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Leaving hobby or move to Low Tech (260 litre bow fronted tank)

I agree with the above, but you'd be very surprised to find just how little light species like Cryptocoryne and Hygrophila need to grow. Often, ambient light is enough to keep them going at a minimal pace.
 
I'd want to see a healthy growing tank on an ambient light. I've got the complete opposite experience and I can spot light deficient plants very easy now after initially starting myself with "low light" and seeing limited results. I've seen them lots on people's pictures of low techs too.
I have kept hydrophila and crypts as well. The hydrophila is impossible to kill no matter what, but if one wants it to grow healthy, it needs its light and likes ferts. Otherwise it just hangs on surviving, typical signs are smaller leaves and lower leaves dropping off/falling apart, takes months to grow to the top, etc..
My crypts, anubias and java fern were the only somewhat unaffected plants when my led lights started failing one by one. By the time all failed, I was left with a complete meltdown of around 20 species of plants, the anubias, java fern and crypts were fine but they just stopped growing literally.

I actually made a couple of pictures a while ago as my tank is back in with some light after the meltdown, the affect of it on a couple of species of plants under better and lower light below(post #19). I must take a few more of the vallis which also refuses to grow under very low light, it constantly goes brown but grows perfectly fine with more light. So there's a lower limit.

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/peace-lilly-pollen-poisonous-to-fish.33441/
 
Well ,I too have and continue to use the minimum lighting needed for initial set up and include lots of plant's.
After a few week's perhaps a couple month's,I may try and increase the lighting in my low tech tanks by an hour or two.
Much more interested in algae free start up than how much light can I get way with at the outset.
My 80 gal low tech with crytpts,anubia,lace java fern, leopard vals.water sprite, did fine for a year with just three T8 bulbs 32 watt.
Tank now has four 54 watt T5 bulbs hanging ten inches above the waters surface with eight hour photo period and does equally well if not a little better and no algae.
If I try and lower the light or increase photoperiod,I get algae but that is just MY tank .
Am happy with low tech where growth is measured in week's,month's.
 
See, there's a difference between minimum light and optimum light. And one can be fine with certain light and duration but even an extra half an hour can cause issues or algae, or half an hour less would be too low. Its a thin line but certainly very low light is not a solution to everything and is a cause of problems in low techs as much as too much light is.

That tank below as I mentioned in my previous post is running on way lower light it used to when it flourished. I just can't afford to change or increase the light this time. I said I'd take a picture of vallis under minimum light and vallis under some light, as the tank is at the moment.

Picture one from the same tank, left side where light does penetrate the water

Vallis1_zps5fa8be1a.jpg

Picture 2 below from the right side of the same tank, taken seconds after the above one. That below is about the growth of vallis in shade in very low light obstructed by emersed plants. The tips always melt and its not spreading, just about surviving. The rest of the plants except anubias, have literally disappeared and I can't remember ripping them off. Even the java fern in there is just hanging on. That's about as bright as it gets there on currently 12 hours a day light above

Vallis2_zps58fc6af5.jpg
 
I just switched the co2 off and hoped for the best, all i did different was remove a bulb from my light fitting and took referance of tom barrs par chart.i also nuked any initial algal growth until things settled down, other than that everything is going extremely well, even the fish are happy!
 
So I've taken on board advice and suggestions and in readiness for changing to a lower light set up with soil, no pressurised c02 I have made a couple of initial alterations to the tank.
Water change last night, I'm still currently running c02 as am in the process of mineralising soil, I've managed to lower the two spray bars by some 15 cm, hopefully this will help with flow and circulation to the substrate level where I'm experiencing some bba, as mentioned earlier the depth of the tank and being bow fronted hasn't helped me, starting in the hobby 2 years ago I now wish I'd chosen maybe a smaller more friendly box of glass to learn to grow healthy plants in 🙂
So, added to the reduced height spray bars, I've already received my new lower wattage T5's from lampspecs 😉 can't fault the service, under 10 beer tokens for 2 x 22 watt Sylvania tubes delivered in 3 days.
I've left one 39 watt tube in and added a 22 watt with it for the moment to see if this reduced amount together with the spray bar adjustment will help eradicate any remaining bba in the period while my soil is doing its thing🙂 still running c02 for the next 6 weeks so hopefully before I strip down to change over any plants I am planning to keep should be clean, hopefully. Lighting I have some room for play still, I can reduce it further if necessary by using the two 22 watt tubes or add back my reflectors if I feel it's needed so at least I have options here🙂
So here's an update shot showing the lower spray bars, this should also allow me to use some floating plants as the surface agitation isn't too wild any more so another plus point for when the soil has mineralised in 6 weeks time😉 oh and I've left the circulation pump turned off, I'll see how things are like this for a week or so.
2e3ygupa.jpg

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With all this rain it's difficult to dry the top soil in the garden, after a week it's now wetter than when I first spread the 35 litres our on a tarp to dry.
May have to bake it in the over

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Yes, its hard doing it here too. I did some of mine during winter, inside in a spare room spread on bin bags and open windows. I nearly got thrown out of the house for doing it 🙂 And my dog left its paws in it too quite a few times. It took a while.
Baking should work too, though I haven't tried it. It just breaks down the soil via heat instead of bacterial activity. I am curious if baking produces the same sandy/powder type soil normal mineralizing does.

This is how mine looked after about 5 soak and dry cycles and sifted. It was dark/black clumpy soil originally.
dscf4417c_zps3903da62.jpg
 
so, project low tech/soil tank is in full swing...

i'm 3 weeks into topsoil mineralisation and due to the general lack of sunshine in Somerset i've only managed one wet/dry cycle, it's been mostly wet. Currently have 30 litres spread out on a tarp on the lawn 🙂my small assistant Bob is running this side of the project but as he's only 6 it gets a tad messy at times.

