Setup my first tank approximately five years ago. It is a 55 gallon. Got the tank from a friend took it home and cleaned really well with diluted bleach (plants, gravel and all). Set everything up real nice added some plants and decorations to suit my taste. Next I did my homework, learned about the "cycle" slowly added the following fish in this order: first 3 Opaline Gouramis & 6 tiger barbs; second 3 keyhole cichlids; third 5 panda Cories; fourth 5 rosy barbs; fifth 3 giant danios; and finally a rainbow shark. Everything was going swimmingly. Tank looked great if a little busy and crowded. A few weeks after adding the rainbow shark, I was at Wal-Mart buying fish food and picked up some aquarium plant bulbs. I thought having real plants would be great. Well I followed the instructions on the plants and they sprouted in no time. I had 6 red lily plants that all but covered the surface of my tank and some grassy looking plants lined across the back. I was feeling pretty proud of my self. Well the tank was ok for a while but due to heavy aeration and lack of light, the plants started to die back. The grassy ones went first and then after much picking by the rosy barbs the lilies were gone too. A few months later, I started losing fish almost daily and could not figure out why. I finally got my hands on a 30 gallon when I moved to my new house. I relocated the rainbow the one remaining Opaline and 1 tiger barb (and a platinum Gourami which was added right before the die-off started) to the thirty. Seeing as how I was moving, I decided to totally teardown the 55 and that’s when I found the problem. The plants that had died had left a huge cluster of decaying roots under my UGF which I suppose was a great source of anaerobic bacteria. Now all of my tanks (see my post here:
I don’t know if I am just being needy, looking for "Ata boys” or for the old "What in) are UGF free and all has been going swimmingly for about 3 years.