40 Litres Low Tech

[azawaza]

Tank Update: Day 36

I have this little pot of pothos on my balcony and suddenly an idea hit me 🙂


Snip one long creeping stem...


Dump into tank.


Wonder if new roots will grow and if the submerged leaves will survive...


If it creeps upwards over time, it’ll look super cool!

 

[tam]

The submerged leaves won't survive. Take the bottom leaf or two leaves off and lift it up so only the stem is in the tank. It should grow roots from the old leaf joints. Keep in mind it loves to eat nitrogen and suck up nutrients so once it gets going you may need to up your dosing.

 

[azawaza]

The submerged leaves won't survive. Take the bottom leaf or two leaves off and lift it up so only the stem is in the tank. It should grow roots from the old leaf joints. Keep in mind it loves to eat nitrogen and suck up nutrients so once it gets going you may need to up your dosing.

Thanks Tam, great timely advice. Does this mean I can stock more fish or increase feeding?

 

[tam]

Thanks Tam, great timely advice. Does this mean I can stock more fish or increase feeding?

Within reason yes, any fast growing plants help and emersed plants (including floaters) particularly as they aren't CO2 limited and will grow fast. Pothos is often particularly recommended for nitrate removal. Keep in mind it will need to establish a root system and adjust to living in a tank before you see the benefits i.e. you'll see it actively growing ....bigger and bigger and bigger. The more plant mass the bigger the nutrient uptake 🙂

 

[Aqua360]

Tank Update: Day 27

I did 20% water change and trimmed unhealthy leaves, and also got rid of ‘parent’ floaters.

For the two stem plants, I took them out and discarded their bottom stems.

View attachment 117923
Lush green plants with clean (for now ha) white sand.

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As long as the stem plants keep growing new leaves, I’m satisfied and happy 🙂

Should I give the Glossostigma a trim? Or just let them creep up a bit more?

View attachment 117925
Fattest two fish in the tank: otto cats. I can’t remember which is which but my girlfriend calls one Mario, the other Luigi.

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There’s a lil IKEA recliner in front of the tank. Beside it is a CB2 bookshelf with short stories books I should start on. Sorry Carver, you gotta wait.

This looks great!

 

[azawaza]

Tank update: Day I’ve lost count but less than 60?


Lucky bamboo + Pothos on the right. Perhaps Peace Lily on the left soon. Doesn’t look nice for now; maybe better in the future after a carefully fully thought-through re-scape.

 

[azawaza]

Tank Update: Day 53


I added Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily) and Aglaonema (Chinese Evergreens).


Next and final plant? Perhaps a Wandering Jew; it’s one of my favourite terrestrial plant despite it’s rather sad (anti-Semetic?) common name.

Do recommend other plants that could grow out of water too if you have one in mind, cheers!

 

[azawaza]

Tank Update: Day 62

Finally found the final piece to my terrestrial plant ‘puzzle’! I’ve been looking high and low for these plants at my nearest local plant nursery and today I found them 🙂


Wandering Jew (Purple textured plant)


Sits pretty nicely sandwiched in the middle I’d say. Brings an interesting contrast beside the
Aglaonema.


It’s like a little mini garden 🙂 I’m contemplating standing lights for them if there’s low or no new growth in the next few weeks. Hopefully the natural sunlight would suffice since they don’t need direct sunlight.

One last update: all my snails have died in the tank, and a little green spot algae appeared on the front of the glass. I’ll either get a couple soon or just learn to bear with a little algae. Pretty lazy to scrap it off manually haha!

 

[azawaza]

Tank Update: FTS Day 62

Was waiting for the lights to come on, enjoy!


We named the betta ‘Sky’. It’s enjoying patrolling its domain at the front of the tank, where none of its subjects dare to roam these days. Well, except Mario and Luigi cos these two ottos had first dips and they too chill to bother about other tank ongoings.

