My Little Tanks Planted Project

[Nolapete]

After seeing Teeds 30 cube, I got a bit excited about doing a few planted tanks again, but on a smaller scale and low tech low light. No more CO2 and all that mess for me. Too much to deal with for my short attention span.

In addition to Teeds tank, I've seen so many little 10 gallon gems that make me drool over how awesome they are. You guys do such a great job and I want to be able to do that stuff too.

So, this is what I have to work with:

Tank Set 1

I have a metal stand that holds a 29 and an 20L. I have just resealed the 20L, so it's perfect for what I want to do.

These tanks are for my office, so I really want them to stand out.

Tank Set 2

I have two 5 gallon tanks that I just resealed. They are going to go in my bedroom on my nightstands. I'm going to frame them the same and make them into the lamps for my room. Still haven't figured this all out, but that's the general idea.

Same kind of thing. I want these two little gems to stand out.

Most likely I want to do some blue tiger shrimp in these or something like that.

Tank Set 3

I have 8 total 10 gallon tanks on a rack in my garage. Three of them are unoccupied right now, so they are going to get the treatment as well.


With all these sets of tanks, I want to do the immersed growth "dry" method like Teeds did.

I have Eco-Complete/natural gravel mix enough for all the tanks.

I also have a few pieces of driftwood.

What I need from you are suggestions for plants, fish, inverts, rocks, etc. for each group. Pick one, pick them all, but tell me your ideas.

If I choose your idea or part of it, I'll be sure to make mention of that when i post the pics.

Remember LOW LIGHT, LOW TECH!

[WeedCali]

if you have good enough lighting i would suggest a nice small plant that could cover the floor and some taller stem plants. dont really have any specifics in mind but i do like hygro corymbosa. im picturing a jungle-ish kinda mesh of plants and drift wood.

[Nolapete]

As I said, all this will be LOW LIGHT, LOW TECH. When you say good enough lighting, that doesn't seem to fit.

[WeedCali]

hmm... what kind of lighting do you have if any?

[jbradt]

Tank Set 1

I have a metal stand that holds a 29 and an 20L. I have just resealed the 20L, so it's perfect for what I want to do.

These tanks are for my office, so I really want them to stand out.



What I need from you are suggestions for plants, fish, inverts, rocks, etc. for each group. Pick one, pick them all, but tell me your ideas.

Remember LOW LIGHT, LOW TECH!

Okay... I chose this one because I used to have a 20 long (low light/low tech), and currently have a 29 (recently upgraded, was ll/lt for a year or so).

For the 29 g, I was using a coralife 28" dual 18w t5. It's a little over a watt per gallon, and I grew the hell out of vals, crypts, java ferns/moss, wisteria, anubias and a bunch of different stem plants at different times. And this set-up was pretty easily balanced algae-wise with photoperiod. I have DPs in mine which might not be the best choice for an office setting. This size tank offers a lot of opportunities! I like: a large school of panda cories, a large school of rummy-nose tetras, and maybe a gourami?

The 20 long: I used the same light which was around 1.8 wpg. The tank was a little over stocked and when I got lazy with water changes I would have algae problems. There is a 24" version of the coralife light that I would recommend. This tank will have a bit more intensity at the bottom because of the height, so You'll be able to grow a pretty good variety of lower light plants. My list would look largely like the one above, but you could also probably do dwarf sag. Remember that some crypts will get to the top of the tank, as will java ferns. Wisteria is kind of a pain because at this tank height, you will end up having to trim it weekly... at least. Crypts/vals and java ferns can go a loooong way in this tank. I still have a plan in the back of my head to set this tank back up with maybe 12 threadfin rainbows.

I never used ferts or co2 on either of these tanks.

Hehe, you asked... :thm:

[Nolapete]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217628 is Teeds thread, so you can see the process I'll be taking.

I love me some crypts, pink (deb) can attest to that as I always tried to get some of hers.

[NorthcoastGirl]

Well, I currently have a low tech planted 20 gallon high, not a long, but my setup would do just as well in a long, if not better.

My tank is so low tech that I'm not even sure what kind of lighting it is, it's just the flourescent that came with the kit. ;) However, my amazon swords, frogbit and egeria densa are growing like crazy. I have 9 red phantom tetras, but in a long you might be able to add a few more. The lighting is very subdued, with a black background and a smaller chunky piece of driftwood for a centerpiece. To bring out the color of the phantoms, the substrate should be a darker shade. These fish are sometimes touted as being delicate to keep, but I do nothing to the water except add prime. Once they color up, they're very beautiful.

IMO, long aquariums practically yell "schooling fish!" In fact, that's probably the one thing I'd do over, is get a 20g long instead of a high. If tetras don't appeal- how about CPDs? I don't have any experience with low light Asian aquatic plants, but java fern seems to be a good choice.

Again, this is just my complete lack of experience talking, but I always figured that the easy, low light variety of aquatic plants are actually the underwater version of weeds and would probably need trimmed or thinned on a regular basis. Not sure if that would fit into your low-tech plan or not, lol.

I've never used ferts or CO2 either.

[jpappy789]

Specifics about the lighting you have/want would help narrow down some plants for you.

With my 30 gallon I originally had the stock lighting which was only 20 watts. I kept anubias, java fern, crypts, vals, wisteria, pennywort (floating), and another hygro species (name escapes me). Not a whole lot of growth but everything stayed alive. I got to the point where the java fern was producing babies and the vals were sending out runners pretty constantly.

I occasionally dosed excel and the comprehensive flourish but it was on no set schedule.

