trying to find balance

for my aquariums still. The plants are doing poorly. Getting black spots, hair algae again, some leaves turning yellow then bleaching to white, the beautiful aponogeton melting away. I thought it might be because I have lost so many fish lately- without the fish to give off CO2 and nitrates in their waste, the plants suffer. I gave some liquid plant food. They still look awful. I adjusted the hours on light timer- no better. Then there was a stink and I feared a dead snail- I've seen two of the trumpet snails out and about, but never three at the same time, so I don't know if the third one is still alive. I vacuumed out half the tank- on the side that smelled bad- searching for dead snail- how else do you find a deceased snail that buries itself? Only found one, and he was alive. In the search removed half the water and loads of nitrates from the waste down there, so worried I replaced too much water today. Gave another dose of liquid plant food (the prior dose was a week ago).

Then did some more reading online and finally found a description that seemed to match my aquarium symptoms. Not the right light for the plants, I think. It says the bulbs marked "plant life" are actually not so good, better are the "full spectrum" or "daylight" bulbs. I remember when I first set up the tank I had changed the bulb I had to a "plant" labeled one. Still have it so I went and looked- it is a full spectrum bulb. So I took the "plant" one out and put the full spectrum one in. It has lower wattage so I think I need to get a new one soon with the full wattage, but hope this improves things. Plus I need more fish- that sounds silly- but there are only ten fish in there now, I could easily have four or five more, to support the plants. And I like my plants better than my fishes right now. Except for Pinkie. I'm fond of him.

It looks very different with the altered light spectrum. And takes much better photos- no yellowing effect:

(The smell is gone now. Turns out the stink was my worm box- it had too much moisture last week, was dripping into the tray- I had cleaned that up and aerated the worms' home, added shredded paper to soak up the excess moisture too- but forgot the bricks that hold it off the platform are porous- and they got smelly. I scrubbed them with soap and an old toothbrush today, let dry out in the sun for half the day. Much better now. Worms still look happy. Lots of them squirming around.)

Funny thing, in my smaller tank I also have a problem with drifts of brown debris all over still, and the java fern not growing well. But the anubias has new leaves galore. This is supposed to be a slow-growing plant but I watched a new leaf unfold within a week,

and right after that another one started emerging. So something's right for that plant, at least.

I have been reading up on keeping angelfish. I don't want to get them until I know I won't inadvertently kill them. Apparently they need very clean water- regular water changes very important- and like soft water as well. Certain plants are recommended for angelfish tanks because they have the same water quality requirements- including ruffled amazon sword (aponogeton), java fern and watersprite! which I already have. So if I could get my water softer, not only would the fishes be at ease, but my plants might do better too. After the ich treatment was all done, I tested the pH of my 10gal right before a water change. And happy to find that for once, it was lower- 7.4. So I guess there's still something in the large tank itself, maybe in the filter? (I bought it used) that's keeping the pH higher than I want it.