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Super-low tech 20H - New Fish!

37K views 122 replies 48 participants last post by  Hilde 
#1 · (Edited)
Thought I'd share this with everyone. This is my 20H low-tech tank. I have a near-full-time job and a full college schedule as of right now so I had to change this tank from your normal "weekly water changes, daily ferts" tank to low tech.

As of now, I am doing 50% water changes every six months. Yes, that's 180 days in between water changes, and my nitrates have never topped out above 10ppm. So here it is.


I know it's a bit sloppy but I still love it. Several people have told me to ditch the Java Moss in the front, but I wouldn't touch it for anything. I think it's the key to super-low tech. That, and 3/4 of a Marineland canister filter devoted to biological filtration.



This is my Cryptocoryne wendtii "Bronze". I should have taken a side shot showing the base of the plant; it's probably a good 4 inches across and shoots off daughter plants like there's no tomorrow.



Anubias barteri var. nana with one of my super red RCS. I have three of the Anubias and at least one of them is usually flowering.



Rotala rotundifolia. My lighting is a Coralife 24" T5 dual tube fixture, so only 2.4wpg. The Rotala still turns hot pink under the lights, even though this pic doesn't do it justice.

So there's my low tech plants, but I have quite a few plants that shouldn't grow in anything less than heavy lighting and massive fertilization. For example...



My Ozelot Sword. This baby shoots up new leaves almost daily.



Nymphaea lotus "Zenkeri". The colors are so much brighter than what the pic shows them to be. This plant sends up about two leaves DAILY. No exaggeration. Recently, it also sent out 2 daughters which are now growing very quickly.



Echinodorus "Red Devil". I've only had this one for a couple of weeks and it's doing great. The new leaves are deep red and gradually turn green as they age. This sword is extremely rare in the hobby. I got it from a buddy who got it from Aquabid.com.



And finally, my male GBR.

By the way, did I mention I never fertilize? Ever. I used a bottom layer of Fertilome Seedling and Cutting Starter and covered it with Flourite. The only other fertilization the plants get is from the fish.

So there it is. Let me know what you all think about it

Adam
 
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#2 ·
By the way, my inspiration for this came from "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" by Diana Walstad. She is all about low-tech tanks and she is an absolute genius when it comes to the science of aquariums. If you've never read her book, rent it or buy it. It is definitely worth the read. I can read this book over and over and still learn something new each time.
 
#5 ·
It looks like it just rolled out of bed
Lol I think the exact same thing!
Like I said, my inspiration for this was from Diana Walstad and her tanks are kinda the same way. Sloppy, disorganized, but they still look really good. And she does the same maintenance on her tanks that I do on this one. No ferts, wc every 6 months.

By the way thingamarob, welcome to The Planted Tank.
 
#8 ·
Nice tank.. However, it isn't really "super low-tech" with 2.4w of T-5.
Well it's super-low tech because of 6 months in between water changes and no ferts at all. When I started it up it wasn't supposed to be low tech; it was a normal tank. But with a full time job and a college load, I couldn't keep up with the maintenance.

I have a Marineland 160 canister (again, not really low-tech) with over 3/4 of it devoted to biological filtration. Add a huge Java Moss carpet as a nutrient sponge and voila! Like I said, after 6 months of close to zero maintenance, I tested my water and nitrates were only at 10. This was with a brand new test kit, but I still didn't really trust it, so I brought it to my LFS, where I also work. The reading was exactly the same.

I only feed my fish every other day or so, but I have never had any bouts with any kind of deficiency in my plants. I figured my swordplants would be the first to tell me if there was a problem of some kind, but they grow like mad with lots of color. I figure the potting soil underneath gives off plenty of nutrients for any plant.
 
#10 ·
wait till it's one year old under low maintenance. i did exactly the same but after one year i had to start fertilizing...
It's been low maint. for over a year and a half now
 
#11 ·
Great looking tank.
Keep us updated. I will be curious to see how long this tank will stand up before nutrient deficiency symptoms begin to surface. Lots of people that I spoke to that set up Natural Planted tanks told me that the tanks started out really well, but then all the plants ended up dieing. The floaters are probably helping filter some of the light helping to prevent algae, but they will also suck up nutrients like a sponge.

Good luck.
 
#12 ·
Hoping Diana Walstad was right in Ecology of the Planted Aquarium, she says an unnderlayer of potting soil should last for 8 years or so before giving up all its nutrients (for those of you that have the book, its pg. 140). If that's the case, the plants shouldn't be deficient in anything major for quite a while. I guess only time will tell.
 
#15 ·
Nope. I used to have a DIY system up and running, but I got sick of it :). Every once in a while, like maybe once a month, I pour in some Excel, but that's about it. I've never had any kind of deficiencies in my plants.
 
#19 ·
Been a while since an update, so here you go.



Me and my horrible photography skills. Anyway, I must say it looks a lot better than the last pictures. I trimmed the Lotus and Rotala back hard and added some Ludwigia repens x arcuata and floating Hydrocotyle leucocephela. You can't see them, but there are sprigs of Hygrophila polysperma "Rosanervig" all over the place now too.

