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Grown in a bit now, really enjoying the tank. It's so low maintenance and healthy it's untrue. Zero plant algae, and tiny tiny levels of algae on the glass. It gets a 25% water change every one or two months, and the filters are cleaned at the same time. That's about it to be honest. No hassle...

Recovered courtesy of new plants!!

Good shout tim. I didn't realise that with zero leaves I still stood a chance of keeping the rhizome, but I'll give it a shot! Doesn't look like AE is open today :(.

Dipping in 2% Glut is clearly bad news for both Anubias and Echinodorus! Dropbox - 2013-12-26 10.12.47.jpg AquaEssentials order going in today if they're open...Lesson learnt there! Shame as quite a few of those anubias are 18months+ of growth.

Dipping in 2% Glut is clearly bad news for both Anubias and Echinodorus! Dropbox - 2013-12-26 10.12.47.jpg AquaEssentials order going in today if they're open...Lesson learnt there! Shame as quite a few of those anubias are 18months+ of growth.

48 hours after treating all my plants with 2% glut for 5 minutes or so when moving them between tanks and I'm not too happy!! First off, I made the mistake of dipping my amazon sword in glut. It would appear they don't tolerate it, and it looks like it's well and truly intent on dying now...

Not sure what you're referring to mark, but almost certainly yes. Plants are: Java moss carpet at front right and very front of rest of tank. Couple of tufts of fissidens in rock cracks. Some sort of liverwort in a few of the other rock cracks. Various anubias, mostsly var nana and...

:D thanks tim, means a lot coming from you!

Right, well a fair bit has happened since my last update. The riccia carpet grew well - too well. I couldn't keep enough riccia alive underneath the mesh, and as a result I repeatedly got sections breaking away and floating up to the surface. I therefore got rid of the carpet, despite it...

Cheers Mark - I've not noticed any misbehaviour in the Trigon, but I guess I'll only really know that when I come to move the RCS out of there that I added a month or so ago - if there's 10 in there then we're ok!

That was my hope/reasoning too, but I'd rather check first! It's going to make that Rio a real jungle tank, but I've had enough of the Trigon flow issues, and the Eheim filters are a pig to clean.

Considering closing my Trigon and just running my Rio 180 as a single tank. I'm not sure if I'm going to be pushing the limits on stocking though... At present the Rio has moderate planting, 6 amano shrimp, 3 Oto's, 20 glowlight tetra, and probably 50 red cherry shrimp. Twin JBL e901's are...

2x T8 18W tubes.

Two things I'd check here: 1) On the Cristalprofi's, if you don't have the media baskets in perfectly level (with handles flat) then the clamps will still lock, but it won't be watertight. Try resetting all the baskets. 2) Seal as mentioned above.

I hope I solve this with a bit more flow then, because there's no way I can do that sort of water change regularity! Thanks for the feedback tim :).

When you say "not done water changes" or "filter maintenance longer than normal" what sort of time periods are you meaning Tim? The reason I ask is that the whole point I went low tech is that with my job I can't commit to the sort of maintenance that high tech drives - if this is going to...

@tim - Plants in that tank. Minimal hardscape though so hard to say. In my other tank (Rio 180) I've got a small amount on the tips of the Sagi where it's shot up to the surface (guess that's from too much light due to proximity to water surface?), and little tufts on bits of the hardscape, but...

Aye, pretty much. Dosing 20ml ferts in 190l every 3 in 4 weeks. T8 lighting, 4 hour photoperiod. 20-30% water changes every month or so. Heavily planted.

Cheers, I'll grab a 1600 then - getting a bit down about the BBA in my tank to be honest, despite low light and short photoperiod I still can't get rid of it (plus I think my glut has degraded, mixed a new batch, spot dosed, left 20min, and it has done sweet f.a.!) Thanks guys.

Just wondering (in terms of flow rate) if these can be adjusted. I'm going to fit a circulation pump to my Trigon 190 (currently have 2x Eheim 2217) to try and assist with my BBA issues. I'm not sure whether to go for the Nano 900 or the Nano 1600 - I don't want to turn the tank into a whirlpool!

Brilliant tank George, more than a little frustrated that I can fail to compare by such a large margin even on a low tech!

Lovely looking biotope. Do the ancistrus behave themselves with all those plants? Always loved plecs, but avoid them like the plague in my planted tanks!

