[MissCris]

This is my no-tech, low-ferts, low light tank. It is my easiest aquarium to care for, and would be a good setup for a novice to planted tanks. It's been running for years, though it got a bit of an update recently with 2 tissue cultures of undulata red that are starting to just fill in. Tank gets root tabs every once in a while plus about once a month I do a dose of Flourish and Leaf Zone.

Cryptocoryne balansae in back, probably parva (unlabeled at shop, been in there nearly 2 years) tucked front-center between the wood and in front of wood on left, and the recently planted undulata scattered all around. I've been really lucky with the undulata, which never melted at all and is actively pushing out quite a bit of new growth already. There's also a bit of narrow java fern and some type of myrio in the back left corner, and some small java ferns on rock in front waiting to move to my son's shrimp tank.

(Please ignore the hair algae. I stirred up a load of substrate while adding the undulata and splitting the parva clumps, so I'm experiencing a bit of an algae boom as a result, though it's beginning to subside.)

 

[MissCris]

I love "good" algae- it's 100% normal and in a fish based low tech tank it's kind of a necessity. I'm following your shrimp tank build too- sounds like it's going to be very interesting!! I'm definitely going to look into ordering balansae, I think it'll go well along the back center. I'm not new to the hobby but I'm very happily getting back to basics and I'm loving the advice. This tank is in inert gravel substrate with root and flourish tabs. I'm switching from API CO2 boost to excel and going with the flourish line. Hoping this be like my betta tanks where I won't really have to maintain them besides filter cleanings, pruning and top offs and tabs every few months.

Yah, this is the tank that has the least maintenance. It's a bio-cube, so it has a built-in wet-dry filter that I filled with plastic pot scrubbers to support biological filtration (I haven't used the carbon cartridges in there in years, just a chunk of filter sponge in the intake box to catch particles). I currently have a small sponge filter in there from a currently-empty aquarium to keep the beneficial bacteria going, but it's coming back out soon. Water stays nice and clear, and the fish are all healthy. I'm considering adding some small anubias on rocks or a few more clusters of parva to break up the foreground, but haven't decided yet.

Substrate is 5 year old ecocomplete that's been in there since I set it up. The light is stock in the tank hood (old compact fluorescent type, not the newer LED model).

The only algae I usually get is a little green algae on the wood which the MTS keep to a reasonable level, and I actually think that the bit that survives the snails helps give it a more natural aged look. It's my easy-care zen aquarium.