My 20 gallon long was my first real attempt at a planted community tank, and I ran into a few of the same issues. I still think the 20L is the best size overall.
I agree on the too much light. Though my complaint is with high tech tanks that are a blazing noon day in Florida or something for 8+ hours a day. Just seems unnatural to me. Though admittedly I'm a low tech to no tech aficionado. But it just seems unnatural and possibly even blinding to the creatures housed within to be lit with such intensity for so many hours and then bam! total darkness when the lights are turned off. I always try to turn my lighted tanks on after dawn and off well before dusk so the fish can experience natural day cycles. ✌️ Edit; surprised to hear that you had to change settings on the camera. Even with the change the white sand still stands out a ton! Though to each their own, I know some people like to see a pure white beachy area in tanks.
Fish seem to not get the consideration they deserve....some fish really get the shaft, especially bettas. So much awareness (and videos) really need to become more prominent. I also feel on youtube anyway, this aqua hobby is way too man oriented for my taste and tolerance. I don't see this very often on the other video subjects I watch. At least most channels at least make an attempt to present women artists, scientists, etc., etc. But I digress.
@@heaven7360 definitely! I notice the older I get the more and more natural my tanks are. Right now I have 1 out of 7 tanks with led light and that's just a tank that's in such a dark area that I can't keep a watch on feeding + fish health without some light supplemental light. Everything else is natural light. I do battle filament algae but it's worth it to me to see my fish start the day with me as we wake up when it starts to get light, and feed my fish when the afternoon fades and some errant rays of the setting sun shine through the plants and I see fins flare and colors pop! But I also digress...😉✌️
@@laurabustos6560 I bet your aquariums/fish are beautiful to watch! It's so odd that natural light is thought of as horrid and not even considered as beautiful in any videos I've ever seen about setting up aquariums! I've had the same experience as you, seeing light rays coming in (in some seasons) and it looks beautiful. The plants respond and the fish look beautiful. When this happens it doesn't cause algae as it isn't blazing in every day. If it did I imagine if I didn't use lights on the tank the algae issue just might not happen. I use LED lights just because I don't have that much light considering where my apt. is located in direction of the sun. But it occurred to me when viewing some of the CO2 tank set up videos especially, that the lights were SO bright....excessively so. The fish can't talk so where's the discussion though about the effects on them or just considering their comfort for their lifetimes...since they are our responsibilities. Here's a video you might like: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JD-PUuY-xIA.html It illustrates the natural environment of freshwater fish by a person who investigates and illustrates the subject of "natural" and who is an aquarist.
@@heaven7360 exactly, the creatures in our little glad boxes can't tell us if they're living their best life, or really in need of some sunglasses because they're stuck in super high light, or having a hard time breathing because we're injecting c02 to keep our plants pretty, or lacking things in the water because we're using additives to sterilize and purify the water to keep it super clear so it looks good to us.
