[jlscho03]

These are all beautiful tanks. @Doc7, I can't believe there was so much growth so quick!

 

[Lammergeier]

Just wanted to post a little update from my last. I replaced the fluorite with sand a few months ago and I'm loving it! Added some more bucephelandra, anubias, and anacharis/egeria along with three nerite snails. Most of the plants are doing spectacularly well, including the crypts that I had almost given up on. The java fern has suffered quite a bit and has died back to almost nothing, although I haven't given up hope on it yet. I've been fertilizing the tank using the seachem dosing chart on a somewhat haphazard basis (ie, when I remember). I'm sure there is still room for improvement, but I think the tank looks loads better from its last iteration.

 

[fastfreddie]

Beautiful!

 

[ererer]

Setup: 55g Aqueon AGA

Stocking:
8 Paracheirodon axelrodi
2 Corydoras trilineatus
6 Corydoras sterbai
5 Apistogramma hongsloi
4 Corydoras paleatus "Longfin"
1 unidentified Corydoras sp. (could be C. similis?)
100+ Neocaridina davidi

Plants:
Echinodorus osiris
Echinodorus cordifolius
Echinodorus vesuvius
Echinodorus bleheri
Echinodorus 'Barthii'
Microsorum pteropus
Sagittaria subulata
Vallisneria spiralis
Lobelia cardinalis
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Cryptocoryne walkeri
Fissidens fontanus
Bucephalandra

Equipment: PennPlax Cascade 1000 canister filter
Finnex 300w titanium heater w/ Inkbird temp controller

Lighting: Fluval 3.0

Substrate: Pool filter sand + safe-t-sorb

Ferts: Osmocote Plus, with occasional dosing for trace using NiloCG Aquatics Selects Salts

What I've learned:
I bought the equipment to run a custom co2 setup, but realized that the tank was doing well without it, so I haven't added it yet. I do deal with hair algae in the phoenix moss on one of the branches right under the light that I have to remove manually about twice a month. The Fissidens is about the only plant that doesn't do well in my tank, and would probably do better with co2. However, most of my plants seem to grow really tall, which I imagine is due to the lack of co2, and the lower light intensity I run to keep algae low. All-in-all, I'm quite pleased, as it's a pretty low maintenance tank, though I am experimenting with making it a blackwater tank now. I'll post the results here in a few months.

 

[Andy22]

17 gallons with gravel as substrate and some sand in the foreground.

Plants:
Anubias nana petite
Pearl weed
Ludwigia super red
Java fern
Rotala rotundifolia
Hydrocotyle tripartita
Some type of anubias I have not identified
Red root floater
A lot of duckweed (I propagate it to feed my koi)

Filtration is Aqueon HOB

Lighting is finnex ray 2 DS about 8hrs on

Ferts Nilocg thrive+ 1-2 ml/week


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chrisg]

Update on my tank from here - it turned into a cautionary tale of what happens when you let floating plants take over and block too much light, so I thought I'd show the decline in case it helps someone else.

It started out as Salvinia Minima, but a little duckweed came with it and it didn't take long for it to become all duckweed. I'd remove about 75% of it with each water change which was not enough, should have pulled it all sooner but I was paying more attention to a new tank and let this one go on autopilot for too long. This is over about 6 months:

So, it was time to clean it out and start over:

 

[greenguppy]

Very nice tanks what fertilizer do you use @chrisg

 

[Bon MotMot]

All my tanks are low tech. I don't think I could keep up with CO2. I can't grow everything but what does grow goes crazy.

Betta Nano 5 gal at 1 year

Other Betta Nano 7 gal at 5 months. This was the peak; the emergent stuff took over and I lost the diversity of the lower level plants. Had to start over but it is fun to watch the changes.

Loach tank 20g long at 4 months. Need to get better photos.

Livebearer tank 29g at 2 months.

Big tank 75g at 2 months after a 1.5 month dry start. Before the ludwigia took over.

