# 75 Gallon Very Low Tech



## somethingpishy1 (Jun 13, 2011)

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the site. Ive been keeping fish for over 10 years but mostly kept larger aggressive fish that weren't very plant friendly. 

The only planted tank ive had so far was a 10gallon with two cfl bulbs and diy co2. It was a successful tank, but unfortunately i had to take it down when i moved into my dorm.

So now im taking a break from larger fish untill i can get a 180+ gallon tank and getting ready to turn my 75gallon into a planted tank. 

Specs:

Lighting: 48" hagen Aqua-Glo 40 watt T8
Filtration: Rena XP4
Substrate: Caribsea moonlight Sand
Flora: Anubias barteri
Fauna: 10x Puntius Denisonii, 9x Malabar Danios, 1x anblebs anableps (temporary resident)


so far the only plants in there are 3 anubias barteri that put out a new leaf every three weeks. the lights are on for two 3 hour cycles (total of 6 hrs) with a 3 hour dark period to keep algae at bay

75g:

looks like a new tank, but its been up for 2 years and is fully matured, i just always liked a minimalistic look




























Old 10g:

Lighting: 2x 13watt cfl
Substrate: Inert gravel
Flora: Java fern, Amazon Sword, Java moss, Anubias nana
Fauna: 5x beckfords pencilfish, 5x Golden pristilla tetras, 1x Babay BN pleco, and 1x Apistogramma sp. 'Steel Blue'













For the 75, my plan was initialy to do an anubias and moss only tank, but do you guys think dwarf sag would work? id appreciate any comments and/or suggestions


p.s. sorry for the long post


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## plecostomouse (Jun 9, 2011)

i like the look of the tanks, great fish to.
dwarf sag has done well for me in low tech low(almost none) fert tanks so shouldn't be a problem, good luck


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Consider some hygrophilia, rotala, and any type of swords - and a red or tiger lotus for contrast.


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## somethingpishy1 (Jun 13, 2011)

plecostomouse said:


> i like the look of the tanks, great fish to.
> dwarf sag has done well for me in low tech low(almost none) fert tanks so shouldn't be a problem, good luck


just ordered 35 dwarf sag. ill add pics after rescaping the tank



discuspaul said:


> Consider some hygrophilia, rotala, and any type of swords - and a red or tiger lotus for contrast.


ill keep those in mind, hopefully next plant order ill get some


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## somethingpishy1 (Jun 13, 2011)

i got screwed over by the seller of the dwarf sag >=( lost some money and recieved no plants


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## Lil' Swimz$ (Jul 24, 2010)

It looks very clean!


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## somethingpishy1 (Jun 13, 2011)

Update:

- Danios have been removed because they were just too hyper active and it was taking away from the tranquility of the tank.
- Added 10 albino corydoras for the meantime, they'll be replaced by a group of smaller loaches 
- Added 3 otocinclus to help keep algae at bay, im probably gonna add 3 more
- Got a 2x 54 watt T5HO fixture with 6700k bulbs, now i can keep a wider range of plants
- Added a ton of taiwan moss, a java fern, and started aquascaping

unfortunately i also lost my smallest dinison barb recently  all parameters were fine, and it was eating/acting normally so i have no idea what caused it. Now im down to 9 hopefully i can get another 

next on the list is A lot more plants, some altum angels, and possibly pressurized co2

here are a few updated pics:





































in case anyone was wondering why there's a fork in there, its to hold down veggies for the barbs and otos


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Your tanks are spotless.. wow. One suggestion, consider a colored background to hide the light switch. I know, trivial but the switch does cause a distraction. I have seen them in a really light sky blue that you can barely see. Also another to consider that is very minimalist.. go to your local big box DIY warehouse and get window film that looks like rice paper. I had that on mine and it looked sweet.. until I put up the moss wall and that went out the window.  

This tank reminds me of a few places in the Keys I have dived and you see nothing but sand all around and all of a sudden there is this little island of coral with fish teeming all around it. Yes, people, I know that is not supposed to be coral but work with me here!


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

So far, your minimalist approach looks excellent - particularly with the water clarity you are maintaining. Keep up the great work - it should look superb when you get it finished/where you want it !


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## somethingpishy1 (Jun 13, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

Ive tried backgrounds, but i always end up taking them off a few days later. i just really like the "floating on air" look. maybe i can figure out a way to cover up the light switch.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

A baby blue background would look amazing on this thing. Just a thought.


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## somethingpishy1 (Jun 13, 2011)

Update:

-Removed Corydoras and ottos
-Sold the Lights and moss, too much algae from 2x 54watt T5HO and sand kept going in the moss
-Got an 17 watt Led tube as replacement lighting. Has 300 .6watt leds. Its super bright and energy efficient
-Added 5 Botia Dario 
-Added an L006 pleco, 
-Added an LDA01 pleco
-Added an L443 pleco 
-Added a BN pleco
-Added 7 Puntius Assimilis, they were under 1" when i got them a month ago, now the largest is 1.5"

Heres a video, watch it in HD. This is the first time ive been able to capture the LDA01 on camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3l00LxLGkI




And Here's a pic of the L006 











more anubias and Some manzanita wood coming soon


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Anubias & manzanita wood coming soon - that should definitely improve the look of your tank.


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