# First Low Tech Planted Tank... Now High Tech!



## MrHidley

My girlfriend asked that I set up a scape for the lounge. Because I'm pretty busy and don't have much time for maintenance right now I decided to set up something low tech and easy to care for, this is what I came up with. Having only previously had high tech planted tanks I couldn't believe how easy and low maintenance this has all been. Tank has been running for about a month and i've barely had any algae to deal with and the plants have really looked after themselves.

*Tank- *Cheap 27 Litre 45x28x28 
*Stand -* DIY Cabinet made from MDF, cost around £40 to build and paint
*Heater -* Interpet Nano 25w
*Filter -* Boyu HoB 300lph
*Lights - *Boyu 3x8w T5 with only one bulb running
*Substrate - *Tropica plant growth substrate below Tropica powder substrate, Unipac Kivu sand.
*Hardscape -* Oak Root and Lava Rock
*Flora - *Microsorum Pteropus Windelov, Rotala Rotundifolia, Anubias nana 'mini', Hydrocotyle Tripartita, Echinodorus Tenellus, Taxiphyllum 'Spiky', Staurogyne Repens, Micranthemum Monte Carlo.
*Fauna - *Ramshorn Snails, 6 Microrasbora erythromicron and one cherry shrimp which made its' way home in the same bag as the microrasbora.

Fish only went in today and are still shy so don't really appear in any of the pictures.



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## -serok-

Looking very good and healthy. This one is running without co2?


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## EnderUK

MrHidley said:


> 6 Microrasbora erythromicron



They will find a nice dark corner at the back of the tank and hide there away from the light. They will be active during day light hours when the light isn't on. If you want activitity I would get 4-5 more cherry shrimp


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## MrHidley

-serok- said:


> Looking very good and healthy. This one is running without co2?



Yep, no co2, no liquid carbon, just occasionally fert dosing.



EnderUK said:


> They will find a nice dark corner at the back of the tank and hide there away from the light. They will be active during day light hours when the light isn't on. If you want activitity I would get 4-5 more cherry shrimp


Thanks for this, I didn't really want the cherry shrimp just the lady at the lfs couldn't be bothered to take it out, would Amanos or other shrimp work the same way? I don't fancy having a massive colony of cherries again...


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## Aqua360

Very inspiring set-up! 

I hope to have a low tech at some point, and this shows that it really can look superb


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## MrHidley

Thought I'd add a couple pictures of the DIY stand I made, it's not perfect and could do with another coat of paint and some varnish, but I think I'm happy enough with it. It was the first time I've really DIYed anything, so I'm very happy with the result.


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## Lexy

Awesome little tank, looking foward to seeing more and hopefully the Emeralds make an appearance next time the cameras out.


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## MrHidley

It's been almost two months since i started this thread so here's a little update.

I've done almost no maintenance with the plants apart from trimming the moss. Rasboras went back to the shop as they just weren't active enough, been replaced by 10 neon tetras which i feel work really well in the tank.



Comes across much better in reality than in this particular picture.


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## rebel

Great example of how it should be done! Great cabinet build!


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## Bugnal1

Nice work on the cabinet and the tank looks great.


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## MrHidley

Quick shot after monthly maintenance, which is basically a scrub of the glass, trim of the moss and a water change. Hydrocotyle tripartita is now growing out of the tank, and I love the natural look it gives. Added some Bolbitis in the rear corner although you can't see much of it currently.


Lounge Low Tech - After Maintenance


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## MrHidley

Flowering Hydrocotyle tripartita


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## Jester

beautiful little tank. I didn't know Hydrocotyle tripartite came out of the top of the water. I better keep an eye on mine! What ferts do you use?


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## MrHidley

Jester said:


> beautiful little tank. I didn't know Hydrocotyle tripartite came out of the top of the water. I better keep an eye on mine! What ferts do you use?



Thanks! At the moment i'm just dosing my ei mix, but only a couple ml of it about once every two weeks. I'll probably move to something simpler like Tropicas ferts though.


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## Tim Harrison

Well done MrHidley...a triumph


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## MrHidley

Thanks for all the kind comments guys, I want to assure anyone thinking of setting up a low tech tank that this was super easy, and also really cheap when compared to setting up a high tech tank. I pretty much just used left lots of spare bits and bobs i had laying around from other tanks. The only plant that struggled was the r.rotundafolia and i think this was just because not enough light was getting past the ferns, to be honest though it's still surviving, just doesn't really grow. I'm moving house sometime in the next 6 weeks and i'd like to keep this running, if anyone has any tips on moving the scape, I'd appreciate it.


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## Tim Harrison

Just take as much water out as possible and cover the tank top with cling film, it should be fine. But I suppose it depends on how far you're travelling.


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## MrHidley

Tim Harrison said:


> Just take as much water out as possible and cover the tank top with cling film, it should be fine. But I suppose it depends on how far you're travelling.



Thanks! Travelling less than 5 miles, so that shouldn't be a problem, I was thinking of using some bags full of air to support the oak root as my main concern is that falling over and uprooting stuff at the back.


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## Tim Harrison

Yep good idea. Should all be fine


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## aquamania

Your tank looks great. Did it survive the move? Any pics?


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## MrHidley

aquamania said:


> Your tank looks great. Did it survive the move? Any pics?



Yes, the tank did survive the move, took a few water changes to remove all the dirt and gunk that collected at the front pane of glass during it though! I'll post some pictures in the coming weeks, the room it's in is still full of boxes. In the weeks before the move I did struggle with cyano bacteria, which i treated with an initial blackout for 5 days, followed by increasing my ferts and using tropica specialised once a day.


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## Manisha

Beautiful tank ☺


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## aquamania

Good to hear it survived.  I'm currently suffering with cyano and it's getting me down!


