# fishless nano lowtech



## averater (Dec 14, 2004)

I've started a tank about a month ago.

it has a volume of 3l, lots of lights (directly under a window) and is quite densely planted (partly emersed)

now to the question: all guides about lowtech or el natural suggests heavy feeding, but how do i do when i dont have any fish to feed?

i got al the usual chemicals (kno3, kh2po4, cacl2, caco3, mgso4, micronutrients...) but no water tests.

and i do have a lot of algae. probably mainly since i added 10ppm (!) of iron for testing (i got more curiosity than common sense).

please give me suggestions on how to do. (if possible without any water changes)


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

A few things, first it is said that high iron levels do not induce algae. Algae use nitrates and phosphates for energy, since iron is just an element and not a compound like the other two i mentioned, it cannot be used as an energy source and so, will not feed algae. 

I think your algae problems are much more likely to come from sunlight. The higher intensity lighting seems to induce many different kinds of algae to grow, especially the green water kind.

As for low tech, if you feed heavily then you will need to clean often. Also if you do not plan on adding fish to your tank then i would suggest dosing some ferts, just in much smaller quantities then you would dose a CO2 tank. Weekly dosing should be enough for slow growing plants.

As far as the algae goes, i would add lights to the tank, and remove it from the sunlight.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

If it's a soil substrate, I'd do a large partial water change to remove the iron and just dose it with ammonia or fish food periodically.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I would not dose ammonia, ammonia is taken up first before nitrate by both plants and algae. Ammonia will induce more algae especially with sunlight. Green water is triggered using ammonia and sunlight to feed fish fry. Fish food is probably not a good idea either since there are no fish to eat it, and it will simply rot and foul your water. 

DataGuru made a good point about doing a water change to reduce the iron. While iron won't cause algae, it probably is best to reduce the levels a bit since they are rather high.


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## averater (Dec 14, 2004)

the algaes i have are long threads and something that might be bluegreen algae. no green water.

if i should dose ferts, then how much and how often? and what ferts?

i have made one water change sinse the iron dose (~1l, 1/3). so far i have been trying to guess how much ferts to add, but i dont really have a clue. 


Zapins: algae uses light as their energy source, not ammonia/phosphates/iron ...


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

If you have snails or shrimp (e.g., cute little cherry shrimp), you could just add fishfood and let these invertebrates help break it down. Fishfood has all the nutrients, including micronutrients, that plants need. Fishfood is better than chemicals, because it contains organic carbon that will naturally provide plants with CO2.

By barring all animals and invertebrates from your "Garden of Eden", you are making aquarium-keeping more difficult (and not as interesting, in my opinion) as it could be.


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

You could also try very tiny invertebrates like Cyclops, ostracods, Moina or Daphnia. I think these little creatures are very interesting to watch as they zoom around the tank! 

From Alex.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

averater: what i mean by algae using nitrogen and phosphates for energy is, light drives chemical reactions inside the plant, the phosphate compounds are made into energy carrier molecules that the plant or algae uses to fuel its growth. And nitrogen is used to make the amino acids, proteins and other cellular components of the plant. So together these two, at least in my mind, are used for energy storage and growth in plants. Sunlight cannot make plants grow directly, instead the sun's energy must be transferred to carrier molecules that force other compounds (like nitrogen) to be assembled into new growth.


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