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Of ferns, stones and wood- A low tech tank

KarthikC

KarthikC

Member
Joined
10 Nov 2014
Messages
135
Location
Bangalore
Hello all,

I was desperate to make a scape in my tank and got really bored of JUST growing plants underwater. So I decided to start a low tech aquascape with just few rocks, driftwood and sand (all collected). Initially the plan was just to add some ferns, but the greed for more plants got the better of me. Well, let the pictures do the talking for now and please excuse any mistakes and suggest corrections in the tank. Here we go:

This is how messy the tank looked, with water level marks all around and very low lighting:


15457247470_a80e7593d8_c.jpg

I then rearranged the rocks and the wood, created a little elevation in the area where the rocks are placed and this was the result:
15502337179_bdfc388b45_c.jpg

Still, I need to work on the lighting. Made a DIY lighting with 2 x 36W PLL. Erased most of the water mark lines and added a whole lot of plants (I will list them at the end). This is how it looks now:

15702274658_fd675696d5_c.jpg

I still need to erase the water marking on all the sides of the tank and get a new Cannister filter.

OK, specs now.

Tank: 36"L x 18"W x 15"H

Substrate: Regular river sand

Plants: Needle Fern, Oak Fern, Dwarf Java Fern, Dwarf Windelov Fern,Trident Fern, Echinodorous
Tenellus, Staurogyne Repens, Potomotegon Gayi, Vallisneria Nana, Cryptocoryne Parva,
Cryptocoryne Wendtii, Rotala (don't know the exact name), Anubias nana,
Anubias Butterfly (silly trade name, I'm sure), Micro Anubias and some Algae 😉 Whew!

Fish: Pethia Gelius x 3, Ancistrus x 2, Sturisoma Festivum x 1, Black Neon Tetra x 12,
Horadandia Brittani x 6, Red Lizard Catfish x 2, Otocinclus x 5, RCS x 12, Amano Shrimp x 2

Filtration: A silly Internal filter, 800 LPH, which would change soon. Please ignore that in the pics. 🙂

Light: 36W PLL x 2, DIY frame. Photoperiod currently is 6 Hrs, thanks to algae.

Ferts, etc: Now, I am really bad at this. 5ml Flourish Excel daily, an hour before the start. NPK: used to
Dose about 2ml daily, but stopped after I saw the green spot algae on the glass.
Micro: I dose 1ml of the commercially available micro fertiliser, yet to learn dosing accurately.

Co2: NO!

I am looking for suggestions and looking forward to improving this tank further. I will keep posting about updates (if any) and growth, etc.

A long-exposure shot of the tank. light source, neighbouring tank 😀

15271858193_b74c2a99d9_c.jpg
Cheers,

Karthik
 
Last edited:
Hi Karthik, I like your new hardscape, it will only get better as your plants grow in. I'd think a nice external filter would improve it as well!
 
James D said:
Hi Karthik, I like your new hardscape, it will only get better as your plants grow in. I'd think a nice external filter would improve it as well!
Click to expand...

Thanks James, I'm really glad that you liked it. Waiting for the plants to fill up. I'm planning for the external filter and would be with me in a few days time. 🙂

Cheers,

Karthik


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Very nice scape. I've always delt with the green spot on the glass by increasing phosphate dosing and excel = co2
 
OllieNZ said:
Very nice scape. I've always delt with the green spot on the glass by increasing phosphate dosing and excel = co2
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah. I've stopped dosing nitrates. Ordered phosphate fertilizer I'm going to try dosing that. 🙂

Cheers,

Karthik


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Hi Darrel,

Thanks for your input. I will definitely look into it.

Cheers,

Karthik
 
OK, while I was excited about the adding of P.Gayi, it caught a lot of BBA and never grew well. Added Echinodorus Marble Queen in the BG. Planning to add more Vals and some Rotala too there. The ferns have been growing well, harvested the new "baby" ferns and planted it on the sides. Tenellus and crypt too, have been growing well, in addition to the Anubias. However, S.Repens is showing signs of melting away, probably because of dosing only Flourish Excel. There's growth of the green spot algae only on some portions of the front glass and small amount of BBA on the stones.
16107423962_8eb0f97441_c.jpg
Still awaiting my canister filter, Clueless on How (and if) I can remove the remaining water level marks 🙁
Cheers,
Karthik
 
Hi
Although.....you have stated you are trying to run a low tech planted tank you are actually using Liquid Carbon....which makes it a Hi Tec aquarium!
I would revert back to dosing NPK.....if you want low growth rate but healthy plants.
Dose 5ml every other day of Liquid Carbon!
Dose 50% NPK Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Dose 50% Micro Tuesday/Thursday
I would also purchase some floating plants!
To remove the tide mark on the glass use a craft knife blade before you do a water change!
I would recommend doing a 50% water change every 2 weeks!
hoggie
 
hogan53 said:
Hi
Although.....you have stated you are trying to run a low tech planted tank you are actually using Liquid Carbon....which makes it a Hi Tec aquarium!
I would revert back to dosing NPK.....if you want low growth rate but healthy plants.
Dose 5ml every other day of Liquid Carbon!
Dose 50% NPK Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Dose 50% Micro Tuesday/Thursday
I would also purchase some floating plants!
To remove the tide mark on the glass use a craft knife blade before you do a water change!
I would recommend doing a 50% water change every 2 weeks!
hoggie
Click to expand...

Thanks 🙂 🙂 I shall surely try and follow the dosing method you've shared.

Cheers,

Karthik


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Not much of an update, C helferi, ferns, echinodorous are growing really well. Pinnatifida is picking up. Pruned lot of stems and planted them back. Expecting them to grow and cover the background soon. Added an Anubias Lancelota too. Cleared that water marking on the top, need to work on the other one in the middle too.
16328186030_35c4bac40a_b.jpg
Let's see how it goes..
Cheers,
Karthik
 
Hi karthik...i love the way your tank is evolving..🙂 ...did you get the chance to plant that emmersedly grown hc from your garden into this tank. If so...how is it coming along?
 
faizal said:
Hi karthik...i love the way your tank is evolving..🙂 ...did you get the chance to plant that emmersedly grown hc from your garden into this tank. If so...how is it coming along?
Click to expand...

Thanks Faizal. No I've not tried it in this tank, but it's growing very very slowly in my other nano tank which has the Ada Amazonia substrate.

Cheers,

Karthik


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