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I learned the ropes of keeping planted aquariums in the Netherlands where low-tech tanks were the norm and as a kid also the only way to keep things affordable. I can now afford to spend the money, and I will if it is something I want, but there is a certain satisfaction to the simplicity of a low-tech tank. Some of my methods may go against common wisdom so if you want to try this at home do so at your own risk :)

Before getting started I’ll first show a picture of the tank as it is now after 5 weeks

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The tank

The tank is a 90 gallon 48x18x24" all glass aquarium. It used to have a wooden hood and two 32 watt standard 4' tube lights. However, the hood has to be removed to get to the bottom of the tank so I took it off and it is now a completely open tank without hood or glass lid. The tank is placed along a Northern wall without direct sunlight but some ambient light from the living room. It is also not in a high-traffic zone so less disturbance for the fish.

The light

I replaced the tube lights with a 48" Current USA Satellite Plus Pro LED light. It is a 60 watt LED light with build-in programmable timer and dimmer. You can also program the intensity settings for the white, red, green, and blue LEDs independently. At 350-400CAD it is not something I would get in my student days, but it should last a looong time, save on energy and the light it produces and the unit itself look very smart. I also like the programmed dimmer that simulates a 15 minutes sunrise and sunset. It is very thin and sits very low above the water, but I have not seen any heat or light burn on the floating plants.

LED lights showing the white (6500K full spectrum), with the colour LEDs shown as purple as I'm only running the blue and purple, leaving the green off.

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The substrate

In the Netherlands we would often use sand with a thin layer of small pebbles on top as the substrate. Despite the typical washing or even boiling recommendations we would specifically use "dirty sand" to avoid making the bottom too sterile. This time I went a step further and took my bike into the river valley and dug up about 1.5 gallon of dirt from a little pool. The first pool overwhelmed me with a sulfur odour that even Shrek would have found offensive. A second pool was more sandy with some small stones, black/grey gunk, but no offensive smell. That soil was harvested and I took out 4 gallons of water. The muck went in a layer along the back half of the tank, covered with 1-2" of sand recycled from a tank that I took down several years ago and 3-5mm pebbles went on top of that. The idea was that the gunk and water would kick-start a natural bacterial composition, using the substrate and plants as my biological filter. It also provided some tubifex like worms and other weird wormy oddities but nothing that looked dangerous.

Muck added to tank with two remaining gallons of "magic water" on top

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After adding a top layer of sand and pebbles

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The water

I filled the tank with the 4 gallons of pool water and the rest was just untreated tap water. It gave the perfect recreation of a South American white water stream biotope, completely clouded over by the high concentration of fine particulates. An old small internal filter, rated for up to 50 gallon tanks (I think it does theoretically 200 gallon/hr), with just some filter wool in a basket. That cleared out the water in a day or two, but leaving a fine dusting on the bottom. In my book a bit of dirt is just fine and closer to the real situation in nature, but it may not appeal to everyone.

I am modeling a Venezuelan/Colombian clear water "morichales" biotope that has very soft and acidic water. In contrast to the black water biotopes, morichales are heavily planted and have all the kinds of fish I love, including cichlids and tetras. But Edmonton water is hard and basic so I purchased a small RO-buddy reverse osmosis unit (90CAD from Amazon) rated at 50 gallon/day max, and producing about 30 gallon/day with my water pressure. There may be better choices but so far it is doing well and hardness of tankwater has gone down from 315ppm to 50ppm. The pH is still at 7.3 and I am now experimenting with peat and leafs to try to bring the pH down without resorting to chemicals. The leafs again reflect the natural situation of the morichales biotope, although the oak and elm leaves I am using are decidedly not tropical.

Elm and oak leafs plus a dusting of particulates/mulm

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I don't know how many images I can include in one post so I will post the plant and fish images plust story in a separate message.