Welcome, good to see another northerner on here! The 60l Arcadia is a great size, lovely scape in it too.

Thanks for all the replies guys. The whole reason I go low tech is to avoid maintenance, since I don't really have the time to commit on a regular basis. My thinking around the water changes was that in a few BBA threads on here the suggestion has been that water changes often lead to a CO2...

Ok, part of my attack on the BBA in my tank is to stop doing monthly water changes (30%) and instead just operate on a "top up" basis. To do that, I probably need to drop my dosing level. At present I'm doing 20ml for 190l every week of all-in-one ferts (James' recipe #3). Given that the dose...

Sounds like some SAE's might be a good on-going measure in conjunction with the other suggestions in here... I've used red ramshorns in the past in another tank, but found that they bred like a plague, and it took me months to get rid of them, so I'll leave those thanks! Interesting about...

Hmm, ok (wonders if the flow change he did today is a bad idea!!). Spot dosing is a real pig :(. Would SAE's be an option?

My Rio 180 is a brilliant algae-repelling low tech tank with sagi. sublata and mixed moss in it. Really enjoyable tank. My Trigon 190 on the other hand, has a larger plant mass, shorter light duration, same water change, filter maintenance and fert dosing regime, and is a poster child for BBA...

I've got both bait elastic and the nylon I linked in the first post coming, so I'll see how I get on. Cotton thread (which I use at the moment) would be great if it just rotted away a bit more slowly!

Cheers, ordered!

Cotton thread is rotting away too quickly in my tank to let the moss graft onto the mesh properly. I'm therefore going to redo things with nylon fishing line so it isn't an issue. Before I get some el cheapo from eBay (link below), are there any things to be wary of around cheap manufacture and...

I'll buck the trend here and say I would have thought your general tank clearout is more likely to have solved things from a general health point of view. Cherries are incredibly hardy, and I've got them in tanks with TDS of 550, another small tank at 350, and they're happy as anything, and...

Wow, I had no idea they went that way, I thought they sprouted plantlets from the leaf tips. Cheers!

Plant in question is java fern. Tank is a low tech community tank with fert dosing. I spotted these on the underside of three of my java fern leaves today, so very localised. Wondering if they're eggs or something? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2793861/2013-09-16 20.34.17.jpg They're...

I love keeping animals, but I hate when they're struggling and I don't know how to help. Just done the usual check I do every few days on my tank, peering around everything to look for anything out of the ordinary. Found a cardinal tetra dead at a filter intake, been gone for a couple of days...

Mine started like that and has grown really well, but above the mesh it's just becoming detached.

2mm

Thought I'd get away with mesh :(. Guess I'll have to do the ever popular java Moss then! Or maybe fissidens....

I'm maturing a large riccia carpet in a low tech tank. The plant is happy as anything, growing at a rapid rate and showing good colour. I'm struggling though with some bits not staying attached to the mesh. I keep it trimmed weekly, so I wouldn't expect there to be issues with it dying off under...

Video please? :lol: Joking aside though, if you get truely stumped I always find the best way is to drain the tank down as above. At least then you're only chasing in two dimensions rather than 3.

Personally I'd do it a bit slower - bogwood did it over 5 weeks rather than a week. Given you have two sensitive occupants there,I'd be in no rush and just do it gradually.

I fully understand the protein mix with the veg, but any reason for quite such an extravagant selection and the spices?

Yea, although unsightly it's nothing to worry about, and Amanos have a great time with it. Took a good couple of months for it to disappear when I last used a piece of large new bogwood.

The thermofilters aren't that highly thought of from what I've read, they seem to have far more problems than the rest of the Eheim range. 2 vs 1 filter is a fairly personal choice, but I'll explain why I sit in the "I prefer 2" camp. - It's often cheaper to get two lower spec filters than...

Pretty sure (but not certain) that is one of the ones that makes Purigen lethal. To be honest, if you buy powdered Prime, the value for money it represents beats everything on the market. Never had mine near discus buffer, and not had any issues.

I do dose ferts, so I guess that could be it. Never done my tap tds, I'll measure it sometime. Substrate is fluval stratum. Looks like the general consensus is the rescape is to blame. Makes me feel reassured and guilty at the same time. Thanks guys.

