Too much Hard water for freshwater aquarium :(

[kborade]

Hi All,

My Name is Kishor and I am from India.
There are a couple of things i am worried about and would like to know how can I work on it.

Let me first let u know about the setup and what plants and fish i have in my tank.

I have a freshwater tank of 89.8 U.S. gallons, which is approximately 349.2 liters. Its been 4 months I got this tank setup by myself.

Water quality - Too hard and becomes Tea color.
Fish : Red eye Tetra (8), Serpae tetra (8)
Plants : 2 Anubias (looks like they are dying) , Java fern ad Moss (recently bought)
Light setup : 56 Watt (Two T5 white light tubes of 28W each)
Filter : I have 2 internal filters AP1600F and RS1000F (in RS1000F I have kept carbon granuels)
Fertilizer : Absolute Liquid Fetilizer for RED AQUATIC PLANTS

In addition to this, i also have kept Peat moss to lower the water hardness.

Now.. The water gets tea color and even plants are dying. so I want to know weather it is the problem with the hard water or its about low lighting or the fertilizer i am using.

Request you to please let me know how can i keep my tank healthy with healthy plants .

About Fishes.... I have lost 5 fishes in these 4 months time :(

Thanks and regards,
Kishor

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

The tea color is from the Peat moss you have in there. The Peat is releasing Tannins which is creating the brown color in the water and lowering your pH.

[rmiller]

Also your lighting is very weak. Plants, even low light ones like you have, need 1-2 watts per gallon. If you were to add more lighting it should help.

Many people actually enjoy the look of the tea colored water. Some actually strive to accomplish that look.