My new low tech attempt

[faizal]

It's going to complete it's 9th month of life by the end of this March. Quite chuffed with the way it's held up. Probably the only tank that has lasted for me this long so far. I recently tied some morimo balls on to some of the lava rocks and now i have a carpet. Thank you Mark Evans for giving me the idea.

They are so easy to maintain. But then not all had been well. About 3 weeks ago i bought some anubias petite nanas & added them to the tank. I forgot to rinse them out properly,....& they must have had some residual pesticides in them because 2 days later i wiped out my entire shrimp population.. A hard lesson learned.

My fishes are fine though.

This is how it looks now,....i am thinking of adding some more plants later on because the background area kind of looks a bit empty.

 

[faizal]

This handsome fella is now dead,...

FTS

 

[tim]

Hi Faizal, sorry to hear about your shrimp mate, tanks looking lovely and healthy on the plant side though, lovely low tech scape.

 

[Ady34]

Yeah sorry to hear about the shrimp Faizal.
Tank is looking great though....slow and steady makes life easy

 

[faizal]

Hi Faizal, sorry to hear about your shrimp mate, tanks looking lovely and healthy on the plant side though, lovely low tech scape.

Thanks mate. Yeah i am not too proud of myself with regards to what i did to the shrimps. Still kicking myself over it at times. Anyways like i mentioned,...this is a big lesson for me on not taking things for granted. Tim,..how's your low tech experiment coming along? Looking forward for more updates.

 

[faizal]

Tank is looking great though....slow and steady makes life easy

You are absolutely right there Ady. It's a real treat. The less i fiddle with it the more stable it appears to be. I am actually looking forward to keep this running for a long time. It really takes care of itself. Thanks for the kind comments mate. I can't wait to get a fresh batch of shrimps in another month's time. I am worried that if i add them in now,...the residual pesticides might still be there. The fishes seem ok. Thank God for that.

 

[Bufo Bill]

Sorry to hear the bad news. On the other hand the tank is looking great, also your plants look so healthy, which is a key part of your very distinctive style. This distinctive style of yours makes your tank one of the easiest for me to identify who made and maintains it, and looks so much better than many of the Japanese style 'scapes which use up a great deal more time and resources.

 

[faizal]

Sorry to hear the bad news. On the other hand the tank is looking great, also your plants look so healthy, which is a key part of your very distinctive style. This distinctive style of yours makes your tank one of the easiest for me to identify who made and maintains it, and looks so much better than many of the Japanese style 'scapes which use up a great deal more time and resources.

Bill,...truly humbled & thank you mate & this is saying the least. Actually i never thought i had a style in the first place,... . I am actually bumming off ideas from others shamelessly.Thank you again for taking the time to read this journal. Hope your tank is ticking along nicely. Clive if you are reading this,...thanks for getting me here.

 

[tim]

Thanks mate. Yeah i am not too proud of myself with regards to what i did to the shrimps. Still kicking myself over it at times. Anyways like i mentioned,...this is a big lesson for me on not taking things for granted. Tim,..how's your low tech experiment coming along? Looking forward for more updates.

Don't be too hard on yourself mate mistakes happen, add the new shrimp slowly just to be sure there are no residual pesticides left, don't know if maybe carbon in the filter for a while may help, low techs going well I'm away from home other than weekends at the moment I'll try and get a pic up next weekend.

 

[faizal]

I'm away from home other than weekends at the moment I'll try and get a pic up next weekend.

No problem Tim. Take your own time mate. Looking forward to it nevertheless.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Looking very clean and healthy. And how come you haven't got any GSA on you anubias? I've got loads, unfortunately.

 

[faizal]

Looking very clean and healthy. And how come you haven't got any GSA on you anubias? I've got loads, unfortunately.

Cheers Troi,... I am not sure really. Maybe because my lights are only on for 3 hours ?

Maybe it's because the T8 tube is not placed directly at the centre of the tank too. I moved it to the back so it runs horizontally along the length of the tank exactly above that right focal crypt wendtii brown. So the anubias are not directly below the light source.

To be totally honest though,.. I haven't the slightest clue but I did keep getting some kind of white powdery stuff on hardscapes & glass after each light substrate vacuuming & about 20-30% water change. It used to come on so acutely y'know.. I mean the tank would be crystal clear when i go to sleep then i wake up to so much white powder in the tank. Came off rather easily when i used a toothbrush to remove it. Then i just stopped doing water changes for 2 weeks & things became crystal clear again. I did remove my purigen filled sock about a month ago. Never had that problem when the purigen was in.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Ah...3 hrs light, that'll be it then...
Mysterious white power though Some sort of precipitate from the water...CaCO3?

 

[Thom_Hardy]

Having a lo-tech tank myself I have been slowly building up a collection of high-tech gear ready to go over to the pressurised world, but this tank has genuinely got me thinking otherwise! Such a beautiful scape!

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

 

[faizal]

Ah...3 hrs light, that'll be it then...
Mysterious white power though Some sort of precipitate from the water...CaCO3?

Troi,..i have some crushed coral sand mixed into the bottom layer of the substrate beneath the gravel tidy !! Could this have caused it?

 

[faizal]

Having a lo-tech tank myself I have been slowly building up a collection of high-tech gear ready to go over to the pressurised world, but this tank has genuinely got me thinking otherwise! Such a beautiful scape!

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

Thom,... Thank you so much mate. You have no idea how wonderful it feels to get such kind comments from UKAPS members. And to think,...about 2 years ago i was successfully frying my plants to bits.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Troi,..i have some crushed coral sand mixed into the bottom layer of the substrate beneath the gravel tidy !! Could this have caused it?

Now you tell me It could have done I suppose..I think you need the services of a forensic scientist

 

[faizal]

Now you tell me It could have done I suppose..I think you need the services of a forensic scientist

Yeah,...it only struck me when you mentioned CaCO3 .

 

[faizal]

It's nothing much really and i am just adding this to journal for update sake but i had added some anubias petite nanas & some cryptocoryne ciliata to cover the empty looking background areas last week. You can't really appreciate the crypts in these photos though.

 

[tim]

This is a real beauty Faizal, so clean and healthy, really nice low tech.