The coarsest material should be at the inlet end of a filter, moving through to the finer stuff. This is so you don't clog up the fine stuff with any big bits of debris.

Yea, rinsed it under a fast running tap, then dumped it into a Prime'd bowl of water througout the planting process just to get those last pesky bits of chlorine! Half of me really thinks I'm fretting for no reason (after all, there must be 70+ shrimp in my Rio 180), but on the other hand I...

A couple of hours, since I kept about half of the old tank water (I avoid changing any more of a tank in one go than I have to). Very little sediment released, but in fairness I haven't done an ammonia test. Tank did have fish in it up until the rescape, so I would have thought they was a good...

Typical thinking goes along the line of... - 2 mechanical filter - ceramic rings or alfagrog - 2 bio filter - ceramic beads etc - 1 fine particulate filter - floss - 1 item of choice, often Purigen. There's no set rule though really. You MUST have some sort of mechanical filtration in there...

Ah well, I'll have to live with the tannins and let the Purigen take care of them. Time for a mail order to be on the safe side I reckon! Even if it's not required, it can't do any harm :).

Thanks to both for the replies. - Don't know on the gH - since the other tanks have always been fine, I've never tested it. All I know is that it's barely 1 degree on the water report. Shrimp in other tanks all molt fine though, never had any deaths partway through a molt. - I've got some...

Cheers, might get some Beta G or similar.

I'm looking to use my Ebi tank to start a Sakura colony, with the idea being that any excess numbers will be moved into my other tanks to improve the RCS bloodlines in there. I got 4 about 6 weeks or so ago, 2 male and 2 female (I think, I'm no guru!). I lost a male about 2 weeks in, but all...

(Caveat - I don't run high tech myself). Why don't you drop your bps a bit? The dropchecker at the start of the photoperiod shows what the tank has saturated to overnight, so you may be able to achieve that with less.

Sounds entirely reasonable, but in the meantime, please continue to take the pretty pictures :D.

Looks tremendous. I'd plan a mission to go and steal it, but to be honest I'm terrified of whatever it is that's casting that reflection. Looks horrendous! :P :lol:

It's high tech zebra, you're adding a carbon source. About the only time you can add LC and claim low tech is if you're doing spot/single dosing to get some algae killed off. Anything regular makes the tank high tech. If you can put up with the maintenance then it's no bad thing, it's no...

In terms of water changes, flow and distribution etc, you have to be as diligent as if you were operating pressurised CO2.

Red rams are good cleanup crew, but personally I avoid them like the plague because they breed so quickly! Malaysian Trumpet Snails are good for turning the substrate over, plant safe, and slow breeding. Got a whole load in my Trigon.

Have a look on this link Thrills - James' Planted Tank - All In One Solution You're only dosing some of the chemicals required for a balanced fertiliser, which won't be helping your situation.

Tank is at about 26C (23C if you believe the comical temperature setting on the Eheim heater!!!). That's about nominal for the tetras,and at the upper end of acceptable for the white clouds, and also the upper end for CPD's. I keep wondering about dropping everything a couple of degrees, but...

I'd suggest the following. - Remove what you can with some tweezers - Lower your photoperiod for the time being - Start dosing a proper complete mix - James' Planted Tank #3 is a popular recipe - Start doing 50% daily water changes for the next couple of weeks to remove as much unwanted...

Put conditioner in tank, turn on hose pipe and point at where you added conditioner. Leave to fill. Result! It's worth putting a plastic pot/sheet of bubble wrap/plate under the hosepipe exit so you don't dig a hole in your substrate.

You can easily just add a bulk dose with the first lot of water and then just fill the tank up, that's a really easy way.

So much envy right now! Great job Ady, really great job.

Welcome, and what a gorgeous city you live in :).

Right, well they're getting evicted into my Trigon this evening then, especially since I was going to add some new sakura in the near future! Thanks Iain.

Does that go for galaxies too Ian? I'm a bit ignorant on fish! I really like the stratum, but be warned that algae issue I mentioned seems to be a theme of a few online threads.

Don't like the current hardscape nearly as much as the hardscape I had when my soil substrate attempt failed, but at least the tank seems to be doing well now. Riccia carpet is re-establishing itself well at the moment after my previous episode of neglect!

I'm loving how low maintenance this tank is, it's absolutely great. All livestock are doing well too, and my MTS population seems steady and happy which is nice. Picture below!

