# Low Tech Guidance



## mark4785 (13 Mar 2016)

Due to work and miscellaneous commitments I am now finding that I have less time to devote towards the maintenance of my high-tech aquariums. As such, I am now drifting towards the idea of maintaining a low-tech aquarium that doesn't need as much rigorous cleaning and pruning.

The footage embedded below shows one of my high-tech aquariums with c02 injection, an EI dosing regime (potassium nitrate and phosphate dosed every other day), weekly 50% water changes and a photoperiod of 6 hours of 1.8 WPG of light each day.



Recently the timer for the aquarium failed which, on top of me being very busy with other hobbies and duties, creates a situation where the photoperiod varies turbulently between 4 and 8 hours. While there is no resultant algae issues from this, I have had to remove most of the plants due to yellowing, thinning and pin holes appearing in the leaves.

Having decided to go low-tech I am naturally wondering what would need to be changed in terms of the frequency and the percentage/dosage of the *water changes*, and *macro/micro fertilisers*. Also, how long should the *photoperiod* ideally be? Note: I have decided that I will still continue to *injection c02* as the minor acidic effect that this has on the pH will be beneficial to my Discus in my opinion.

In terms of the aqua-scape, I am looking to go about introducing an environment that is natural to Discus. This entails, most importantly, the water temperature being 30 degrees C or above for my juvenile pigeon blood discus. Are there any plants that would not cope well in 30 degrees C water?

Lastly, in terms of the size of the aquarium I am looking at getting a 300 litre aquarium with a WPG rating of no more than 1 WPG. Are there any aquarium brands that I should be focusing on that would allow me to install a singular T8 bulb to achieve the aforementioned WPG rating? Note: I am looking for an aquarium that does not hardwire the filter, lights and heater through one plug as should one of these products fail, as is the case with me (see 3rd paragraph), it is impossible to replace the product without a qualified electrician with the patience to get their hands dirty and also invalid the system warranty.


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## PARAGUAY (13 Mar 2016)

If not already I would look up George Farmers thread" My Best Low Tech so far"October 15 and Trois tutorial on" soil substrate in the Tutorials,both are also articles in Practical Fishkeeping


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## Tim Harrison (13 Mar 2016)

Also take a look at Georges Slow Burner http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/na-65cm-slow-burner.37285/
As for plants most Aponogetons, Cryptocorynes, and Echinodorus spp., will fair well, _Barclaya longifolia, Ceratopteris thalictroides, Crinum, Hygrophilia difformis, Microsorium, Nymphaea stellata _are apparently also well suited to the necessary high temps.


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## mark4785 (13 Mar 2016)

Thank you for recommending George's threads and provided plant recommendations 

Having looked at the 'My best low tech so far' thread I noticed that a substrate named Colombo Pro Soil was used. Could I manage without this and just use natural sand? I currently have sand in my current discus tank due to it being less penetrable against uneaten food and detritus.


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## Tim Harrison (13 Mar 2016)

Yep you could...as long as you continue to dose the water column with fertz. 
However, you could also use soil capped with sand and separated by a soil retainer (as per my tutorial) which IMO would work much better especially with the so called big root feeders above - sort of belt and braces approach.


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## zozo (20 Mar 2016)

mark4785 said:


> I noticed that a substrate named Colombo Pro Soil was used



I do not know about others experiences, but i used Colombo Flora Base pro powder type to cap my soil (hi tec) and i'll never ever buy that nasty expensive stuff again. Much to light, very difficult the plant carpet when tank is flooded and it's sucked out easier the the debri during maintenance.. Much to soft too, it's in the tank for a year now and it almost falls apart into dust while looking at it. Not worth spending the money, this is a bad Colombo product even worse when realizing the cost.


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## PARAGUAY (20 Mar 2016)

You could use just sand and some easy plants like hyghro or vallis would do alright as long as you do dose the water column as Troi says,could you not have a soil area and a part sand area to make it less time to maintain with plants on rock or wood in the sand area


mark4785 said:


> Thank you for recommending George's threads and provided plant recommendations
> 
> Having looked at the 'My best low tech so far' thread I noticed that a substrate named Colombo Pro Soil was used. Could I manage without this and just use natural sand? I currently have sand in my current discus tank due to it being less penetrable against uneaten food and detritus.


