15 gallon low tech

4077 Views 33 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Willcooper, Jun 29, 2017

Willcooper

Discussion Starter · Mar 5, 2017 (Edited)

2

Hello all,

This is going to be a build over the next several months. I am re-homing my java fern from my breeder as it seems to be a bba magnet and will be replacing it with some stems.

In this tank I will be using spider wood, java fern, anubias nana and am weighing options for a carpet of some kind.

With crystal and cherries it seems most go with a black substrate and I'm not overly fond of it anymore as it is usually too shiny to look natural and I have decided not to go with a "plant substrate" or bdbs. I am going to use a tan beach sand type color.

I will be using a hob filter from my breeder at first and will prob switch to an aquaclear 30 or a small canister filter with lily pipes. I will be using privacy film on the back to help hide the filter as much as possible.

I would like some ideas on lighting and a suitable foreground plant.

So far I am considering a finnex stingray which will hopefully have me at about 35/40 par and thus will not require co2 (not an option in the beginning but maybe later). Any other ideas are welcome. I am planning to pay $45 shipped for the light.

As far as the carpet goes I am thinking Monte Carlo. Any other suggestions are welcome for type of plant and anyone who has good/bad experiences with Monte Carlo in low tech your wisdom is welcome. I am imagining it will grow fine albeit slow. Hopefully it won't grow tall/leggy. I can dose glut if needed but would like to avoid if necessary as I want this tank to be as maintenance free other than a small weekly water change.

The tank is 15" tall I think but the cm are in the pic of the tank I just got. It's a AquaJapan low iron.

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I will be building a stand for it and it will not be in the room it is sitting in now. Any thoughts are welcome.

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Charrr89

· #2 · Mar 7, 2017

Can't wait to see your build

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 7, 2017

Charrr89 said:
Can't wait to see your build

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Thanks!

I think I am changing my mind about the substrate. I am worried about having enough carbon for the Monte Carlo and am realizing I will also have a little bit of room for additional plants (which I think will be blyxa japonica from my breeder). So with that in mind I am playing with the idea of a 1/2" to an 1" of dirt as a base layer followed by a small layer of med size (dime or smaller) lava rock and then capped with a beach sand. I am looking for the organic carbons in the dirt and the lava rock is to hopefully keep as much dirt down under the sand as well as a little bit of a buffer for some better water flow under the sand. And the lava rock will also have some cec so hopefully that will help long term as well. It may also help me keep the slop a little better.

Anyone keeping blyxa japonica in dirt with no co2 and could lend me your experiences?

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Charrr89

· #4 · Mar 10, 2017

Willcooper said:
Thanks!

I think I am changing my mind about the substrate. I am worried about having enough carbon for the Monte Carlo and am realizing I will also have a little bit of room for additional plants (which I think will be blyxa japonica from my breeder). So with that in mind I am playing with the idea of a 1/2" to an 1" of dirt as a base layer followed by a small layer of med size (dime or smaller) lava rock and then capped with a beach sand. I am looking for the organic carbons in the dirt and the lava rock is to hopefully keep as much dirt down under the sand as well as a little bit of a buffer for some better water flow under the sand. And the lava rock will also have some cec so hopefully that will help long term as well. It may also help me keep the slop a little better.

Anyone keeping blyxa japonica in dirt with no co2 and could lend me your experiences?

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Blyxa takes a lot longer to grow without co2, and in my opinion it comes out super stringy from my experience. I'd do like a diy co2 atleast to let the blyxa root in, I usually plant my blyxa roots 2" deep so it has a place to reach out, blyxa explodes and gets really big under the right circumstance

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Charrr89

· #5 · Mar 10, 2017

that's my blyxa in an 11 gallon back then.

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 10, 2017

Charrr89 said:
that's my blyxa in an 11 gallon back then.

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Is this low tech?

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 10, 2017

Charrr89 said:
Blyxa takes a lot longer to grow without co2, and in my opinion it comes out super stringy from my experience. I'd do like a diy co2 atleast to let the blyxa root in, I usually plant my blyxa roots 2" deep so it has a place to reach out, blyxa explodes and gets really big under the right circumstance

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Figured it would grow slow. I'm ok with that. The stringy part sucks though. I get a lot of daughter plants in my high tech tank so I'll try it for a couple months and see how it goes. What I have in my head looks great with some blyxa lol.

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Charrr89

· #8 · Mar 10, 2017

Willcooper said:
Figured it would grow slow. I'm ok with that. The stringy part sucks though. I get a lot of daughter plants in my high tech tank so I'll try it for a couple months and see how it goes. What I have in my head looks great with some blyxa lol.

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I wonder if high light would help u temporarily even if you don't have co2..? I know they melt sometimes

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 11, 2017

15 gallon low tech Crystal Red Shrimp tank

Even in my hi tech tank the transition was pretty rough when first introduced to the tank. I know it will be even slower adapting and I think high light especially in the beginning will only invite algae. I usually start my lighting very low in the beginning of a new tank and then work my way up. It may work it may not I'll have enough extra from my other tank that if I lose them it won't matter. I was only able to find one YouTube video that mentions growing blyxa in low-tech and doing OK so we shall see. What I really need to do well is Monte Carlo or else I'll have to rethink my scape idea.