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The plants

I just moved from a house with a pond and took out some of the pond plants to at least have them start up the tank. I didn't expect the hornwort, duckweed, and frogbit that handle Edmonton winters in the pond outside would survive the 26-27C tank water but they all did just fine. The hornwort literally thrives growing at least an inch a day. I also added Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce I think it is called here) which does not survive Edmonton winters but is fine outside during the summer and in the tank. All these plants and a piece of drift wood were added right after the water had been cleared by the pump. A week later I added Echinodorus bleheri (swordplant), Myriophyllum mattogrossense, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, and Helanthium tenellum (aka Echinodorus tenellus, micro-swordplant, at least I think it is the same thing). All produced by Tropica. A week after that I added a very tall, 50+cm, bunch of Eleocharis (hairgrass) for which I haven't figured out the exact species name yet, but it looks great and is a very typical plant for the biotope I'm modeling. Outside the current, some of the stalks stick some 10cm above the water surface in the 24” high tank while those in the current are bending from the left-back corner all the way to the surface halfway the tank (check the LED light image in the first post). I hope this becomes a much bigger bush.

So far all plants and fish are doing well. The hornwort needs trimming 1 or 2 times a week. The big swordplant makes 3 new leafs a week and each leaf takes a week to reach its full 35cm or so size. The Myriophyllum was slow to catch on and started out with very pale/whitish top leafs but is now bright pale green and growing 1cm a day. The microsword is creating runners with new plantlets, as is the Lilaeopsis but that one is spreading pretty slow so far. The Eleocharis is in the back and I haven’t really kept an eye on its growth yet but it has made new shoots and seems happy.

Sword plant (Echinodorus bleheri) when just bought and 3 weeks later

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Myriophyllum mattogrossense when just bought (with white top leafs) and 3 weeks later

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Helanthium tenellum mother plant in back and runner with new plantlets in front

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Tiny tuft of Lileaopsis brasiliensis taken with macro lens. So far my least favourite plant because it is too dense and doesn't leave fish access to the substrate if it forms a lawn.

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I'm again pushing max upload file size limits so will postpone the fish to the final message.

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The fish pt. 1

Two weeks after filling the tank I added a school of 16 red phantom tetras. I like them because they are very lively with a lot of intra-species display and rivalry, but no inter-species aggression. I also like their deep body shape and pretty fins that they like to display fully stretched out. There are larger and more colourful look-alikes, such as the serpae tetra or bleeding hearts, but the red phantoms are the only ones found in my biotope. They are described as being peaceful but I relearned that they are also very fast and ferocious feeders so I may have to reduce the size of the school if they prevent slower or more timid feeders from getting any food. Another reason for getting them first is that they are pretty hardy. At the start they were struggling with the size of micropellets (Hikari) and I had to crush them before feeding. But now they gobble them down at an amazing speed.

Red phantom tetras (Hyphessobrycon sweglesi) female left, male right

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On one occasion they were showing mating behaviour before the lights went on. This happened the day after I remove the pebbles as much as I could manage. It seemed like a major disturbance and the aquarium was very cloudy until the pump could clear things up. I don't know if they got in mating mood despite my disturbance or if it reminded them of the start of the rainy season?

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The fish pt. 2

A week after the phantoms and about a month after starting the tank I added 7 otocinclus. Stores I checked don’t tend to include the species name but based on some studying I found what I believe to be O. vittatus, which has the widest distribution and is one of only two otos that can be found in Venezuela and Colombia. So far, they much prefer scraping the windows, plants and hardwoods and leaving the delicious zucchini mostly untouched. I take that as a good sign and a benefit of not cleaning the tank too much. I have been reading some scientific papers about them and may write something up later.

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Close-up showing the "teeth" on each scale. Males have a different arrangement of these teeth on the tail base and I want to see if at some point I can get a picture of that.

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The fish pt. 3

The last addition has been a pair of Apistogramma macmasteri. Apistogramma hongsloi would have been a better match for the biotope but they seem to be very hard to get in Edmonton unless you go for special breeds with unnatural bright red colouration. A. macmasteri and A. hongsloi (as are A. viejeta, and A. hognoi) are all closely related and the macs were just too pretty to resist. This pair was acting like a pair in the store and I hope that in time they will turn to mating in my tank as well. Like in nature, they swim close to the substrate and take mouthfuls of sand and detritus which they sieve through their gills. They have started eating micropellets and bloodworms but need to get a bit more assertive during feeding to compete with the phantoms. They are however very good at spotting and picking up pieces of food that have fallen on the substrate, something the phantoms are not good at.