75g at one year; has had one big trim

 

[Plinkploop]

40B first low tech tank in ages. I'm soooooo out of the loop. Trying to get my situation under control. This tank has been in use for a decade. It started it's existence as an apisto breeder, turned into a plant propagation tank and then was stripped of everything it was besides filters, heater and a couple pieces bogwood and driftwood.
Set up-
2 fluval internal filters (floss and sponge only)
1 large sponge filter
Aqueon (?) dual ballast 1 TropicSun T8, 1 unknown brand 6500K T8 (waiting on my finnex)

Substrate
1 inch laterite/ plant substrate (can't remember the name of it)
2 inches gravel

Plants
Narrow leaf java
unknown crypts
Java moss
Aponongoton
Various dwarf anubias
Four leaf clover
Random sword

Stock
10 rummynose
8 cardinals
8 oto
6 spotted cories
An unfortunate amount of pesky guppies, currently being removed daily (thanks hubby)

Maintenance
Daily- 2.5-5 gallon changes, 3/4 dose API CO2 boost
2-3X per week- npk dose
Weekly- 10 gallon (25%) water change
Monthly filter rinses
3 month plant maintenance

Having some issues with algae so lights cut back from 8 hours to 6 hours and 25% water changes upped from once a month to weekly. Missing my high tech set up but hoping to find some fun in getting back to basics and relearning how to balance things without tech. All suggestions and any words of advice are welcome

 

[SophieBee]

6 months of growth 😁
10 gallon low tech
Only inhabitants so far are a handful of otocinclus and a nerite snail (had two but one disappeared 🤷‍♀️)

 

[phongg]

Here are my two tanks which I've had for about 3 years now: UNS 45P on the left and 20 gallon long on the right. However I've recently added CO2 to the 20 gallon (which is growing much faster now), but these are all older photos prior to that.

For me, I found for non CO2 tanks, growth didn't really take off until I started dosing ferts and increasing the lights beyond 8 hours (by dimming the light, using floating plants, or both to keep algae at bay). Substrate and light choice doesn't even seem to matter as I'm using eco complete that everyone complains about and it grows fine.

Plant List:

• Anubias Nana Petite
• Anubias Nana
• Dwarf Sag
• S. Repens
• Trident Java Fern / Regular Java Fern
• Rotala Rotundifolia
• Java Moss
• Crypt Undulata
• Salvinia Minimas (floating)
• Dwarf Water Lettuce (floating)

Hardscape:

• Dragon Stone
• Malaysian Driftwood
• Spider Wood
• Pacific Driftwood

Substrate:

• Eco Complete
• ADA La Plata Sand (decorative)

Lighting:

• Nicrew Deluxe (dimmed to about 30%)
• Finnex Stingray (now swapped to Nicrew SkyLED Plus)
• 11 hours a day

Filter:

• Fluval 206 Cannister for 20 gallon
• Aquaclear 50 HOB for 9 gallon

Dosing 1x a week:

• KH2PO4 (1/32 tsp both tanks)
• K2S04 (1/16 tsp for 20 gallon, 1/32 for tsp 9 gallon)
• Plantex CSM+B (1/16 tsp for 20 gallon, 1/32 for tsp 9 gallon)
• Water Change: 30% every 2 weeks

I have KNO3 also, but don't use it as I like to keep the nitrates around 5-10ppm which it usually stays at without it.

My 20 Gallon Long FTS

UNS 45P FTS: This one was cheaper as I used trimmings from the 20 gallon to scape. I moved my neon tetras over to other tank also, so now its just a betta tank.

 

[SDrouillard]

6 months of growth 😁
10 gallon low tech
Only inhabitants so far are a handful of otocinclus and a nerite snail (had two but one disappeared 🤷‍♀️)
View attachment 1026601 View attachment 1026602

I have that lovely little bridge in my 29 Gallon aquarium too. It is really cute. Your aquarium is lovely.