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 13, 2017

15 gallon low tech Crystal Red Shrimp tank

Ok help would be appreciated with soil. To mineralize or not to mineralize? The main reason I was interested in soil/dirt was to gain higher levels of carbon while also having an abundance of nutrients available to the Monte Carlo and possibly blyxa japonica or another type of rooted plant. Upon listening to a pod cast with Diana walstad I am realizing (or just now thinking about) that the mineralization of the soil/dirt would eliminate the carbons that the bacteria breaking down the soil/dirt would provide. On the same token the mineralization process would also make the nutrients available to the plants right away. So if I'm going to have a bunch of java fern, a carpet of Monte Carlo and some other rooted plant (likely a stem) should I mineralize or not? I can dose glut but would prefer not to as well as I would also prefer to not dose. Granted I may end up needing to dose regardless because this will be a shrimp tank and I won't be feeding a bunch. I'm also trying to weigh this against a possible algae outbreak if I don't mineralize. Lend me your experiences please!

Added: found a post where the poster uses a combination of the two using about 1 cup per five gallons of non-mineralized soil and the rest is mineralized soil. This seems like it would have the benefits of carbons being released without as much of an algae problem. Thoughts?

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...substrate-planted-51702/#/topics/51702?page=1

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 18, 2017

4

15 gallon low tech Crystal Red Shrimp tank

The finnex stingray just got here. I like it. I think it will be perfect for my lower light tank.

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Oh and a little update on substrate thoughts; I was thinking pretty much only about the carbon when using dirt and it being needed for the Monte Carlo but I am realizing that it's probably not needed and a substrate that will buffer the water is probably a better choice considering this will be a crystal tank. So I think I'm going to go with Fluval Stratum Shrimp substrate. It will cost about $36 shipped for the 18lb bag but will save me a bunch of time and hassle not having to use ro water. When I get it I will let it see how well it buffers the water over a couple of weeks and then decide if I still need to use at least some ro water.

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Hephaestus

· #12 · Mar 18, 2017

You could always put a layer of the Stratum on the bottom, and then cap with something like BDBS. That would give you the benefits of Stratum while reducing the cost of the substrate. And BDBS does look really good in tanks. I have it in a standard 10gal and a 7.5gal cube right now (the cube is in DSM at the moment).

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #13 · Mar 18, 2017

Good thought but the price difference between the two bags, 8.8lb and 17.6lb, is only about ten dollars so it's not terrible. I like the way the stratum looks as well and besides the substrate will likely be completely covered within a couple of months. The shrimp stratum is a smaller grain size so smaller plants should root well in it. I'm thinking I may dry start the Monte Carlo to get it to root before filling. We shall see though.

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Charrr89

· #14 · Mar 20, 2017

Willcooper said:
Good thought but the price difference between the two bags, 8.8lb and 17.6lb, is only about ten dollars so it's not terrible. I like the way the stratum looks as well and besides the substrate will likely be completely covered within a couple of months. The shrimp stratum is a smaller grain size so smaller plants should root well in it. I'm thinking I may dry start the Monte Carlo to get it to root before filling. We shall see though.

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You guys are very fortunate... aqua soil costs N arm and a leg here in Hawaii !

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NickAu

· #15 · Mar 20, 2017

Nice tank but that looks high tech to me,

Now this is a low tech shrimp tank, This is where I breed feeder shrimp,.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkbfbENaHoU

I just got given a light similar to yours, It has red White and blue LED's

Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #16 · Mar 20, 2017

Charrr89 said:
You guys are very fortunate... aqua soil costs N arm and a leg here in Hawaii !

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Aquasoil is still more $ than fluval stratum but yeah it's still more than a bag of sand.

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #17 · Mar 20, 2017

15 gallon low tech Crystal Red Shrimp tank

NickAu said:
Nice tank but that looks high tech to me,

Now this is a low tech shrimp tank, This is where I breed feeder shrimp,.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkbfbENaHoU

I just got given a light similar to yours, It has red White and blue LED's

Low tech is usually referring to the use of co2. No co2 with this tank. It's will likely hold crystal red shrimp so I'm trying to make it look befitting of them. What makes it look high tech?

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Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #18 · Mar 20, 2017

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju0J4-FO0NA

This is a short video of my 40 breeder after I trimmed the pearl weed carpet. When I turned off the filters to do a water change the pearl weed started letting off a bunch of gas. Looks cool I thought. My German blue ram posed for the camera for a moment as well.

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justinsung

· #19 · Mar 20, 2017

I love the tiny bubbles. Looking forward to see this tank grow!

Willcooper

Discussion Starter · #20 · Mar 24, 2017

2

So I got impatient and have really been wanting to get the java fern out of my breeder so I put it into this tank just to get it out of the way and make sure it doesn't die. I also threw in the wood I've been planning to use. I think I underestimated how much java fern I have as it takes up a lot of room. I will likely being selling some of it on this forum pretty soon. I may be also selling the ar mini I have in my breeder so if anyone wants it.

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I also think this light seems very dim. I wonder if I made the right choice and will actually be getting 35/40 par at the bottom. I don't think I'll be able to get Monte Carlo to grow at much lower par than that.

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