Baking may have to become an option at this rate, not really getting anywhere fast and now on my last Fire Extinguisher before I pull down the tank as it is, so I need to be ready in time for no C02 in about 4/5 weeks when I run out.🙂

Quick question if poss?

My substrate at present is akadama, would it be ok to mix some of this into the soil to stop it compressing to much and aid flow of nutrients? in place of grit so to speak?
Also
for a cap, i'd like something black but have a few options and would appreciate any pro's and cons
1. use the existing akadama as a cap, it's a nice size, is Cory safe having no sharp edges and I already have it so no cost to me which is part of the plan! I also have some spare unused akadama if this may be better than using what's in the existing set up? I lwould like a black cap if possible though but if the akadama is ok to use then i'll go with this as it's one less thing to get🙂
2. Ideally I would like a black cap and have looked at the unipac micro gravel, this would start adding maybe unwanted costs and is it ok for my Cory's ( I plan on more Cory's too)
3. The tried and tested pool filter sand in size 6/14 again added cost and not black....

Troi, if you're there or anyone else, I know Troin has posted somewhere a link to the greenhouse mesh he used for a soil retainer, can't find it, have searched, me bad...anyone help me out with the link?

And finally ADMIN, I think this should possibly be moved to a Journal now as it's evolved and i'm getting on with the move to low tech so it would also benefit me in the long run too, may need re-naming though 🙂

Job list:
prep soil - ongoing
sort out a cap
sell or re-home existing fish not ideal for new set up - currently for sale locally
think about scape design - new piece of wood purchased and soaking, more needed
buy clay
buy Dolomite?
buy muriate of potash?
decide on additional tank mates, a few more otto's, Cory's and a nice sized group of smaller fish
Cardinals, green neon tetras etc and any other suggestions?

time's ticking based on remaining c02 4 weeks ish before changeover
 
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Maybe give Troi a pm about the mesh?

As a cap you can do anything you like and can afford as long as it's not too large gravel as soil particles will be released from between the grains. As for mixing the soil with something, keep in mind that bigger particles mixed with smaller ones like soil will eventually make their way to the top of the substrate. But if you are capping with Akadama, then it doesn't matter and you can mix some with the soil if you like.
I have coarse Unipac Fiji as a cap in a tank with numerous corys. It is quite sharp to be honest but they are perfectly fine, no issues with their barbels but by their behaviour I can tell they'd prefer sand and I regret I didn't cap it with sand. It's easier to plant in sand too. Plus low tech tanks can get so overgrown that the colour of the substrate really doesn't matter much in the end, depending on what type of scape you'd like of course.
 
found the mesh link now 🙂

I see what your saying about the colour of the cap being covered etc, my experience with the akadama is that it's a very light substance and stems easily lift out by themselves especially with little depth to plan into, sand would be a better option I think for holding onto newly planted stems etc, having quite a large footprint with this tank so ill be needing to put some big numbers of plants in to start with, i'm hoping my Stauro will be ok in there, at least unitil it's up and running, due to the easiier to plant and hold stems better, i'm leaning towards a sand, i've been searching for pool filter sand as per Troi's suggestion, due to the size etc (6/14) 2-5 ml? it seems this is quite difficult to find in sensible quantities, i've found a bulk supplier but as I have no room for my own beach in the garden to use up the excess i'll keep searching, unless I go for a unipac sand with a sensible size grain? (in Black of course)
 
Thanks Troi much appreciated, smaller would look cleaner/nicer maybe so good to know I'll order that getting sorted slowly but desperate to do this right. Cheers
 
However, perhaps I should also mention that if you use the above it will effectively seal off the soil substrate from the water column, so no oxidized microzone and no nutrient replenishment, which would eventually make dosing fertz a must.
Also, planting heavily from the outset would definitely be advisable to help oxygenate the root zone.
 
Again, many thanks Troi, you're a valuable asset 🙂
I presume the above substance seals the substrate due to it's smaller partical size not allowing any flow of nutrients etc? I'm down to two options then as I see it, retain the akadama as a cap and save some pennies or spend a little on the pool filter sand which will be easier to plant into, both Cory friendly although the sand isn't expensive at all it's cash that could be speant on new plants.

Umm decisions, decisions, we could have a vote if I could attach voting buttons 🙂
 
nickmcmechan said:
I baked mine, as the soil was wet for baking it didn't produce that sandy residue
Click to expand...
More rain, i'm just now going to manage to get 35 litres of top soil mineralsied in the next 4 weeks (my date for changing over when my c02 runs out).
in the last 4 weeks i'm only managinging to be drying my soil for the 2nd time. I must look at Baking especially if I'm going to need a couiple of weekends for this too, it's awkward with family life getting in the way 🙂
Can anyone tell me if I just need to bake it the once, or do I again need to cycle this bake, soak, bake etc? Off to Wilko's later for a couple of cheap oven trays so Pinkmummy79 doesn't kill me by using her best gear🙂
I can't leave this in the hope the weather is going to improve over the next 4 weeks and bringing this much soil into the house is impossible it's spread on a plastic tarp on the lawn about 3m x 3m.
 
You should bake it once as far as I am aware. The soaking and draining is good to remove any unwanted particles such as those that float too easily and don't settle after an hour or two. The less of these, the faster the soil will settle in the tank once you uproot plants and the clearer the water. But then you lose some quantity of soil in the process.
 
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