# 125x25x20cm "no tech"



## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

Hallo. I´m new on this page.

I have posted a picture of my aquarium. It´s placed in our kitchen window, and gets direct sunlight the first half of the day.

There is no filtration, cirkulation or any electric light!.

It has been running with no tech since 18marts.

There´s a lot of long green thread algae, that i have to clean up twice a week.

Inhabitants is Heterandria Formosa, Elassom Evergladei, Neocaridina heteropoda, snails, and once every day, i feed the fishes with live dafnia magna.

Thanks everyone for keeping this forum, I have used it alot, så I thougt it would make sence, that I posted a thread about my El Natural aqurium.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

That is a great tank. How big is it? I'd spend more time looking at the tank than cooking or cleaning. 

Sorry, I just noticed the size was in the title. It's a great tank especially considering there are no "gadgets" involved. Thanks for sharing.


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

Very Nice!


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## snooze (Apr 10, 2008)

That is absolutely beautiful! 

Did you have the tank custom made to fit under the window?


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## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

whoa! how much did that cost ya???


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

It´s custom made and I paid around 100 us$(500dkkr). That´s what it cost in Denmark. I have no idea what you have to pay where you live?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

nicolai vandhul said:


> Thanks everyone for keeping this forum, I have used it alot, så I thougt it would make sence, that I posted a thread about my El Natural aqurium.


Thank you so much for posting your picture of this beautiful-- and truly natural tank.

It seems you have brought the outdoors into your kitchen!

P.S. I would love to use this photo for a possible future talk and/or article. Would you be willing? [It is a great photo to show what can be done with minimal electronics and gadgets.]


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

dwalstad said:


> Thank you so much for posting your picture of this beautiful-- and truly natural tank.
> 
> It seems you have brought the outdoors into your kitchen!
> 
> P.S. I would love to use this photo for a possible future talk and/or article. Would you be willing? [It is a great photo to show what can be done with minimal electronics and gadgets.]


Thank you for the nice words, and of course you can use the photo, that would be an honour. 
Is the photo good enough? I´f you find out, that you need a better one, you just send me a message, and I´ll find out something.

The tank is also with potting soil under the gravel, just as I read in your book.

Here is the list of plants: 
Marsilea Hirsuta
Eleocharis Parvula. 
Cryptocoryne wendtii "Green"
Cryptocoryne wendtii "Mi oya"
Sagittaria subulata
Nymphaea lotus ? 
Aponogeton Natans
Hygrophila "?"
Bacopa "?"
Bacopa "Ikea"
Ludwigia repens
Proserpinaca palustris ''Cuba''
Cardamine lyrata
Egeria densa.
Salvinia natans.
ceratopteris cornuta.
rotala rotundifolia.
hygrophila rosernavig.
heteranthera zosterifolia.


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

Here is 3 closeups of the tank. And you can freely use them as well.

























Best regards from Nicolai Wandall, Copenhagen, Denmark.


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## R33 GTR (Aug 4, 2008)

ohhh my gos thats is a awesome tank how much do you change water its hard to keep that tank or is a breeze to have it like that


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

Thank you for the nice words!

I just change the water that evaporates, and once every month oo so, I change about 4gallons. 
I would say, that it is a very easy tank to keep, but I have a lot of green thread algae, that I have to keep down.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Dear Nicolai,

I had expected as much...easy tank to take care of.

I wasn't able to download your pictures from the website, and when I did, my software couldn't open them. Thus, would you please send them as e-mail attachments to me at:

[email protected]

I particularly would like the initial picture. The overhead shot showing such nice emergent plant growth would be nice, too.

Thanks for your patience.

It is not easy for me to deal with computer idiosyncrasies.


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## brenmuk (Oct 7, 2008)

Brilliant tank!

Just curious - does the hair algae grow more strongly after the water change?


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## Tominizer (May 13, 2009)

Oh no......... I see man made technology ............... the substrate is heated from the underside [-X Look at that big heater under the tank !!! 





....................just kidding. You have created a wonderful setup. I'm REALLY impressed. It's fantastic...............one of the nicer one's I've ever seen.


