Your Low Tech Setup and it's Success (or lack of!)

[The Gipper]

I have a 120 high tech that I've setup in May and I'm still wrestling with getting it right. I enjoy the challenge it presents and look forward to the potential results. This tank is a no expenses spared effort!

TomFrom StLouis started a thread similar to this, but I thought we could expand it and actually tell about your low tech setups and it's successes. IF you failed and discovered why, that would be great too.

I would like to setup another smaller tank (10-30 gallons or so), but I only have the time and $$ to support one high tech effort (my current 120), so the other tank has to be low tech and on a budget. I'm talking no CO2 for sure. I don't know about spending the $$ for compact fluorescent lighting, normal fluorescent lighting is probably the ticket. I want to keep the espenses down. I still want a great looking tank without the expense of CO2.

For those of you who are running a low tech, or have attempted a low tech, could you describe your setup and it's success:

Substrate
Lighting (type and amount)
Do you add micro/macro elements
Plants that work with no CO2 and lower lighting
Fish selection

Your input is greatly appreciated, and I'm sure there are others out there who would be interested in this besides myself!

 

[JasDownUnder]

I would be very interested in the low-tech setup

 

[Captain Hook]

I would also be very interested to hear the successes of people with low-tech setups. I am especially interested to hear about the lighting, substrate, and plants because I will soon be setting up a 20 gallon with a very limited budget and time.

 

[superjohnny]

This is my eclipse system 6 that's pretty low maintenance. That was kind of the key because it's original intention was to go to work with me (hasn't happened yet ). Here are the specs...

Eclipse system 6 retrofitted with an ahsupply power-compact 13w 10,000k light. Using the stock sump & bio-wheel. I've never changed the sump insert because I don't need the carbon filtration, just the mechanical.
Onyx sand
2 small pieces of driftwood, each with a large java fern, 1 with java moss. 2 medium (and growing relatively fast actually) anubias nana in each back corner. 2 crypt wendtii middle towards the back which are growing too fast. In the foreground is dwarf sag which is much happier under the 13w PCF than the original 8w stock t6 light.

Livestock is 1 otto and 2male, 2 female endlers livebearers. I found out yesterday that guppies & endlers will cross breed so I took a guppie out yesterday... only to find some newborn fry hiding among the dwarf sag. Hopefully it's not cross-bred :-\

I change 20% of the water every week or two and infrequently wipe any algae off the glass. I add a ml or 2 of Seachem Florish with water change. The only issue I have right now is some holes in the Java ferns. Some nutrient is deficient, but I'm not sure which.

It's very low maintenance which is perfect for me. I think the key to a small tank like this is finding slow growing plants that you like. Fast growing plants have to be trimmed and in small tanks that's tough to do. The Java fern and anubias are perfect for this application. Anubias, to me, are the coolest plants. I really like them. My big tank has nana, barteri, frazeri & congensis.

I'm thinking of taking the wendtii out because it's growing so fast, but it's color adds a nice contrast. I dunno what to do actually.

 

[RTR]

My low tech setups (the majority of my tanks) - by my personal definition of course - have 2 - 2.5W/gallon, enriched substrates, no CO2 supplement, rare supplement of other ferts., good current, excellent filtration, 25-33% partials weekly w/aged tap, are all understocked (or at least not at all overstocked), all on timed lighting cycles, most are 76-78F.

Those tanks permiting survival of such have "cleaning crews" of some or all of the following: amano/southern marsh/other algae-eating shrimp or detritivoves, snails (MTS, common pond, ramshorn), bristlenose or peckoltia or dwarf panaque cats.

Plants include Swords, Crinums, Val, Crypts, Anubias, Java Fern and Java Moss.

 

[PikeLee]

I have a 90g that I feel is a “low-tech” Setup.

Let me first start off by saying that I used Diana Walstad’s Book as a reference (Ecology of a Planted Aquarium). I had another resource where this guy did the same thing, and showed a diary of it, but I can’t seem to find the link right now. Regardless, if you are going to do a “low-tech” setup. Her book is an excellent resource as well as this forum.

Anyways. I have a 90g “Low-Tech” and I love it. I have a 30g “high-tech” and it’s cool. The plants grow real fast and nice. But if you’re not on top of the water changes or the ferts, the algae will come screaming for you.