A. macmasteri female (left) and male (right)

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Apart from trimming the hornwort I have not yet cleaned windows or substrate. I do clean the pump filter about once a week and occasionally thin out some of the floating plants if they start to create too much shadow. So far I have added about 2 x 2.5ml of Flourish (micro nutrients) after big RO water replacements because I was afraid I was diluting out too many of the micro nutrients they need. Those are really small doses for a 90 gallon tank and I hope/plan to keep fertilizer additions to a minimum now that I’m down to water top-ups and just small 5 gallon/week or so water replacements. But my plants will tell me if I can get away with that. In the Netherlands we sometimes used a syringe to inject clay slurry around plant roots and I may give that a try with some of the bentonite clays you can find in the river valley (after testing it is not a calcium/magnesium rich clay). I bet growth would have been even faster and plants more lush with CO2 and more fertilisation but I am pretty happy.

So far the main mistake has been the top layer of small pebbles. Reading more about the morichales biotopes it is clear they normally have just fine sand with some dirt, leafs and branches/roots. I got most of the pebbles out while leaving the water, red phantoms and plants in the tank. Decidedly not the ideal way of doing things but that is what happens if you are too eager to get started before completing the required reading and watching of underwater biotope footage. Anyway, I’ve been having lots of fun and am happy with the results so far. I’ll update when new additions, triumphs or tribulations happen and hope to learn some Canadian tricks on aquarium keeping in the process.

Cheers, Bart

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Hi SIF

I started out with the preprogrammed "sunlight" setting (the orange button on the remote) for 10.5 hours/day. I guess that is the same setting you use. I used the remote to check what settings this actually corresponds to (just use the up/down buttons to see the percentage for each colour) and I believe it was 100% white, 100% red, 50% green and 0% blue. Hence the warmer tone than the "full spectrum" that has everything at 100%. Because plants use red and blue for photosynthesis and reflect most of the green I tried out 100% white, 100% red, 100% blue, and 0% green and liked the result. I have that now programmed for my "daytime" setting. It is a bit cooler than the "sunlight" setting but I have some tannins in the water so that warms up the colour. Perhaps give it a try.

As of this week I have increased day length from 10.5 to 11 hours and intend to slowly ramp it up to about 12 hours/day, which should be close to daylight duration year round in the tropics. I also appreciate having the lights on so I can enjoy the tank when I am actually at home. What is the rationale of using the much shorter day length you and others are using?

A Current USA brochure rates the light at 100+ PAR at 12" depth which is very bright and they list it as suitable for "high light level" plants. I find that on a 24" tall tank it is certainly not too bright and less bright than I had expected, even in the areas without floating plants. So I am glad I didn't go with the more basic Satellite Plus model or other less powerful LED lights. For a 24" tall CO2/fertilized tank I expect you would need two or an even more powerful unit. I bet it is quite a bit brighter on your 14" tall tank though.

At the moment my most demanding plant, listed as "medium" on Tropica, is Myriophyllum mattogrossense. It had a hard time the first 2 weeks when it was just 2" tall but it is now 6" and much happier. I hope it will do even better as it keeps growing towards the light. I also hope to get in some Tonina fluviatilis which is supposed to be very demanding and not really suitable for a low-tech tank. My hopes are not very high for that one but it will be in an interesting challenge.

Edited by biodives
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I'm using a shorter light period on these low tech tanks mainly to avoid algae. I'm using Finnex 24/7 LEDs on my other two ADA 75-P with CO2. Its quite nice to view the tanks when I want. When I used Fluval LEDs I could hear the fish splashing when it was lights out. I think in going to try the myriophillum - it sounds like a nice background plant for my bigger tanks.