 

[azawaza]

Tank Update: Day 90

Several events happened since the last update:

1) Tank and cabinet had to be relocated due to water pipe leakage behind the wall 🙁
Current temporary location does not have enough natural light. It is shaded by a wall which is good for keeping algae at bay though.

2) Some terrestrial plants died due to the shift. Peace lilies and Wandering Jew were casualties. In their place, I added Dwarf Papyrus and Dwarf Water Lettuce.

3) During the shift, a few plants were shifted (pardon the pun!) so the aquascape looks a tad messy, like an underwater jungle. I’m just too lazy to do a rescape or make minor adjustments heh.

4) I had issues with flow which resulted in a bit of algae formation on the Bolbitis (green beard algae) so I did manual removal, also some filter maintenance and reduced the lengths of my inflow and outflow tube pipings. No more algae now 🙂

5) Due to the increased flow, Sky (betta) needed a low flow area in front of the tank to access his food so I added a LEGO boat (stole my son’s) to achieve this purpose.

6) Made changes to Water Change routine, fert regime and light duration. Water change changed (sorry, another pun) to monthly from fortnightly. Fert regime changed from PMDD to 75% of EI due to terrestrial plants. Light duration increased to 7 hours, broken into 3 hours from 2-5pm with an hour break before another 4 hours from 6-10pm.

7) Lifestock: had a few deaths with the P.Getrudae and horned nerite. Augmented horned nerite snails (5); I don’t plan to increase fish lifestock nor add shrimps (cherries have all perished, perhaps due to water parameters when added way earlier before tank has matured).

If you have read up to this point, thanks!

Here’s your reward: pictures 🙂


Sky is one happy betta! He loves flow and will stick to the front of the tank, and best of all, he greets you when you return home (the tank faces the main door now, so it’s really a welcoming sight).


Terrestrial plants rooting underwater 😉


The water lettuce has long roots too. And the LEGO boat actually floats!


I hope these dwarf papyrus plants survive. I may add more creeper plants in the future.


FTS. Nothing to shout about but the plants are surviving, lifestock looks healthy and algae is being held at bay so I guess everything is good at the moment.

 

[azawaza]

Tank Update: Day ‘I’ve lost count!’

The Betta went to fish heaven while the plants grew into a crazy jungle/swamp and the tank unfortunately fell into disarray from neglect.

So, a weekend back, the girlfriend decided to take matters into her own hands (literally) and somehow midway through her cussing (we always do when we do mega maintenance/rescape, don’t we? haha) I decided to help. Something stirred again inside: an urge to restart a new.

We used whatever plants that could be salvaged, found a driftwood and bought a handful of new plants (mostly slow growers); basically threw everything in (with aesthetics in mind, or at the back of ours- we tried to, I’d presume) like carrots into a stew and prayed for the best.

Oh and one more thing: you may not know this but this tank has been sitting on top of an IKEA metal cabinet since Day 1! We added wooden stumps as support below it just to be on the safe side though.


Was hesitant it could work but it did. I won’t advise you do the same; unless you love things risqué.


FTS. Nothing exciting. Dirty glass outlet gets dirtier; tank owner, lazier.


Side view from the sofa. Good place to just chill after a hard day’s night.


I wanted a Kuhli loach to play in the sand but my girlfriend has a phobia of snakes and everything snake-like (yes, ironic isn’t it?), and I couldn’t convince her that a loach isn’t an eel. This wide sandy pit is currently owned by Rex, our German/Holland Ram. Sometimes his little Pygmy Corydoras (consorts) join in the digging while the (bishops) otocinclus pair stand guard somewhere near.


Emergent plants: from previous experience, the Pothos do extremely well emersed but their stems cannot get wet as they rot fast and affect water quality. I have Wandering Jew growing well too from an office tank but for this rescape project, we promised ourselves to keep things minimal.


There you go, hope you enjoyed this update. Keep on fishkeeping everyone!

