# going low tech,advice please :)



## soton_dave (2 Jun 2014)

ive closed down my marine tank and haven't had much luck selling it (to be honest I haven't really tried lol) so ive pretty much decided to run a low tech planted tank with it.

the tanks 48"long 30"wide and 22"high its sumped and I'd like to carry on with the sump for ease of heater location etc.

im going for a woody scape and am going to be putting the 8 galaxy rasboras,couple of otto's and all the shrimp from my small high tech in and adding more rasboras and ottos as well as a few more fish that im undecided on at the minute.

before I get too carried away I'd like some advice if anyone can help.

if I carry on using the sump would I be ok to just put media in the sump or would I be better off making a trickle tower? im a bit concerned if fish/shrimps go over the weir they'll not make it to the bottom of the trickle tower.

what substrate would be favourable,i'd love to use ADA or something similar but just cant afford to cover the footprint of the tank.

how much light should I be looking at single 54w T5?i'd like to eventually go LED but am trying to keep the initial setup cost as low as possible.

is there a list of plants or a website I can use to find out what plants would be suitable for a low tech.

I dare say there will be a lot more questions before the tank see's a drop of fresh water  so any advice will be taken on board.

cheers dave


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## EnderUK (2 Jun 2014)

_what substrate would be favourable,i'd love to use ADA or something similar but just cant afford to cover the footprint of the tank._
Anything if you're planning on water column feeding (and you should), you can use black blasting grit if you want a black colour but will need a lot of rising. I like sharp sand personally. If you want a bit of root feeding you can't go wrong with dirt (I'm bias), but you might want to still dose but not as critical. There's a nice post in the tutorial section but I would consider not using JI3 as it does contain lime.

_how much light should I be looking at single 54w T5?i'd like to eventually go LED but am trying to keep the initial setup cost as low as possible._
As long as it isn't a T5HO should be okay Par vs Distance T5

is there a list of plants or a website I can use to find out what plants would be suitable for a low tech.
I like the tropica web site and look at 'easy' plants. aqua essential also rates some of their plants. Don't think you're limited, you can get some pretty decent low light plants.

cheers dave[/quote]


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## soton_dave (3 Jun 2014)

Thanks for the info.

After a bit of reading I'm pretty much set on a soil based tank.

I'm not in any major rush to get the tank setup so things may change lol.


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## nickmcmechan (15 Jun 2014)

soton_dave said:


> Thanks for the info.
> 
> After a bit of reading I'm pretty much set on a soil based tank.
> 
> I'm not in any major rush to get the tank setup so things may change lol.



I would recommend reading Diana Walstads book, which is less than a tenner on kindle


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## Edvet (15 Jun 2014)

and there are some good articles here in the tutorial section: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/the-soil-substrate-planted-tank-a-how-to-guide.18943/


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