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## mark4785 (1 Jul 2016)

My new aquarium is now set-up with seeded filtration media taken from a well established pond filtration unit. The aquarium is 260 litres (around 57 gallons) in capacity and contains a 70cm length piece of Red Moor root. I've decided to attach a variant of Anubias, as well has a moss, to this piece.

For the lighting I am using the Fluval AquaSky 25w LED strip which I have dimmed. It is not providing high light conditions by any stretch of the imagination. Given that it is providing low light conditions should I consider this aquarium to be low-tech? I will be using pressurised co2 injection but I'm told that you need a high-light environment AND co2 injection for an aquarium to be considered high-tech. If I am indeed managing a low-tech aquarium here what fertiliser dosing regime should I employ?

Lastly, I have chosen not to introduce any substrate as I am wanting to have a traditional bare-bottom Discus set-up. The Discus that I have also have problems with identifying food when it is situated on substrate so in order to rectify this I feel the need to not use any substrate as my main concern is ensuring that the fish can ID food and therefore eat it.


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## tim (1 Jul 2016)

Hi mark, with anubias and moss under low light you won't need co2, a lean dosing method would work, an all in one fert available from various sponsors, try half recomended dosage as a starting point, fwiw moss will probably not do well at the temps required for discus.


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## mark4785 (2 Jul 2016)

tim said:


> Hi mark, with anubias and moss under low light you won't need co2, a lean dosing method would work, an all in one fert available from various sponsors, try half recomended dosage as a starting point, fwiw moss will probably not do well at the temps required for discus.



Hi Tim,

Is there any downside to injecting co2 even if it is not needed? The reason I wish to inject is due to the fact that the pH of my tap water rises from 7.4 to around 8.0 after it has been in the aquarium for 24 hours so I need to mediate that effectively with dissolved carbonic acid. I plan to add Discus to the aquarium and I'm a bit concerned that a pH of 8.0 will be too high. The discus is currently in a smaller 120 litre aquarium with a pH of around 6.4 which it appears to like.

I did order some Taxiphyllum barbieri, prior to you saying that it may not do well in a high-temperature discus tank. So as to not waste it, would you like to take it for free for your own use? It was ordered from Aqua Essentials so should be excellent quality.


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## zozo (2 Jul 2016)

I have the same in my low tech, even i bit higher.. My  tap water also is around ph7+ when it's fresh from the tap and rises to 8.5 at lights on, lights off it lowers again to 8.2.
But this is not problematic for my fish. Tho i have no discus, but as far as i know from discus breeders and keepers is a ph 8 isn't ideal but this also isn't problematic for healthy adult discus fish. Fish are very addaptable to a wide range of Ph and ph 8 is not a danger for the fish health.. If it stays constant they addapt to it, what i know from experienced discus keepers is they are more sensitive to swings in water parameters than other fish spieces. Which also means if you alter ph by wathever means you have to make sure to prepare when you do a water change to not let it swing to much. So especialy with keeping discus and lowering ph drasticaly is something to be very carefull with. You should be more worried about a very stable invironment.

The only down side of adding co2 if you do not grow difficult plants is the extra cost.. For the rest it is as beneficial for low light plants as well and the will grow faster and bigger.


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## mark4785 (3 Jul 2016)

zozo said:


> The only down side of adding co2 if you do not grow difficult plants is the extra cost.. For the rest it is as beneficial for low light plants as well and the will grow faster and bigger.



At this time I inject co2 into my old Discus aquarium and the only issue I noticed was that the Discus appeared unsociable after I did a small water change. I would attribute this to a sudden pH swing. My hope is that having a new low-tech aquarium would mediate pH swings since water changes are supposed to be few and far between with this kind of set-up.

As for injecting co2 into a low-tech aquarium, is there less of a need to get the BPS rate spot on? I ask this because the co2 injection will, for my purpose, just be mainly conditioning the pH for the discus.


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## zozo (3 Jul 2016)

I have no personal experiences with discus, it just that an LFS near my place where i regularly visit is specialized discus breeder. So i oftenly pick up things over hearing discussions and questions about it when waiting for my turn and sometimes ask things myself about these beautifull fish.. Actualy it's the price tag holding me back of even thinking about keeping these fish. 