 

[azawaza]

Good news!

I found a nearby LFS which sells live daphnia 🙂

This has opened my possibility of adding lifestock which requires live food into my tank.

I’m thinking of Scarlet Badis for a start.

Any other suggestions, mates? They must be small, no bigger than 5cm preferably though.

 

[tam]

For summer, fill a bucket with tank water, leave it outside, empty a part bag of daphnia into it and you should have a colony until it gets cold in autumn.

Under 5cm is a pretty big group of options!

 

[azawaza]

An update: saw a bit of algae on the glass so I countered this with more plants.





Green jungle mess, but I like it 🙂

 

[zozo]

Looking good.. 🙂 Tho for the Cyperus haspan it might be a tad to deep.. In the pond trade this plant is recomended for Zone 1, that's marginal, wet feet only, maybe in 4 inch of water. I guess planted to deep will be problematic because the plant likely grows no submersed form leaves. New growth might succumb to CO² deficiency. But that you will find out soon enough, if new growth melts away before it reaches the surface. But i honnestly have never tried to grow it myself any deeper than recomended, would be different if it had a zone 2 label.

Anyway if not, you might have better luck with the Cyperus helferi, this cyperus is known to have a submersed growform and can be planted much deeper. Till now the only Cyperus that goes around in the aquarium trade. But also than still CO² addition is recomended till it breakes the surface. You could consider trying to grow it large enough in a pot outside the tank before planting it in relative deep water..

https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Cyperushelferi(133A)/4574

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

I can't recommend Cyperus in a low tech setup... mine really didn't last long...

 

[azawaza]

Thanks zozo & Matt for the comments.

Well the Dwarf Papyrus/ Cyperus haspan was a rather impulsive project of the distant past. I was trying out various emergent plants for future planted tank use; so far I have success with Pothos and Wandering Jew (grows like wildfire out of the office nano tank).

On the current scape, I don’t quite like the plant arrangement. Something is amiss so I’m gonna get a few more plants (limit to three hopefully) and do a bit of mini rescaping.

 

[azawaza]

So some updates after the rescape.

Spent a few bucks on a few moss on rocks, Java fern tridents on wood, snails and cherry shrimps.


FTS. There was an abrupt end to the ‘skyline’/‘canopy’ on the left most side so I decided to make the ‘uphill’ curve a bit more naturally sloping, much akin to a hillside slope full of vegetation.


Side view, my favourite view from the sofa where I usually fall asleep during after-work power naps (getting old, need more sleep).


Top: Pothos and Hydrocotyle? doing rather well, acting as nitrate absorbers; their roots are hidden behind the ‘foliage’ of leaves. The rocket kilifish love this area. I guess it’s where the CPDs sleep at night too.


I hope it grows slow while outside hectic life zooms past; time passes much while we stare and fiddle with our tanks, no?

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Love this

 

[azawaza]

I had to move a month back and in between living, the tank got sidetracked during the second half of 2019–my gf left me too, but she let me have the tank, so all is well—so today I did something I should’ve done months ago: restart my aquarium.


All flora and fauna perish. Sand in the water, all we are is sand in the water...

Took me the entire day, but the chores kept me safe at home, away from Covid-19. See, this hobby keeps ya safe!


Cloudy water, not gonna fret. Been here, done that. It will pass. I rescued some plants, hope they survive the night in this ‘ICU’.

After taking the above pic, I couldn’t stand sitting at home so I put on my surgical mask and went to the nearby LFS to get some Java Fern.


And the water has cleared! Eheim Ecco Pro 130 is still as reliable as before 🙂

I plan to get more plants. Always add lifestock last. Will wait for the plants to fill in. And am not going to test my water, f**k that s**t.

Plants > Everything else = happy aquarium!

Gonna try to find me some bucep tmr.

This could be a zebra oto + pygmy cory tank, but I’m still deliberating so we’ll see.

More updates soon 🙂