The 90g that I have is nice and simple. 160wpg, No CO2, light stock of fish, and good surface agitation. The plants grow nicely, but they don’t go crazy like in a CO2 tank. Check out my profile for what I have in it. Or click on the link for an older picture:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=13049

I’m going to reply with this post with a more recent picture later.

I really don’t have to worry about anything. Things move slowly so you can catch the algae that creeps up. I don’t fertilize. I’ve been doing 20% water changes every month or 2. And that’s only because I added the apistos (and they actually spawned). To be honest with you, I don’t even think they need the water changes that often.

I usually have to keep trimming my Italian val once in a while. I clean the glass about once every 2-3 weeks. But it’s not a necessity. My dwarf sag and val shoots out runners. And my Madagascar lace shoots out about 4 nice leaves before it drops dead. Then it starts the cycle again. I want to get a Green lotus in there, but I can’t find any at a good price right now. And once my Red starts to shoot out runners, I’ll be moving a piece of it in there to see how that goes.

Major Problems that I’ve experienced:
- Surface scum. Cured that with the Fluval surface extractor.
- BGA. I think I got that from my fluval acting up. I didn’t change the pads in it from the 2nd time I was trying to clear up the water from the use of fluorite. Once I changed the pads and gave a Black out, things got a lot better. I seen a little bit after a couple of days, so I shot some Potassium in there and I don’t see a thing.

Other than that, all is gravy. I wanted to put some Discus in there, but everyone recommend that I would have to do some major water changes. Something that I really didn’t want to do. So I opted out on that. I’m thinking of getting some nice Rainbows, but the ones I want are hard to find and really expensive.

Changes that I am considering:
- Maybe some extra light. I’m thinking of getting an 110w from Ah supply and keep the 80w light strip that I have. That would be a total of 190w (2.1 wpg). Since I have a deep tank (2ft), I think I need a bit more light. If it’s too strong, I can always decrease the duration of the lighting (hopefully).
- Adding some more fish. Probably a dwarf pike and some rainbows.

That’s about it!!! When I get more room, I would like to create more “low-tech” setups and search for easier to grow plants.

HTH

 

[kveeti]

I just use regular gravel and regular fluorescents. All the details (plants, watts, etc.) are in my tank specs; pictures are there, too.

Failures: The vals did not do well for me with my low light - they spread a lot but never got taller than a couple inches. (I guess if you wanted "grass" that would be the way to go!) But I wanted a plant for the background so I have replaced them with bolbitis. I have not had that very long, so I do not know how they will perform in the long run.

The aponogeton bulbs did very well for a long time (over a year), but lately a lot of leaves have been dying. I'm not sure what's up with that.

Success (eventually): My java fern really just sat around for quite a while not doing much of anything, although it did stay very green and had a couple babies. Within the last few months it has really taken off and I have started dividing it. If it continues, it will be a nice bushy forest on the right-hand side. I guess it will replace the aponogeton bulbs if they continue to deteriorate.

 

[superjohnny]

They're probably just hibernating, not deteriorating.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

For my low-tech tanks, check my "tank specs" page below. All the info is in there. I've made a few changes to the tanks, and I need to update my pics, but everything else is practically the same. My Java Ferns have doubled in size, are looking much better and healthier now.

p.s., that's a fine looking tank SuperJohnny

 

[Starry]

Originally posted by kveeti
The aponogeton bulbs did very well for a long time (over a year), but lately a lot of leaves have been dying. I'm not sure what's up with that.

They do that, that's what they do. They go dormant every once in a while. Quite unpredictable in the aquarium. People have all kinds of fancy methods of putting them on moist peat in the basement for 3 months and doing vodoo or dancing around them and stuff, but I left mine in the tank and it came back about 6 months later. Actually, the main bulb died, but one of the "babies" pulled through. Maybe not a rousing success story, but it's alive, so hey... Certain conditions are supposed to trigger them to come back, but I can't tell you what it is. There's also a better chance of them coming back if they had a good season - lots of nutrients stored in their tubers. Just because they grew like crazy doesn't mean they were happy - they were just living off what they had stored away. They do need fertilization to store enough to pull them through the dead period. Well, I'm sure you weren't interested anyway, so I'll stop. But I really like Aponogetons