If you want a near perfect stable PH with co2 you would need a desent PH controler and since it's not for the plants you need to keep it running 24/7. Doing it without PH controller it requires quite some fiddling around with the needle valve . And with regulating co2 manualy with bubble counter and even with a permanent ph meter small changes in bubble count will have effect on the ph depending on the regulators quality even room temp can have drastic effects on bubble count and ofcourse again on the ph. Doing it manualy would require some intensive constant monitoring.

WIth a PH controller you set the desired ph and this controller shuts off co2 when value is met. Depending on it's quality for example a Milwaukee it can have a resolution of 0.1 with a 0.2 accuracy.. So this would keep it stable withing Ph 0.2

If discus are realy that ph swing sensitive, i wouldn't sleep well at night with a manual regulated co2 instalation to control ph..


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## tim (3 Jul 2016)

Hi Mark, thanks for the kind offer of the moss, it'd be worth giving it a try yourself I believe Java moss will do ok at higher temps, though it'll grow slower, I have no experience of discus but from what I've read on the subject frequent water changes are required to remove waste and uneaten food, personally I would prefer to use ro water or rainwater if possible remineralised to keep a stable ph rather than co2, but again I have no experience on discus so maybe a more knowledgable member can offer you more guidance.


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## mark4785 (6 Jul 2016)

zozo said:


> I have no personal experiences with discus, it just that an LFS near my place where i regularly visit is specialized discus breeder. So i oftenly pick up things over hearing discussions and questions about it when waiting for my turn and sometimes ask things myself about these beautifull fish.. Actualy it's the price tag holding me back of even thinking about keeping these fish.
> 
> If you want a near perfect stable PH with co2 you would need a desent PH controler and since it's not for the plants you need to keep it running 24/7. Doing it without PH controller it requires quite some fiddling around with the needle valve . And with regulating co2 manualy with bubble counter and even with a permanent ph meter small changes in bubble count will have effect on the ph depending on the regulators quality even room temp can have drastic effects on bubble count and ofcourse again on the ph. Doing it manualy would require some intensive constant monitoring.
> 
> ...



The tank that the Discus is currently in is co2 injected using a Dennerle canister and a Dennerle pressure valve. The pressure valve is configured (using a basic UK plug timer) to inject co2 for about 12 hours per day to sufficiently cover the pre-photoperiod and the actual photoperiod time length. So far the Discus is very healthy and eating with this set-up despite their being variable amounts of dissolved co2 between the injection and non-injection periods.

Given that the above is working for me I will go ahead and provide a 12 hour co2 injection period for the new aquarium. I will definitely consider a pH controller or run the co2 injection 24/7 if I need to. Due to the aquarium being very new I'm watching the ammonia and nitrite levels very carefully for a matter of weeks before adding the Discus. So far the Ammonia sensor (in the Seneye Aquarium monitor) has showed a NH3 reduction from 0.016 ppm to 0.010 ppm over the last 3 days and the nitrite level (tested using an API master test kit) is 0 ppm. My understanding is that ammonia and nitrite are tackled by the filtration bacteria most efficiently when the pH is alkaline and temperature is above 28 degrees C so my main concern is what will happen when I bring the pH down to an acidic level on injecting co2.


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## mark4785 (6 Jul 2016)

tim said:


> Hi Mark, thanks for the kind offer of the moss, it'd be worth giving it a try yourself I believe Java moss will do ok at higher temps, though it'll grow slower, I have no experience of discus but from what I've read on the subject frequent water changes are required to remove waste and uneaten food, personally I would prefer to use ro water or rainwater if possible remineralised to keep a stable ph rather than co2, but again I have no experience on discus so maybe a more knowledgable member can offer you more guidance.



Ok I'll give it a try. RO water is something I may have to consider, especially if I buy a Discus that is wild and therefore used to brackish water conditions. The Discus I have seems to be doing well in Derbyshire tap water which can have a high hardness level. Perhaps it would be easier for me to seek out more Discus that have adapted to these tap water conditions like my current Discus appears to have done.


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## zozo (18 Jul 2016)

This you might like, he also talks about pH..