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## MrHidley

aquamania said:


> Good to hear it survived.  I'm currently suffering with cyano and it's getting me down!



Do a blackout, that was the only thing to get rid of it for me. Increasing the ferts just prevented it coming back.


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## aquamania

I have done a 4 day blackout a few months back 
It reduced it but didn't get rid.  how long was your blackout?


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## MrHidley

aquamania said:


> I have done a 4 day blackout a few months back
> It reduced it but didn't get rid.  how long was your blackout?


I first removed as much of it manually as i could, then did around 3 separate blackouts over a month each of about 4/5 days. Plants being low energy didn't suffer at all. The most important thing is to work out what is causing it, as it will just come back if you don't change anything after the blackout. I also upgrading to a larger HoB filter.


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## aquamania

I'll give it another go. Will try and improve circulation. Cheers


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## ChrisP

I managed to pretty much completely get rid of my cyno. All I did was close the blinds. Touch of natural light was enough to trigger it. Maybe applies in your case?


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## BettsBP

Great looking tank. Always like the exposed plants where they break the surface


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## BexHaystack

Lovely tank, a real low tech triumph 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


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## Abhishankar Adhikary

Your tank looks really great.....


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## MrHidley

Abhishankar Adhikary said:


> Your tank looks really great.....



Thanks, I think it's going to get a little rescape soon, the ferns and moss is started to wear on me a bit. Thinking of pulling it all out and then filling the background with grasses.


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## HiNtZ

Very nice.


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## Abhishankar Adhikary

Waiting for rescape picture........


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## MrHidley

Abhishankar Adhikary said:


> Waiting for rescape picture........



So very busy with life at the moment, so it could be a while!


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## Deansie

Amazing little tank, so do you still only use one t5 tube in the light?


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## MrHidley

Deansie said:


> Amazing little tank, so do you still only use one t5 tube in the light?



Yes, only 8w.


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## Deansie

Amazing.


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## Soilwork

Perfect example of a low tech.  can I ask what the GH and Kh of your tap water is and how often you do a partial water change?


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## MrHidley

Soilwork said:


> Perfect example of a low tech.  can I ask what the GH and Kh of your tap water is and how often you do a partial water change?



I've never tested it to be honest. I live in Suffolk so it's fairly hard. Used to do water changes about once a month. 

The tank has now been replanted, though I've kept the same hardscape as I was really happy with it. I've implemented a some co2 this time and i'm using all three bulbs on the light fixture to try and grow a thick wall of rotala at the back.


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## Soilwork

Thanks for the reply.  Just curious whether the plants were using the bicarbonates from the elevated KH levels as a co2 assuming you had lots of bicarbonate users.  When I did my Walstad tank the jungle val went nuts but pretty much everything else died.


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## Tim Harrison

Vallis can synthesis carbon from bicarbonate so it will usually do very well in hard water. So will crypts, _Bucephalandra and anubias_ species and very probably a variety of mosses.
I'm not sure about H. tripartita...I haven't had the same low-energy success as it appears MrHidley has had, despite very hard water, but my low-energy tanks have always been relatively low light so that may have more to do with it.


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## Soilwork

Good point.  I was using 2xt8 tubes at about 20 inches.  What was always interesting to me what that the dwarf hairgrass (wrong plant for that setup) would still throw up healthy green shoots then they would whither away.


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## MrHidley

Thinking of swapping the t5s out for an LED floodlight, want to get that shimmer. Any ideas on cheap hanging brackets that will work, I only want to do this if it won't cost a lot. I'm sure cheap arms/brackets that can be bolted to the wall exist but i don't know what to search for, any tips would be helpful.


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## BarryH

Most of the LED Floodlights that I've seen while looking for inspiration have decent mounting brackets already fitted to them. These  could easily be fixed to a wall or wooden fitting.


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## MrHidley

BarryH said:


> Most of the LED Floodlights that I've seen while looking for inspiration have decent mounting brackets already fitted to them. These  could easily be fixed to a wall or wooden fitting.



Thanks, but i don't think the arm/bracket that comes preattached is long enough to hang the light at 90 degrees above the tank.


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## MrHidley

As promised, here the 'rescape' still very much a work in progress. Yesterday i upgraded to a 20W 6000k floodlight as i wasn't getting the growth i wanted from my (very old) T5s. Also, moved to an inline diffuser. Hoping to get the rotala very thick, i grew this from only a couple of stems so it's taking some time.


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## Dominik_K

Hi,

don't worry about the rotala (still rotundifolia?) growing to a thick bush. In my tank (54l) I started with about 15 to 20 stems and today i have an area of about 20 cm x 10 cm with at least 50 stems in it. All nice and healthy. Took me about three to four months to get there, since any rotala does not respond well to trimming in my tanks.


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## MrHidley

Dominik_K said:


> Hi,
> 
> don't worry about the rotala (still rotundifolia?)



It's rotala 'green'


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## MrHidley

Received a load of rotalas from @hogan53 last week, gave them a week to bed in then gave it a hard cut today. The macranda doesn't really fit but i'll find somewhere for it in a differant tank.



27 Litre Update


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## Tim Harrison

Looking good Mr Hidley


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## MrHidley

The Eheim filter i was running was knackered, I think the impeller was damaged. Rather than get it fixed i purchased a Allpondsolutions EF-150 and I am so impressed. For £30 it's a superb little filter running at 400lph, pipe work that comes with it is also really nice, highly recommended.


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## MrHidley

So, I may have neglected plant maintenance for the last month or so...


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## Tim Harrison

MrHidley said:


> So, I may have neglected plant maintenance for the last month or so...


It's a great jungle scape


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