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## Rockylou (Nov 5, 2008)

Nicolai,

Wow! That's beautiful.

Do you happen to know what are your water parameters?

N, P, KH, GH, and so forth.


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

brenmuk said:


> Brilliant tank!
> 
> Just curious - does the hair algae grow more strongly after the water change?


I do not think so. I would rather say, that the thread algae takes a pause after waterchange. But I think it is the sun that plays the main character here. I can really see a difference between a sunny or a cloudy day on the amount of new thread algae.


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

Rockylou said:


> Nicolai,
> 
> Wow! That's beautiful.
> 
> ...


No clue. The only thing I can tell you is, that I have been told, that we have hard alkaline water here in Copenhagen. 
But I can try to find out for you.... Working on it.


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Wow.... that is simply Lovely!

It really does look like you brought a piece of the outdoors inside. I'm so impressed.

And it is an excellent example of just how no-tech one can get! Bravo!

Can I ask about the construction? That L-shaped piece of glass/acrylic that comes into the middle of the tank - is that to support a light if you'd needed it? I've been thinking of doing something close to a window w/ natural light, but as I'm in USA New England, I'd want to have a backup for supplemental lighting.

Its a beautiful tank. Congratulations!
-Jane


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## dianainOH (Mar 21, 2009)

Just beautiful. If I had that in my kitchen I would be 20 pounds lighter-I would never get around to cooking!


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

nicolai vandhul said:


> I do not think so. I would rather say, that the thread algae takes a pause after waterchange. But I think it is the sun that plays the main character here. I can really see a difference between a sunny or a cloudy day on the amount of new thread algae.


Your letter prompted me to rethink my Betta bowl. It had lots of matt algae at the bottom. Like your tank, this was even after everything got well-established and I had great emergent plant growth.

I think the problem is iron leaching from the substrate. Because there's no water movement, there's less oxygen penetrating the upper layer of substrate. This semi-anaerobic condition prompts iron release from the substrate. The algae feeds on this. For example, the algae in my Betta bowl never reached higher than a inch off the substrate. It was sucking up the iron as it came out of the substrate.

In my book (p. 131) , I show soil iron release due to temporary anaerobic conditions in a freshly submerged soil. But iron can be continuously released and precipitated ("iron cycling") from a soil depending on how much oxygen there is in the overlying water. The more the upper layer of substrate is oxidized, the more it tends to keep iron and phosphates in the soil (p. 129).

Finally, sunlight shining directly on the soil layer will increase this iron release from soil ("photoreduction of iron", p. 168 ). That's why I usually run a little duct tape along the outside of the tank bottom where the sun shines on the soil.

Your tank is so patently successful and spectacular, I hesitated to write this.


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## db7 (May 30, 2009)

W-O-W.

What an amazing no tech tank. A total inspiration.


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## mcbaby (Mar 16, 2010)

I'm impressed! How does it look now?


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

Thanks for the nice words everybody. 

I have been away from this forum and the aquariumworld for a while, because we have been moving to a new place. 

This no tech tank dos not exist anymore. We simply do not have a window wide enough for it, in our new home.

But I´m in the progress of making a new 45x60x45cm low tech tank. Just wating for the tank to be build in Germany and wating for some Biolight flourocent pl 24w tubes from Germany as well.


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## sandie (Jan 11, 2010)

Gorgeous tank, would love to see your new set up, once it is done...


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

The tank looks great. Any additional zoom-in shots of the tank?


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

The pictures disappeared, so I just wanted to update this thread.
Here is the only picture I could find. 








My new setup can be seen here http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/71264-60x45x45cm.html

Best wishes.


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## mauve (Apr 20, 2010)

Is it possible to see the photo?
For some reason it is "no worky"


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)

mauve said:


> Is it possible to see the photo?
> For some reason it is "no worky"


? On my pc it is working! Anybody else ho cannot see the photo?


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## nicolai vandhul (May 15, 2009)




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## Douglas Ingram (Apr 1, 2010)

I can only see the newest posted photo. I would love to be able to see the others because it looks great in this one. Inspirational.


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