresses them and this can also harm them.

the worst thing you can do is ASSume you have a healthy tank, if there are bacteria in the water that can harm plants, you will never have healy plants in your tank. if you suspect bacteria, or fungi are killing your plants there are tons of solutions. but the easiest I have found is to remove the fish, and steralize the tank. This involves boiling the sand/gravel, and chemical steralizing the tank itself and all your equiptment with either a commercial steralizer or(ick) bleach, and starting over again


Good luck

Don't you think the PH is too high for the planted tank?

It may be too high...I have never had a problem as long as i keep it close to 7 it seems to be ok. my cichlids seem to do well. My water supply seems to have a high Ph naturaly, and the 30 Gal. aquarium looses about a gallon of water a week to evaporation. So the PH battle is constant. I rarely have any algae problems since i introduced the snails. they eat algae with relish.