If you plan on going with more light than that, you have a wider selection.

[clb2196]

For a fish suggestion- I have some lamepeyes in my planted 10. A good sized school is really cool, and stand out well from the plants. Pretty easy fish, mine will eat anything, and seem pretty hardy.

[Nolapete]

Sounds great NorthcoastGirl.

I've done the high tech high light planted tanks before. I had the CO2 with a Rex Grigg regulator and 10# aluminum cylinder, dosed dry ferts, and so on.

I'm not new to planted tanks. I just was so impressed with Teeds results that I want to emulate it.

I love pencilfish, gobies, gudgeons, rasboras, and a bunch of other fish, so I'm not too worried about stocking fish wise.

I'm more looking for plants that will do well with an immersed approach like Teeds did.

[Chrisinator]

I have a 38G with about 42 watts. That's low light. I have Tiger Lotus, Hygro Compact, Vallisnerias, Anubias, Cryptocorynes and Java Fern growing well in my conditions. No CO2, No Ferts.

If you want them to stand out, I think hardscape helps alot. My favorite type of design is having a bunch of rocks and driftwood coming out of them. (Refer to my sig, if you don't get what I'm saying) with pieces of plants covering the holes of the rocks.

HC should grow well under emmersed growth. There is also a plant nicknamed "UG" that a lot of people are starting to use for planted tanks. I'm having a hard time findiing the scientific name for it.

[D.S Drifter]

an idea for the night stand shrimp tanks. given the low demands of aquatic mosses they are the first thing that comes to mind. creative selection & placement of hard scape materials (rock,driftwood) carpeted with moss make for a elegant focul point. adding a couple java ferns to break up the soft lines of the moss covered hardscape & a white or black sand substrate. you have yourself a low light, low maintanence shrimp friendly habitat that's really going to make the color of the shrimp stand out.
although the moss will do fine & grow in very low light it will grow slow. that being said liberal amounts of moss wil need to be used in the initial planting to offset the slow growth.
just a thought, good luck

[Nolapete]

That's great input everyone!!! I put some of the Eco-Complete/natural gravel mix in the two 5 gallons and they look great.

I cleaned one of the 10 gallons that I got for free and never had done anything with. Filthy and caked with hard water deposits. It's a lot better than what it was, but I'm going to have to hit it with undiluted vinegar to get all that yuck off of there. I'm not up for smelling like a salad tonight, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Started draining the other 2 10 gallons then I got sidetracked with some new fish I bought.

[mellowvision]

i second lampeyes, but recommend fry if you can get them, they get less cue with old age.

[Nolapete]

Here's a few pics. Washed some of the Eco-Complete/Natural gravel mix and started working on some of the tanks.

29
20L
10
5
5

I did another 10 in the garage that the pair of small G. brasiliensis. Put some large pebbles all over the bottom then put the Eco-Complete/Natural gravel mix like mortar between them.

[Nolapete]

Ruh roh, one of the 5's leaks. Guess Ken's reseal wasn't that great on it. Sucker leaks like a sieve!

[Nolapete]

When I go to Lowe's, I always come up with new ideas for stuff or ways to make existing ideas better or combine two or more ideas. Today was no different.

Was looking at the spiral cfl bulbs thinking I could wire up some little canopies for all my smaller tanks. Walked away without any bulbs and just put the thought aside and went to get the parts I needed for the big tank.

While in electrical looking for the switch I needed, I found a little plug in bulb socket and a light went on. :P

I bought four of them, a 4 pack of the 100 watt equivalent (23 watt or something) 6500K daylight cfl bulbs, and two new power strips. I figure it cost me around $25 altogether and this will light two tanks.

The neat thing about this idea is that I can now also plug the heater in inside the canopy and I can do the same for tanks with powerheads since there's 4 outlets free.

I'll take a pic when I get home.

I'm going to build some light boxes with wood I have. I'll make some cheesy aluminum foil reflectors with a hole that the screw part of the bulb can go through so they'll be self mounting. I'll fold the foil about 4-5 times to make it sturdy though.

[roscoe70]

Too many good ideas running around in that mind of yours. NO way is anybody going to be able to keep up, you are the project juggler.

[Nolapete]

Cheesy Light 101

I need need to work on the reflector some more, but using my liner folding technique I created a cheesy one. Guess not too cheesy since if it is flush against the counter there's only a small ring of light around the edge about 1/2" wide. Not too shabby.

Power strip, two plug in sockets, two bulbs, and a piece of aluminum foil will run you right at $10. Not bad for the equivalent of 2 100 watt bulbs 23 watts each of 6500K daylight.

I'll leave it to the math/science geeks to figure out how many wpg, lumens, etc. over a 10 gallon tank that is. Or how two of these over a 20L or 29 might work.

On with the show err assembly! Oh, BTW, IT IS REALLY BRIGHT!

[Nolapete]

Just need to build a light box and make it all fit over a 10 gallon tank. Probably about $4-$5 of wood and nails to build.

I may just line the light box with aluminum foil. Would be easier. Sure, I know, there's better reflectors out there, but last I checked they cost about what this entire retrofit kit costs.

[Nolapete]

Friend told me about these rubber bushings they have for outdoor lighting that go on the socket. I need to get some of those.

[Nolapete]

Having an aquarium society pot luck and diy workshop at my house on February 27th. Plan on having a bunch of tanks setup for a hands on presentation on immersed growth planted tanks. Depends on if people bring enough cuttings though. I have a bunch of other DIY demonstrations planned too.