I've replanted my Fluval Ebi after numerous issues on the previous setup, so thought I'd stick a journal up to keep track of it. Fluval Ebi tank, running a JBL e700 with ETH200 in line. Using Fluval stratum for substrate, which is ok now it's matured, but I had massive problems with...

As above, CO2 tends to have a much larger effect than lighting. 3x54W is plenty of light. As above, full EI dosing may help (although that is more to avoid deficiencies than to speed up growth).

Riccia Carpet 3ft Rio 180 Trigon Jungle 190l Trigon Shrimp Ebi 35cm cube (Fluval Ebi)

Floating plants or upside-down reflectors are a couple of ways to reduce the intensity.

Ok. 1) What's your filter? If it's powerful enough, you might not even need the Koralia's 2) In long tanks like that, a spraybar is nearly always the best option. There are some good guides on here about making your own plastic pipework, and to be honest, if it's just a spraybar, it couldn't...

Moler clay is the main part of cat litter, it's the physical grains that you see. Cat litter usually has various additives and perfumes in it too, so you can't use any old cat litter (the Tesco one that Michael mentioned doesn't have additives in it). If you want it in bulk, you can buy sacks...

Yea, sorry, I wasn't going to use stauro, I just thought that stauro scapes would also look good with the ammania. Will do some googling later, thanks :).

Fine tweezers are a good way to remove the riccia if you don't want it.

Having got some stunning ammania from George, and getting some more ele. sp. mini, I'm going to redo my Ebi 30litre with much more plant mass, as I'm enjoying it far less since it's not as pretty, and also finding it much more work because of the lower plant mass. So, with a combination of...

I've got a history spanning both roses, so you can imagine the internal conflict that rages there :P.

Where are you based Oldbloke? Maybe I can indulge my MTS by stealth - small tank on a big stand, let the missus get used to the stand, and then let the tank magically grow to fit...

I really like white clouds, they're quite understated but really active fish, and extremely hardy. They'll grow to a reasonable size, not far off Cardinal Tetra size, although they tend to be a bit smaller in the height of the body.

Sounds very final that Gary, I hope all is well. I've found your Trigon efforts hugely interesting since I'm fortunate/cursed to have one myself.

Looks like a lovely finish. What primer and paint did you use?

As above, keeping a clean tank is a good way to keep a snail population in check, although some species will go after live plants, so obviously that's no help in that instance. Please be aware of the requirements of clown loaches - plenty of people get them without realising what a large fish...

First time I've ever spoken to a coal vein :p.

I'm in a long term relationship with a Dewalt Radial that I think is older than me.....

Nicely done, biscuit jointers are handy bits of kit! The track saws are great if you need the portability, but I find radial arm saws so much more versatile, although needing to use a rollerstand for longer work can be a pain.

If I had the money spare, I'd almost certainly do something like this, but as mentioned above, the outlay must be staggering. Plus I'm on a water meter :lol:.

You don't mention what tank is going on this! If using interior MDF, then make sure you seal it well, or it will blow as soon as it gets wet.

Those otto's look awesome!

Never managed that, although I've got a group of 6 in one of my tanks, they still don't seem to behave like that. When they were just 2 I never saw them, now that they're 6 I see them all regularly even with lights on, but never shoaling. Fancy doing some video?

Don't know if it's the plants, your lighting, your photography, or what, but that tanks looks fantastically vivid, I love it!

Willow branches? That's a new one on me Joel, would you mind sharing please? Thanks!

In terms of detail I couldn't disagree with the galaxy rasbora - the got some in my nan and they're stunning. The only thing is that their detail is lost at a distance because of the scale of them.

There are many fantastic fish that we put in our scapes, some for functional reasons, some for cosmetic. I'm sat here on my sofa, looking at my really basic low tech tank, and to be honest, the 15 or so really healthy cardinal tetras that are shoaling around look utterly stunning, bright blue...

Good spot Tim, missed that entirely. Your other option would be a piece of plant weight around either the rhizome or the roots.

As long as you're cleaning in tank water from the same tank then there's no issue. Your thinking is right though, if you're running a dual filter setup and ever have to do anything that will negatively impact the bacteria in one filter, it's always better to leave as long a gap as possible...

Just do something about that bloody bright yellow thermometer now :lol: