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Low-tech aquarium...Update

Tim Harrison

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UKAPS Team
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Hi thought I'd post an image of my rapidly maturing low-tech planted tank.
55LRekord.jpg
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

Hi not sure what fts means, but if it means filters only the internal Juwel Biofilter which is rated at 250 litres/hour, so filtration is minimal as is circulation.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

Hi thanks for your comments. The set up is about 6 weeks old, but I keep moving stuff around so it hasn't really had chance to settle down yet, but despite the disturbance the plants are doing very well, and need thinning.

The set up is pretty basic:
Tank: Juwel Rekord 60, 55 litre, 60cm x 30cm x 30cm
Lighting: 2 x 24 watt T5 lighting (1 growth-lux, 1 Aqua-white) 10 hours a day with a 2 hour siesta halfway through, to replenish CO2, and to try and confuse the algae.
Filter: Internal Bio 250 litres/hour (minimum filtration and circulation), charcoal replaced with moss peat.

No added fertilizers
No CO2

Just a couple of cm of soil based substrate (my own formula) capped by 4-5cm of 3mm sand/gravel.
A couple of pieces of bog wood, and a lot of plants and way too many fish.

Pretty much the Walstad way, with a bit of attitude.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

Looks great and doing well for 6 weeks of low tech although your lighting would be a little high if it is twin t5's @24w each. Even if it is, it's doing well.

Do you have any fts's of the initial planting or shortly after? Would be interested to see the difference and growth rates.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

From this to this...my low-tech tank, a work in progress. The photography is a bit suspect, I've used an old digital camera which is well past its sell by date and the only light available is the tank light. Being a newbie to this site I wasn't sure where to post this so I've also posted it in the Journals section.

I have always set up my tanks this way; admittedly though the last one I did was over 25 years ago. Once the soil based substrate is added and capped the aquarium is filled with water and planted, there really is no need to wait and wait for months and months, and to flush and re-flush. There is a tendency to get paranoid about ammonia release and all the other gubbins supposedly associated with soil based substrates, but I've never had a problem. Plants are great at balancing aquarium biochemistry in next to no time.

The soil based substrate goes in about 1cm at the front sloping to about 2cm at the back.

Low-tech1.jpg


Capped by 3mm sand/gravel, I've since added at least twice as much.

Low-tech2.jpg


And then the bog wood, large pieces for immediate effect, however, things didn't stay that way for long.

Low-tech3.jpg


Planted with the addition of another piece of bog wood. I planted without any real thought to aesthetics, since I wasn't really sure what plants I'd be able to grow in the local tap water. So I just brought a range of plants and left them to fight it out amongst themselves, however they have all done very well...so far.

The fish were added a few days later, at first half a dozen small Cardinals, the rest - 3 Ottos, 4 more Cardinals, 10 glowlights, and 6 Colombian Tetras - were added gradually over the next 3 weeks; way too many I know, but so far so good.

Low-tech4.jpg


About 3 weeks later the plants have well and truly taken hold and their growth rate rockets, without the benefit of fertilisers or CO2. I also added some Java fern and Java moss. The original canopy and monolux 15 watt T8 lighting unit were replaced fairly early on with two 24 watt T5 lights.

Low-tech5.jpg


Things start to get a bit crowded so the wood and plants where removed (I was amazed at the root development over a relatively short period of time especially the Echinodorus spp. the roots seemed to go on for ever) and the whole tank was re-aquascaped. More gravel was added along with just two pieces of bog wood this time before replanting with the addition of twisted Vallisneria spp. Unfortunately, some of the plants took a bit of a hammering especially the brittle Hydrocotyle spp. which had also been moved from pillar to post several times before, but it still keeps putting out new leaves despite my best efforts to destroy it.

Low-tech9.jpg


A couple of weeks later the plants are starting to settle and put down new roots and the growth takes off again. I added a few more Lilaeopsis and a Pogostemon this weekend, and have ordered some Glossostigma, for the immediate foreground, I'll let them fight it out. The poor Hydrocotyle suffers another move.