I clipped off most all of the floating leaves of the Lotus and it sent up mostly the submersed leaves. I think it looks a lot better this way.



The Glowlights just had to be in the picture. They're anything but camera-shy.
 
#22 ·
Thanks!

Honestly, I haven't tested my gH and kH since...forever :icon_redf. My guess is that it is fairly soft because of the soil underlayer and driftwood, but I couldn't tell you for sure. I only test my nitrates right before my every-six-months water change and they have never topped out over 15ppm. pH is right at 7, also.

The Fertilome soil, which I only used half of, cost me like $5.50. You can find it at any gardening store. Awesome stuff, but the only downside is that it turns your tank into chocolate milk every time you pull a plant.
 
#25 ·
It usually clears up by itself in an hour or so, but you have to blow off a lot of particles that settle on the plants. It's not too bad, it just looks nasty for a bit.

It's something I'm willing to tolerate if it means better plant growth
 
#26 ·
Here's another update. Not much has changed, but I pulled the Green Ozelot Sword. It was getting too big for the tank and the bottom leaves were starting to get warped and twisted due to lack of space to spread. So I replaced it with a couple of Florida Sunset Crypts and am still waiting for them to grow in.

FTS



Cryptocoryne wendtii "Florida Sunset"



Check out the Curviceps peeking out from behind the plants. He's so cute :biggrin:.

And that's it. I tested the nitrates just for the heck of it, four months since a water change. They barely registered at all on the API Liquid test kit. I love low-tech tanks
 
#28 ·
Wow this is very inspirational! My 20H is in a sad state visually, the water is stable and the fish are happy, but the plants look a mess and i've been trying to motivate myself to tackle it and redo it, this might just be the inspiration and motivation i need!

Beautiful tank!

I'm a low tech gal myself, and I definitely agree with you on LOVING it! :) :hihi:
 
#31 ·
Ghostie - Thanks! I really like the T5 light, you won't regret using it.

Karackle - Glad I could help motivate you. 20H's are fun to scape

Cheesehead Cory - It's a Coralife Aqualight 2x24w T5 fixture, so 48w total.

Hilde - I agree with you. The spectrum of the light emitted from the bulb is more important than the intensity. You can have an ungodly bright incandescent bulb (yellow spectrum) over a planted tank and the plants will grow just because of the sheer intensity of the light. You can also have a normal fluorescent tube designed for plants (full spectrum, heavy on red and blue) and the plants will grow better than the plants under the incandescent bulb.

Sorry in advance, here comes a biology lesson.

When plants photosynthesize, they need light to fuel the process. Wavelengths of light in the blue end of the spectrum (420-470nm) are used most readily by plants. In nature, some light used by plants is blue light as it penetrates air and water better than any other color (this is why the sky and water look blue). It is the most available wavelength for plants to use, but it is absorbed slower than the other colors.

Plants also use a lot of light in the red end of the spectrum. It is slower but absorbed more quickly by the chlorophyll in plants. Red light is used more efficiently by plants than red light, but it is used at the same rate as blue because blue is more available.

Green light is not used by plants at all. In fact, it is completely reflected away by the chlorophyll (which is green). So haveing a bulb with a peak in the green area means nothing for your plants. It will make them seem a lot brighter to your eyes, but they can't use light in the green wavelength.

So in short, the color of the photons being emitted is more important to plants than the intensity of the light being emitted. An incredibly awesome thread on light and photosynthesis is on APC here

Hmm...I wonder if my biology professor will give me any extra credit for this :icon_roll
 
#36 ·
It's a Coralife Aqualight 2x24w T5 fixture, so 48w total.
Like others here, I was trying to figure out how you're getting away with 2.4 wpg of T5 light without major algae issues (insanely jealous), noticed your first post said 24" as opposed to 24w, and thought they might be 24" 18w tubes, which would have made more sense to me.

I have a 55w AH supply retrofit over my 33g tank for 1.66 wpg and prior to adding regular large doses of excel, I was having constant BBA and GSA issues. Even with 20 ml of excel a day, I still have some BBA (and my vals hate me).

All I can figure now is your floaters are really cutting down the intensity into the tank, or your fish must be really heavy breathers to kick out enough CO2 to keep up with that light. :confused1: Or maybe these are NO T5 and not HO. (??)

I guess when my excel runs out, I'll try removing the reflector from my light, and/or add a bunch of floating plants, maybe hunt down some of those fish that are training for the olympics too.
 
#33 ·
Ghostie, I'd just remove the tracing paper. 28w over 20 gallons of water is low light as it is, the tracing paper will just mess with the spectrum before it gets to the plants.
 
#35 ·
Ah ok, I see your reason. Makes sense.

To answer your question there, you shouldn't dose iron and phosphorus (KH2PO4) because the iron and phosphorus will bind with each other making both of them unavailable to the plants. I dealt with this a while back, and I started dosing them a couple of hours apart (in another tank of mine) and have had no problems since.
 
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