Low-tech (non-CO2) tanks post your pics!

[Jungle-mania]

Too many fish for a low tech, cut the number by half or face natural attrition rates and get a 55w PL lighting, the plants are not going to absorb the excess nutrients, unless the tank is directly under the sun. Water change has to be at the very least twice a month given your setup. I'd lose the mosquito fishes and guppies, they breed prolificly.

[doppelbanddwarf]

Too many fish for a low tech, cut the number by half or face natural attrition rates and get a 55w PL lighting, the plants are not going to absorb the excess nutrients, unless the tank is directly under the sun. Water change has to be at the very least twice a month given your setup. I'd lose the mosquito fishes and guppies, they breed prolificly.

Thanks for your suggestions
The guppy and mosquito fish fries are eaten up by the rest of the fishes, especially the apistogrammas, so the population is pretty much under control.
Also the apistogrammas are very young and the largest sized one is a 2.5cm borelli.
Oh and i forgot about an otocinculus in the setup, but i guess it doesn't really matter much.
I guess I'll take up your suggestion and try to reduce the bioload.
Do you have any recommendations on a good 55w PL lighting. Also how long should my lighting period be?
Thanks.

[tomyum]

Low tech 4 ft tank.

Welcome any comments to improve it. Tried growing water lilies but just didn't flower. Probably didn't feed the soil enough.

[Phantom_G]

Hi, here is my 8 months old low-tech setup. Have not changed water for about 6 mths, just regular top-up.

-Tank Specs
6x2x2ft IOS glass tank
4x36W FL lighting (10 hrs daily)
2x120mm DC fans with adaptor
Lapis sand & potting soil

-Flora
Anubias nana
Java fern
Java fern Windelov
Various Crypts
Taiwan moss on driftwoods

Eric

[mordrake]

nice setup Eric
any fert dosing? and how long did it take for the crypts to establish and propagate?

[aquascaping1982]

Hey Eric, very nice tank of yours! So far have your tank encounter any algae before?

[RuiEstrelinha]

WoW, great tank Eric, I love it!!!

Algae problems in java moss do you report anything?

Keep doing a great work!!!

Best regards,

[Phantom_G]

nice setup Eric
any fert dosing? and how long did it take for the crypts to establish and propagate?

thanks Melvin. i am dosing the lushgrow ferts weekly;
1 tsp KNO3,
1/4 tsp KH2PO4,
2 tsp Seachem Equilibrium &
12 ml of Seachem Flourish.
initially half of the crypts simply melted away; it took about 4-5 months to grow to what you are seeing now.

Eric

[Phantom_G]

Hey Eric, very nice tank of yours! So far have your tank encounter any algae before?

WoW, great tank Eric, I love it!!!

Algae problems in java moss do you report anything?

Keep doing a great work!!!

Best regards,

thanks man.
there are always some BBA growing on the windelov & the taiwan moss. i tried to remove it as much as i can but it would came back after a while.

Eric

[grey_fox]

My low-tech tank that I just setup for my workstation.



Setup of tank - 28 January 2007
Hardware - 1 x hang-on filter / 1 x driftwood / lapis gravel with 2 root monsters.
Lighting - 1 x clip-on 11W PL light
Flora - Nana & hairgrass
Fauna - none
Fertilization - none
CO2 - none

[|squee|]

Low tech 4 ft tank.

Welcome any comments to improve it. Tried growing water lilies but just didn't flower. Probably didn't feed the soil enough.

Nice, the right hand side wood should be leant instead of sticking up vertically like that.

