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Thinking of going low tech

Ill be doing the same come friday.. roll on pay day 🙂

one more question.. sorta goin back to the low tech thing.. if I ditch my co2, pull out the dwarf tears (that are already struggling), leave the lights on at 108w no reflectors and dose at 1/10th the daily ferts as earlier advised.. besides slower growth, which I dont mind if my fish are happy do you think ill get more algae problems? or plants dying? or looking quite frankly a bit sh!te cause I dont want to go from what ive got to havin a load of spindely weedy plants.

I mean what adverse affects would it have if I just switched it off now, probably know by now im inexperienced and this is the first planted/co2 tank ive had
 
You could always slightly lower the CO2, ferts and lighting altogether and you will still get plant growth but just at a slower rate.

Depends what you want, super fast growth and no loaches or slower growth and loaches.
 
Ill wait till I get the inline diffusers and spray bars set up again before making any major adjustments. I think catchin the loaches will involve alot of damage if im honest the were a nightmare to catch in an empty 165l never mind a 5 footer with lots of hiding places. So ill see if I can just slow things down and keep them.. just hope I dont start gettin more algae problems as my co2 been upand down since I started and now ferts being reduced etc, probably get worse before it gets better
 
I would definitely suggest low lighting in your case, as feeding a 5' tank with enough C02 takes some doing!
The last 4' x 2' x 2' tank I owned, used 2 kg of gas every 4-5 weeks with about 2wpg of T5.
I am not a great fan of low tech as I like to see things noticeably growing on a daily bases but, you know what it is like, some folk just have the knack with plant growing & do manage quite nice low tech tanks .. I am just not one of them!
 
Do you think 108w needs reducing its only 1wpg. My co2 is gonna have to be turned down to 3-4bps. Do you think theres any point adding so little co2? Ill monitor how things do and try get an average for dosing.. I dont want over do it and have problems with algae

Update:
Ok so the minimum lighting I can run without taking out tubes etc is 108w, ive turned the co2 down to 2bps, and im gonna do a huge pwc tomorrow night and start dosing 1/8 of the recommended ei dosing which was
1tsp KNO3, 3 dashes KH2PO4, 3 dashes Tnc trace mix

now to be

1xdash KNO3, 3x drops KH2PO4, 3xdrops Tnc trace

dosed on intermittent days 5 days a week as the guide recommends. Dunno how its gonna turn out really but ill let you know if it all turns to crap or goes well... have got a gut feeling of impending doom tho :/ brown algae seems to be loving the ever changing situation in the tank, cant wait get it cleaned up tomorrow.

Please feel free to comment if you think its a bad idea, I went for 1/8 dosing as its easier to work out on the chart with the dosing spoons
 
Sorry to bump a thread, my co2 is at 2bps and I can finally confirm all my loaches are alive (not seen all of em out for weeks) but with 108w t5 over a rio 400 and 1/8th dosing recommended ferts do you think im heading for problems? Already noticing brown algae taking over the glass at the back of the tank but im not sure if thats taking hold down to instability.. pwc tomorro i think, or am I gonna have to catch the loaches and turn the co2 up to make this work.

If i cant keep them, what colourful bottom dwellers can I have that tolerate high co2?
 
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