# [Wet Thumb Forum]-necessities of a low tech tank



## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

what all is needed in a low tech tank?

i have c02 so far, but what else besides lots of light? i fertilize too.


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

what all is needed in a low tech tank?

i have c02 so far, but what else besides lots of light? i fertilize too.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

A good substrate is important. But, frankly, this doesn't sound like a "low tech" tank to me. In a low tech tank you make use of natural processes to cut down on maintenance.

I don't use CO2 injection or plant fertilizers. Instead, bacterial digestion of organic matter (fishfood, soil debris) provides CO2 and other plant nutrients in my tanks.


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

ok, so all you use is good lighting and fish?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I use:

soil layer under the gravel

good lighting

lots of fishfood

minimal biological filtration but plenty of water circulation and mechanical filtration

lots of different plant species

hardness above GH = 8

cultivation of emergent growth, especially when there's an algae problem


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## graham1212 (Oct 13, 2004)

ive never read it in detail but ive seen people point out that soil is a bad substrate to use because of certain chemicals it can add to the tank. what sort of soil do you use? do you mix it with any gravel or other substrates?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Scroll down to the March 12, 2004 folder entitled "Low-Tech Substrate" advice.

There are other folders in the El Natural forum with substrate advice.

I devoted an entire chapter in my book to sediment chemistry.


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## graham1212 (Oct 13, 2004)

has your book been published? if so whats the title and where could i find some details?


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

you can check out my tank in the photo album section.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by graham1212:
> has your book been published? if so whats the title and where could i find some details?


The book is 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium'. There are 19 review on Amazon.com. More information with sample pages, reviews, etc are on the book's official website.

Website for Ecology of the Planted Aquarium


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

When you say mechanical filtration, do you mean the filter on your powerhead that you used for the ich treatments?

Are you leaving mechanical filtration in place all the time now, or just intermittently?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Hi Betty,

How're those goldfish?

The "Quick Filters" are now in all 3 of my tanks, permanently. I have to clean them every few weeks, but I don't mind, because they're so easy to clean. In some tanks, I've replaced the cloth-like filter sleeve (1 micron pore size) that comes with the "Quick Filter" with filter material with bigger pore size (100 microns). You can buy filter material in rolls and cut out a rectangle that will fit inside the filter cartridge.

I listed all the "Quick Filter's" assets before (see April 27 2004 folder "Filters, Ich, and Turbidity"), but now I've got one more:

With these fully submerged filters, unlike the "hand-on-the back or canister filters, you can easily lower the water line in your tank without a big mess.

This helps a lot. In my 55 gal, I started getting algae growth. To encourage aerial growth and combat algae, I lowered the water line 4-5 inches so that plants could better reach the surface. Now I am getting some nice emergent growth going in this tall tank.

The powerhead (with the attached Quick Filter cartridge), attaches to the glass with strong suction cups. Thus, the filter (unlike most filters) can be easily lowered a few inches.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

They're doing great! Growing like weeds. 

I did a major rearrange in the tank yesterday. The UGF was on one end with some anacharis and hornwort tied to pieces of slate. The other end was totally full of various plants potted in topsoil. very lopsided. Thought I'd just scoot the UGF to the middle of the tank. ended up getting gravel under it in the process and had to take every thing out! Oh well. Took me all afternoon, but it's back together now, and it looks so awsome! It's balanced now with the UGF in the middle with the potted plants on either side. The sunset hygro is at one end, and wysteria is on the other end. Both are couple of inches from the top of the tank now and bushy. in front of those are the swords. You can actually see the swords now. The shorter bronze wendetti and java fern are in front of those on the left. On the right side of the tank, in front of the sunset hygro are more swords (one has a leaf I swear is 6" long and 4" wide) and green hygro with java fern in front. In the middle rear of the tank tied to slate are anacharis and hornwort. That leaves a nice large open area in the middle for swimming room. Since I had it broken down, I was tempted to move to a topsoil substrate, but I just don't have time with work to keep an eye on things, so I may do that over christmas. I think with the extra water volume from the plant filter, I could get away with it now.

The 25 gallon plant filter is also doing well I think. I have my floaters there growing out to feed the goldies (duckweed, frogbit, salvenia and water lettuce) along with bunches of submerged najas grass, hornwort and anacharis. Pothos and peace lillies growing emersed. Some water celery and anubias potted, getting root systems established.

I was impressed by your use of the filter in treating the ich outbreak you had. Looked for them here in town, but it looks like I'd have to order them online. Saw a DIY idea for water polishing the other day that might work. The guy used a kitchen water filter and hooked it up to a powerhead. I think he used 5 micron size. I'll probably have to end up jerry rigging my powerheads, but that sounds very doable using filter floss and craft mesh. The thing that does worry me about going natural with goldies other than them possibly of them getting to the soil thru the gravel, is that they are very messy beasties. I saw a 6" long poop the other day after I put a piece of zucchini in the tank for them to munch on. They are regular poop factories. So far, I have about 30 adult ramshorns snails in the tank and a few MTS. The baby rams don't make it to adulthood in that tank cuz they get eaten--free goldie food! Do you think the adult rams would be enough to deal with the level of poop I'd get from goldies? 

I'd upped the lighting on the tank up to 230 watts and had been having issues with brown and green strain/hair algae. I like it on the sides of the tank, but it was starting to grow on the plants as well. Cut back the hours of light to 12, and it's resolving now. I'm going to miss the algae on the sides tho... as the goldies loved to graze on it.

Oh one more thing. I have both 20 gallon tropical tanks by south windows and they're getting direct sunlight for most of the day... and I saw my najas grass pearling up a storm the other day in the endler tank! Very cool. Tho, I do have more problems with green hair algae in those tanks.


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