[mordrake]

for my 6ft non co2 tank with 150W mh (4 hrs), i dose the following twice a week;

1. kno3 20ppm
2. po4 1ppm
3. seachem equil, 2.5g
4. dr mallick's macros and micros

water change once a month at about 20%.
plants are lots of java ferns, windeluv, amazon swords, varies crypts, e tenellus, blyxa japonica, anubias.
was dosing the above only once a week but the swords were not looking too happy. after doubling the ferts, everything looks much better now.

had lots of crypts in the mid and front of the right side but melted away.
showing signs of new growth though

very very slow bba growth on the tank glass directly under the mh light that's easily cleared during monthly WC.
but now hardly a need ever since i put in 14 baby SAEs

oh yah, have the following fishes;

1 x 14inch aro
14 x SAE
2 x kribs
8 x angelfish
4 x cardinals
20++ x cories
1 x 6inch bristlenose
4 x otos
1 x redline torpedo
1 x ram

aro chases the angels and gets excited whenever a cory goes up to the surface for air. but no harm done.
lost one SAE to the angels though...

3x150W on for photo taking. usually only the centre pendant is on

[peterkoh]

Nice ! What's the temperature like ?

[mordrake]

Nice ! What's the temperature like ?

just switched to using 2 3ft feet light each with 2 x55w PL.
with 1 mh pendant on, light spread not too good.

temp is ard 28-30C. could be better but guess heat gets trapped with the 3 pieces of glass tank covers on. afraid to widen the ventilation gaps in case my aro decides to take a leap of faith.

thinking of adding more plants... suggestions?

[Puffer]

Hi Melvin,
Does this tank formerly house discus? I'm surprised aro can be mates with smaller fish like cories and sae. I like the front to be fully covered with e tenellus lawn which should not be a problem in a short time given your light intensity. i suspect you purposely stop its propagation to show some bare?? I prefer to see java ferns and windelov on one end and maybe the other end have tall plants i.e. crypts or aponogeton sp. Just 2 or 3 will do. Maybe add more anubias?? Looks like lots of slow-growing plants but algae control to the minimum. How you do it?

[mordrake]

Hi Melvin,
Does this tank formerly house discus? I'm surprised aro can be mates with smaller fish like cories and sae. I like the front to be fully covered with e tenellus lawn which should not be a problem in a short time given your light intensity. i suspect you purposely stop its propagation to show some bare?? I prefer to see java ferns and windelov on one end and maybe the other end have tall plants i.e. crypts or aponogeton sp. Just 2 or 3 will do. Maybe add more anubias?? Looks like lots of slow-growing plants but algae control to the minimum. How you do it?

yep, used to house 8 wild discus but moved them to my dad's tank as the aro got bigger.
the aro just chases the angels once in a while and leaves the other fishes alone. keeping it well fed helps i guess.
just planted the tenellus a few weeks ago and hope that it'll spread soon with the new 4 x55w giving more coverage than a single 150w mh pendant.
as for keeping algae at bay, less light is the key.
using the wpg rule, my tank is really low light... ard 1wpg

[grofinstar]

looks good and will look even better when the plants grow

[nys]

2mth+ low tech. Till now no water change, only top-up.

Spec:
- 35x25x25 cm tank
- 9W lighting
- Eden 501 filter using Mr Aqua CR
- GEX substrate

Flora:
- Various nana (petite, golden & marble)
- Various crypt (parva, wendtii & beckettii)
- Various moss (taiwan & spiky)
- Needle leaf java fern
- Riccia

Fauna:
- Boraras briggitae & merah
- Celestichthys margaritatus
- Red cherry shrimp

[Merduka]

Hi bro,

So your set up for non CO2 does not need a fan for the nano tank?

Thanks
Merduka

My low-tech tank that I just setup for my workstation.



Setup of tank - 28 January 2007
Hardware - 1 x hang-on filter / 1 x driftwood / lapis gravel with 2 root monsters.
Lighting - 1 x clip-on 11W PL light
Flora - Nana & hairgrass
Fauna - none
Fertilization - none
CO2 - none

[|squee|]

nys, hope your C.parva grows for you =x Maybe can get a small bag of ADA Amazonia fine grained version and layer it over the bare substrate parts to complement the scale.