Low-tech10.jpg


The same scape closer up, for what it's worth.

55LRekordaquascape.jpg


Closer still.

55LRekord.jpg


I've decided to strip this tank down in a few weeks and plan to transfer some of the contents to a Fluval Roma 90, the best I could do with the available space. I will run it with an external canister filter attached to a lily pipe set up, the Juwel internal Biofilter did an ok job (250 l/hr) but there is definitely room for improvement. I hope to come up with a more inspired and sophisticated aquascape; but we will see.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

Hi, thanks guys. No the soil does not come up when I move the plants around, at the very most a get a slight localised clouding, but that disperses in seconds, it also depends on how deep the cap of sand/gravel is. I wouldn't even get clouding ordinarily, but I didn't use a gravel tidy this time (sheet of fine plastic mesh, the type used for shading greenhouses). I usually place this over the soil layer to separate it form the gravel/sand cap above, allowing the movement of plants etc without any fear of upsetting the soil. The plants are planted in the sand or gravel and they naturally extend their roots through the mesh and in to the soil, sometimes within days.

As long as the basics are understood using soil based substrate is all pretty fool proof really, and the benefits are enormous. Most aquatic plants preferentially draw most of their nutrients from the substrate, so it negates the use of fertilisers. Plants can also uptake carbon from a soil substrate, and the process of decomposition that an aquatic soil goes through also releases CO2 in to the water column, so it negates CO2 injection. And contrary to popular belief it takes years and years for the soil to become exhausted of nutrients, its all to do with Cation Exchange Capacity and achieving a balance between inputs and outputs.

The bottom line is that soil is not used in most planted tanks because it seems counter-intuitive to most, and perhaps understandably so. But if time is taken to understand the principles behind soil based substrates the rewards are there for the reaping, without the huge financial outlay and investment in time and energy required to set up a high-tech system. And I don't just mean the effort involved but also the huge amount of energy required to run the set up and to process the CO2 and fertilisers etc. Also, the science behind some of the alternative substrates on the market just doesn't stack up.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

it's looking good. What do you mean by soil based substrate, what exactly do you use, is it just soil from the garden?
I'm planning on having a soil substrate, i was going to use organic choice miracle grow but cant seem to find it anywhere.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

Hi I use my own formula, which is a blend of 20% sterilised loam, 10% grit and 70% Sphagnum Moss Peat. The aim is to provide a nutrient level just high enough to aid good plant growth but low enough to prevent excessive release of nitrate etc.

But equally you could use aquatic compost the type readily available at garden centres for use in ponds, this would be fine and is often composed of similar ratios of loam grit and peat to my formula above. I have also had great success in the past just using Sphagnum Moss Peat on its own. The only drawback is that peat can supposedly drastically reduce pH, however I've never found this, but in hard water areas with high pH this might actually prove beneficial anyway.

Diana Walstad, who wrote a book on the subject, has used her own garden soil, but recommends John Innes number 3. But it could prove a little too rich so adding more Sphagnum Moss Peat might be beneficial, approx half as much again should do it, but it is not an exact science especially since local water chemistry can also play a role too, for instance as above.

An explanation of the basic principles can be found here http://theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method.

It all sounds a bit complicated, but it isn't. I first started using soil based substrates over 30 years ago as a very young teenager, with very little understanding as to the science or principles behind them, and never once had any problems (ignorance is bliss).

I first learned of soil based substrates from the leading periodical of the time "The Aquarist", and from reading what was my aquarium bible, and still is for that matter, The Complete Aquarium Encyclopaedia of Tropical Freshwater Fish, by J.D. van Ramshorst, (1978). The book was way ahead of its time, it's has amongst its pages the first mention of CO2 use in planted aquariums that I have come across, using soda siphon bottles, and the book is still very much relevant today.

Anyway I digress, but I hope this helps.
 
Re: Low-tech aquarium

Thanks. I though all peat was sphagnum moss, I'll have to check & John Innes No 3 and laterite or grit.
I looked for that book on Amason and found a more uptodate edition for pretty much the price of postage so have ordered it.
 
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