Thinking about going back to low- tech tank.

[RockysDad]

My newly refilled tank of CO2 had a leak and now needs to be refilled again. Fertilizing every other day is getting to be a drag and so is bi-monthly pruning.

My tank looks nice and all but all this maintanance is taking a lot of time and I don't feel quite up to it recently. I might just go back to a low tech, non C02, lower light setup, slower growing tank. :sad

Anyone else felt this way before? My selection of plants will go down but do you think I can still have nice tank? Would algae be a problem?

 

[djlen]

Definitely, you can still have a nice tank.
Just remember to keep a balance. If you stop adding CO2 or Ferts., you need to balance the lighting with that.
In short, if you scale down something, you need to scale down the others as well.

Len

 

[Richer]

There's nothing wrong with going back to a low-tech setup. I believe RTR has several low-tech setups. I used to have one running as well. It was a 20 gallon bowfront, with 36 watts of CF lighting. It was setup with a piece of driftwood in the middle of the tank, which was surrounded by a carpet of various species of Anubias. I used small floating mats of riccia to further reduce the amount of lighting that went into the tank. I had a single dwarf gourami in it, among a small school of 5 pgmy cory cats. It was a very nice setup, however, it was one of the tanks that I cut back on when I was reducing the number of tanks that I maintain at home.

HTH
-Richer

 

[Cearbhaill]

I keep a beautiful low tech planted tank- out of all my aquariums the planted Discus tank takes the least amount of upkeep.

I change out some water every week and dose with Flourish products- that's it. No algae, no problems- only enjoyment!

 

[RTR]

Yup. back in the dark ages I got the bug and supplemented everything, enriching the tanks, the LFS, and the electric company. I also generated buckets-full of trimmings. I rebelled, dropped back to moderate light, few supplements, and precious little maintenance beyond partials and 1-3 year resets of crowded plant clumps. Life is much easier and better suited to my personal style.

At times I blow it - I had been neglecting one set of tanks even more than usual, overpruned and divided the 9 planted tanks in the central system in one 4-day session of nothing but plant clean-up and clean-out, and was rewarded with a hair algae outbreak. Buying out the LFS stock of anacharis brought it back under control, and bit by bit I'm removing the (agh!) stems from the tanks. Too much substrate disturbance, too much reduction in plant mass at once, insufficient water changes afterward. I know better, but it was worth it. With recently dropping the lighting on what had been my few higher-light tanks, I am again now totally moderate light. The lazy (or greedy) man's way to keep multiple planted tanks. Tom Barr I am not.

 

[RockysDad]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Seems like alot of the "old timers" are going back to low-tech.

My light is currently about 2.6 WPG, plant load is moderate so I guess this is a good time to stop my CO2, since I ran out anyway. Plants are Java fern, Java moss, Cryps, Vals, H. Deformis, Anubias nana so its probably okay. Would like to try some others. I do like the dwarf Amazons. Would those grow in a moderate tank? Any other suggestions?

 

[RTR]

At 2.6 WPG I'd still supplement CO2/carbon for my most of my tanks. But it is right at my break point. Below 2.5 WPG I do not except in shallow (12" H) tanks. Shallow tanks need more supplements for me. I have a 30XH (24" H) with 2.6 WPG which I do not supplement - Val and crypts do fine.

Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica' especially and E. cv. Kleiner Bar (new to me) should do okay in moderate light. E. tenellus will grow fine and spread, but not make a tight and dense carpet for me without higher light and supplement - I still like and use it.

 

[got_nailed]

I have a few 20 high’s that have 2 18” T8’s in them. Most of them just have Java ferns in them most of the people look at those tanks more than my larger tanks that have lots of plants and are the high tech.