Low TEch Tank

[John G]

Those who were at the June GWAPA meeting at my house may recall that I had just set up a "low tech" 55 gal tank. By low tech I mean no filter, no ferts, less than 1 watt per gallon of light, and no CO2. I replace 5 gallons of water every two weeks. My idea was to put a lot of different plants in the tank and see which ones grew. After five months I'm pleased with the way the tank has developed. There is almost no algae, and most of the plants have done quite well. Here are a couple of photos.

[Aaron]

Looks pretty nice there John. Are you at least using a powerhead for flow?

[RTRJR]

Although I have a bit higher tech than you are using, I am decidedly low-tech in general. If you like the setup now, you will like it much more after a year or two. Very low tech tanks improve with age as they build up some mulm and the substrate bacteriologically and nutritionally "matures". Quite some time back I did not use plants in newish tanks, waiting until the tank was no longer young before trying to establish plants. These days I am not a purist at all, and do start with mulm from older tanks and filters and a bit of peat moss on the bottom. But with or without that, low tech tanks do improve growing conditions with time.

I'm still quite pragmatic about plants - I try new materials regularly and ithey do well I'm pleased. If they do not I move on.

[John G]

Aaron, I had a powerhead in it when I first put it up, but I took it out about a month later. Now the only circulation is caused by the swimming fish.

[John G]

Aaron, I had a powerhead in it when I first put it up, but I took it out about a month later. Now the only circulation is caused by the swimming fish.