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## mark4785 (22 Jul 2016)

zozo said:


> This you might like, he also talks about pH..




Thanks. Will watch this when I have a little more time to spare .

*Update: *I now have several Anubias plants and Valisneria spiralis in the aquarium. There are new leaves growing out of both of these plants, however the leaves are much smaller and also, in the case of the new Anubias leaves that are growing through, they are lighter in colour.

I feel that the smaller leaves are understandable due to the low wattage light (please correct me if I'm wrong) however I did feel that the Anubias leaves would show more symptoms of iron uptake by showing more chlorophyll. I am using *Eheim Ferrous Fertiliser 250ml *as my source of micro-nutrients. Is this a suitable micro-nutrient brand for water with a kH of 4 dH, a gH of 6 dH and a pH (after co2 injection) of 7.0?

This is my current dosing regime which is Tom Barr's recommendation for a 57 gallon aquarium:

1/2 * teaspoon plus  1/5 teaspoon of sachem Equilibrium *
*1/4    “             plus  1/9 teaspoon of KN03 (Potassium Nitrate)*
*1/16   “            plus  1/33 teaspoon of KH2P04 (Potassium Mono Phosphate) *

There are some signs of brown algae growing on the Anubias and glass. I keep wiping this off and its very manageable. I hope that the silicates from the new equipment is the cause of it as I feel I have dosed enough nutrients and the drop-checker is a light green indicating good dissolved co2 levels. My understanding is that due to this tank being low-tech the drop-checker doesn't necessarily have to show a green colour as co2 injection isn't necessary.


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## PARAGUAY (23 Jul 2016)

Not every having kept Discus its interesting to read that according to Tony-Chens Discus and Mark Evenden providing the source they can be kept happily in tap water,Tony imports from Asia and retails ,shows and breeds them all kept in tapwater ,strong fish is the key to success and goes out to inspect before import.I often read Marks new to Discus guides and European Discus are very tolerant of hard and soft water


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## PARAGUAY (23 Jul 2016)

What happened my comment is in the quote?


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## mark4785 (24 Jul 2016)

PARAGUAY said:


> Not every having kept Discus its interesting to read that according to Tony-Chens Discus and Mark Evenden providing the source they can be kept happily in tap water,Tony imports from Asia and retails ,shows and breeds them all kept in tapwater ,strong fish is the key to success and goes out to inspect before import.I often read Marks new to Discus guides and European Discus are very tolerant of hard and soft water



Hi, thanks for your response, but who are you addressing with your comment?


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## PARAGUAY (24 Jul 2016)

Hi Mark it was you and probably of interest to others I somehow got my comment in your quote and when I edited it the quote disappeared. Just a couple of articles from two Discus experts. Thought what I had read might be of interest in that Tony Chen sources is Discus from Asia keeps in tap water and Mark Evenden has wrote a couple of articles about not like it used to be it RO water not a necessity although I agree Wild Discus from South America it would be necessary,I think Mark Evendens speciallity is hardy European Discus


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## mark4785 (25 Jul 2016)

*Update: *I now have several Anubias plants and Valisneria spiralis in the aquarium. There are new leaves growing out of both of these plants, however the leaves are much smaller and also, in the case of the new Anubias leaves that are growing through, they are lighter in colour.

I feel that the smaller leaves are understandable due to the low wattage light (please correct me if I'm wrong) however I did feel that the Anubias leaves would show more symptoms of iron uptake by showing more chlorophyll. I am using *Eheim Ferrous Fertiliser 250ml *as my source of micro-nutrients. Is this a suitable micro-nutrient brand for water with a kH of 4 dH, a gH of 6 dH and a pH (after co2 injection) of 7.0?

@PARAGUAY, I don't have access to RO water so cannot lower my gH.


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## zozo (25 Jul 2016)

mark4785 said:


> new Anubias leaves that are growing through, they are lighter in colour.



I got this too as well in the low tech as in the high tech, first time evr i grew anubias, but i guess it;s typical for this plant and the will get darker as they mature.. In my case they do..


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## GHNelson (25 Jul 2016)

Hi Mark
Its natural for all plants to be smaller and lighter when new growth appears....even new moss growth is lighter green!
hoggie


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