Started as High Tech - Transitioning to Low Tech

[MaterialCrab]

I took my eyes off of the prize and wasn't paying attention to the plant health over the past 2 weeks. I was glancing at the tank but not really paying attention if that makes sense.

I wasn't dosing additional potassium and my plants have become quite poorly, some stems haves lost all leaves. The tank as a whole looks quite thinned out and I'm seeing some melt.

Should I trim everything right back down or leave it be and see how it goes?

 

[bazz]

Hi,
As well as a deficiency there appears to be quite a lot of detritus built up on the leaves. For starters I would get in there and trim off any dead or decaying plant matter, have a good hand waft about/manual swirling of the plants and then water change ensuring any detritus on the substrate surface is removed disturbing it as little as possible. Repeat this process several times and also review your fertilization regime. What exactly does this consist of at the moment and do you have a FTS? It appears to have deteriorated quite quickly.

 

[MaterialCrab]

It appears to have deteriorated quite quickly.

You are telling me lol. I was shocked when I looked at it properly.

I've also noticed that I don't really have the snail population that I once had. They all seem to have disappeared as well. I also can't see that many Amano Shrimp, I don't know if they are hiding or something has happened to them?

No fish deaths, I may be new to plants but fish and water parameters I'm good with. I check my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates weekly.

As for fertilizer, I switched to EI, a weekly dose provides:
20ppm nitrate
2ppm potassium phosphate
1ppm FE
2ppm magnesium
3ppm sulphate and trace elements (this part is vague but the instructions are in Danish.)

I do a 40% watch change weekly, like clockwork every Friday night.

What does FTS mean?

I feel I'm going to need to take these stem plants out, they really have suffered an amazing amount of shed.

Mainly the Hygrophila and crypt, everything else seems fine.

 

[hypnogogia]

What does FTS mean?

Full Tank Shot - photo of the whole tank.

 

[MaterialCrab]

Full Tank Shot - photo of the whole tank.

Ah ok.

I took these just now.

Doesn't look too bad as a full shot, it's when you get up close you can see the damage

 

[bazz]

I suspect flow and distribution to be the main culprit here, have these problems arisen since reverting back to using the duck bill outlet? Could also be due to the plants growing in restricting flow. Looking at that BBA I would imagine there's a build up of organics too, I assume you are regularly maintaining your filter. As said above, I would just remove any dead or dying plant matter have a good waft around while doing a couple of back to back water changes and maybe consider a powerhead to assist flow, if feasible.
1 ppm Fe is double the amount of full EI, I would knock that back to at least 0.5 if not more. I'm no expert in this field but I believe you can poison plants giving them too much.
Cheers!

 

[MaterialCrab]

I suspect flow and distribution to be the main culprit here, have these problems arisen since reverting back to using the duck bill outlet? Could also be due to the plants growing in restricting flow. Looking at that BBA I would imagine there's a build up of organics too, I assume you are regularly maintaining your filter. As said above, I would just remove any dead or dying plant matter have a good waft around while doing a couple of back to back water changes and maybe consider a powerhead to assist flow, if feasible.
1 ppm Fe is double the amount of full EI, I would knock that back to at least 0.5 if not more. I'm no expert in this field but I believe you can poison plants giving them too much.
Cheers!

I never thought of the duck bill... My spray bar became faulty and awaiting a replacement for it under warranty. Very good call out!

I've actually come to the conclusion that high tech is not for me at this present time. But I'm going to switch to low tech, I love planted tanks so I'll move into more low light plants like ferns, I'm gradually reducing CO2 and I've lowered the light intensity as well.

When I started this journey I wasn't expecting the amount of maintenance and tinkering to get things perfect. I think low tech will be more up my street.

 

[MaterialCrab]

The transition to low tech has begun.

I've pulled the plug on CO2, added an air stone and did a 50% water change. Removed all the damaged stem plants from the right side of the tank and added in some Amazon Swords.

Light intensity has been reduced to 50% and photo period increased to 11 hours.

From the reading I have done, low tech tanks need a longer photo period with less intensity.

I'll monitor for Algae.

Also going to do a rescape and add plenty of ferns, some buce and sagittaria.

The aim for this project is a jungle style aquarium.

More photos to follow over the coming days.

 

[Laoshan]

This looks great already! A more natural vibe. You can ceremoniously remove the drop checker now 😂

 

[MaterialCrab]

This morning I came down to loads more shed and decided to remove all damaged plants. I don't want to deal with constant water changes through build up of decaying plants.

My tanks is a shell of its former self but we will get back on track.

 

[MaterialCrab]

Excuse the the stains on the glass, it's still a work in progress.

Does anyone have experience with Vallisneria? Worth it or too invasive??

 

[hypnogogia]

Worth it or too invasive??

Worth it, especially in low tech where it won’t grow quite so fast.

 

[MaterialCrab]

Layout is complete, plenty of Ferns, Anubias, Sagittaria, some crypts, some Amazon Swords in the background and my moss log which I was going to get rid of but once I had it in hand, I spotted at least 10 cherry shrimp which shouldn't be there, they must have hitch hiked in a bag or some plants.