That is awesome growth for a low tech tank plus you didn't have any algae issues.
This is what I'm running.
Glass tank - 60×18x24
Lighting - 48″ Coralife four bulb high output T5 running three 6,700K bulbs and one 10,000k. 48″ Aqueon Optibright LED light bar.
Filtration - One API Filstar Large canister filter and two Aqueon 75 HOB filters. One Aqueon 950 circulation fan. Two 24w “Green Killing Machine” UV sterilizers.
Pressurized CO2 system - Premium Aquatek regulator with solenoid, 5lb tank, and a large Ista Mix Max CO2 reactor on my canister outflow. Bubble count can’t be determined because it is too fast but I can drop my pH by 1.0 within an hour of starting CO2 flow.
Heating - Two 200watt heaters that keep tank ~75 degrees.
Substrate - 150 lbs of aquarium sand.
Ferts - All seachem products, biweekly dosing of Flourish, Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphate, Iron, and heavily utilized root tabs.
Rock - Sand stone (doesn’t effect my H2O chemistry so I’m lucky)
Misc - Two analog timers that run lights from 9am-7pm and run CO2 from 730am-6pm. Glass thermometer, drop checker (useless), and a magnetic algae scraper.
Chemistry - pH: 8.2 pre CO2 and 7.0 post CO2. KH and GH are both pretty high.
Plants - Rotala, Jungle Val, Java Fern, Ludwigia, Anacharis, Cabomba, Amazon Swords, Anubias, Moneywort, Lobelia, Banana plants, and crypts.
The pics Im posting are before and after from the day I initially scapped and from today to give an idea of growth.
The first pic is from April 4th and the other one is May 30 so basically 2 months of growth.