Low maintenance high tech tank?

[GlassWalker]

As discussed previously I've been experimenting with CO2 in one tank. Now I remember why I discontinued liquid carbon previously, other than the vallis thing. Massive plant growth!

Now, I don't think any of my current surviving plants really need CO2, but I thought once I got it set up it would open the doors to more demanding ones. The downside is, my existing plants grow so fast, they ideally need pruning weekly, and I'm doing it nearer fortnightly. I even think the plant growth is having a negative impact on fish health. The reduced swimming space I think is causing more aggression amongst my barbs and more of them are missing bits of fins. I can't say 100% for sure this is due to the plants, but this to me seems the most plausible explanation as they were fine before the plants grew.

I think I have two options:
1, discontinue CO2 and go back to low tech. This will slow plant growth enough for me to control.
2, change plants to ones that don't take up so much space. I have no idea what this would be.

Remember, any planting will be fish-in. They do seem to swim close to the substrate at times and have pulled plants out before.

 

[Chris Jackson]

I've had similar issues with rampant growth that became more of a chore than a pleasure and my solution was to reduce light and go sort of semi tech... I've found things slow down with less light but most still grow v well. Gradually removing the rampant ones and adding other slower crypts and rosette type plants is quite a pleasurable process

 

[Andy Thurston]

Or reduce lighting as much as possible to slow growth
My friend had good results with a single t8 and co2 with some medium difficulty plants too

 

[EnderUK]

I trim mine every month, 2xt5HE no reflectors about 15inch from surface. 8 hour photoperiod. So light is the limiting factor. Works well for me.

 

[GlassWalker]

Ok, I hadn't thought about option 3, lower light, keep CO2. Lowering light will be difficult for me as the tank is fairly large and without the current arrangement it looks very dark. I need the coverage, if not the intensity. So I will try to dim one the brighter of the lights which shouldn't affect coverage as much as intensity. The other part of course is to reduce duration but unless I get silly that isn't going to make much difference.

 

[EnderUK]

You do get use to having a lower light tank, another option is floating plants depending on your current on the surface. I do a terrible thing and lower the spray bar so there is no ripples on the surface.

 

[GlassWalker]

I already have floating plants of sorts. I've got up to 5ft Vallis, in a 2ft tall tank. Like I said, I don't prune back nearly often enough... but I guess that isn't what you mean!

My biggest mistake on this tank was painting a black background on it with black sand substrate. Just makes everything so gloomy.