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If you would like to have lights on longer in your tank can't you reduce the power to let's say 75% and add 2 hours to the day length. I have just extended my day length to 11.5 hours and will wait and see how the tank responds. One other plant I'm looking at is Cabomba aquatica. It should be ok for a low-tech plant and apparently easier than Myriophyllum. It would over time replace the hornwort, which is doing well but not my favourite plant and it needs too frequent trimming.

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Once my 45-P cycles and I transfer the Celestial Pearl Danios then I will play with the lighting on the 60-P. When it's all settled then I'll be looking for a betta. Cabomba is the one plant I can't grow. I might try it again in a low tech environment. Right now I have tiger lotus, crypts, Hydrocotyle cf. tripartita, Ludwigia, and staurogene (that I'll probably lose).

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Good luck and I am jealous of the large number of tanks you and many others have. I definitely need to get a few more to experiment with different plants, fishes, and conditions.

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Large tanks have more options on stocking but require more time for maintenance. And added costs of bigger equipment costs and much larger months costs. I know first hand as I got an 180 150 135 125 90 gallon tanks and another 4 20-30 gallon quarantine tanks. Love the look of your planted tank...not sure I be brave enough to use soil I dug up. Fish are too costly to replace.

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Thanks for the feedback and appreciation for the planted tank. I agree with your stated benefits and costs of larger tanks but I am already contemplating a larger tank for next year, assuming my Condo flooring is up to the higher load. I'd also like to get a few smaller tanks to experiment and hopefully raise some fry.

A low-tech tank does avoid some of the higher costs your mention. I don't use a canister filter, CO2 supplementation, chemicals, and (almost) no fertilizer so I expect electricity for heat and 60W LED lighting will dominate the monthly charge. I'm also starting to grow my own life food (Daphnia and red wriggler worms) and hope to get that going before the winter sets in.

So far heating has not really been necessary for the first month where the tank ran at 26/27 degrees without any heating, just the Edmonton summer warmth, plus the 5 or 6 watts from the internal filter pump. I recently placed one 150W heater set to 24 degrees but most of the time it is not active because the tank is warmer than that just relying on solar heat warming my living room (it is a very well insulated house so it stays warm, even during the night, without heating). Of course that will all change soon and I will likely need to my second 150 Watt heater, which is good as a redundant fail-safe anyway. Another recurring cost may be reverse osmosis membranes and associated filters, but I have to wait and see how long they last.

Many people, or at least youtube videos, use potting soil under a layer of sand as the substrate. To me that is more artificial than using a natural soil. I just had to make sure my dirt wasn't contaminated with any chemicals, that is why I went into the river valley. It is a natural aquatic soil with organics from surrounding deciduous trees and, I assume, the kinds of bacteria that are suitable for such an environment. As I said, I am not advocating this for general use but is something I wanted to experiment with and so far it has worked well. I will can't say it worked better than potting soil as I didn't use that as a control experiment. If I get a bunch of smaller tanks I may do something a little more elaborate to see if my approach sped up the cycling of the tank.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just over two weeks have gone by and I wanted to give a brief update. The main reason is that the Apistogramma macmasteri pair has just produced their first spawn and the female is proudly parading her young in front of the driftwood. They are hard to count but I estimated there are 30 to 40 of the little ones. The female had been behaving as if she was guarding eggs, chasing the phantoms away and only coming out briefly when I was feeding. But I had spent so much time watching the tank that I was sure they could not have mated without me noticing. I regret not having seen their nuptials but am mostly glad to see baby fish.

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The Myriophyllum has continued its growth and is due to reach the tank surface in just over a week or so. As it grows it is also getting more and more light and starting to get very nice and wide feathery leaves. The sword plant is still adding 2-3 leafs a week and they now grow 50cm tall to touch the surface. The hornwort has slowed down a bit and has become a little thinner and less attractive. The goal was to replace it with Cabomba aquatica but I still haven't found any. I did find the Corydoras habrosus that I was looking for and was planning to pick them up this weekend but may hold off to see what happens with the baby fish.

Very happy :) :) :)

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