# My Low Tech Tanks UPDATE 5/28/09 New photos of 55g



## Birdman (Feb 19, 2008)

I don't know what the plants are but your tanks sure look nice.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

Thanks from a fellow oregonian.


----------



## susankat (Oct 14, 2007)

Lots of java ferns and watersprite.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

Thanks. I thought it was java fern but I wasn't sure about the other one.


----------



## deleted_user_4 (Mar 8, 2006)

Those are beautiful tanks. Are you dosing anything?

I have a similar setup here in my office, with only Java Fern and Platys.


----------



## jtmangels (Feb 27, 2008)

Great looking tanks Mattco. They'll look even better if you paint the background blue or black to hide your equipment. Nice job!


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

addicted2sp33d said:


> Those are beautiful tanks. Are you dosing anything?
> 
> I have a similar setup here in my office, with only Java Fern and Platys.



Thank you very much. No dosing at all. I put a few root tabs in the sand 3-4 months ago, that was it. Do you have any pictures of your tank?


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

jtmangels said:


> Great looking tanks Mattco. They'll look even better if you paint the background blue or black to hide your equipment. Nice job!


Thanks! I thought about doing that, but I like to be able to look into the back if I need to. Have any tanks?


----------



## kornphlake (Dec 4, 2007)

Java fern isn't supposed to be planted in the substrate, it should be tied to rocks or driftwood until it's roots attatch themselves. I had some java fern survive for a couple years burried in the substrate though, it never grew but it did survive.

Where are you at in Oregon, you might be interested in GPAS.ORG if you're in the Portland area.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

Wow, I've never heard that before. I've always had it planted, and it grows like crazy. Some of it is actually attached to a piece of driftwood in the back of the 29, I stuck it into the cracks until the roots took hold. All the java fern you see in both tanks are descendants from 3 or 4 small pieces I started with.

I'm in hillsboro, thanks for the link, I'll check it out.


----------



## jtmangels (Feb 27, 2008)

Mattco26 said:


> Thanks! I thought about doing that, but I like to be able to look into the back if I need to. Have any tanks?


In the process of converting my 20L over to a FW community with live plants. It'll be a while but I'll get pics up when it's up and running. :smile:


----------



## D.C._United_Caps_Fan (Mar 9, 2008)

Those are some nice tanks and healthy looking plants! You're at what, 2WPG on lighting, and it seems to be doing well for you. Just more proof to me that us low techies can have just as nice tanks w/ great healthy fish and plants, as anyone else! roud: Gotta love low tech, and its WAY LESS EXPENSIVE to boot! :icon_mrgr


----------



## topfrog007 (Dec 30, 2007)

Nice job mattco, I love your glass top, creative. BTW, if it's regular glass and not tempered you can get glass cutters($3-10) at home depot and cut it down to size. Although then it's a pain to open... at least mine is.


----------



## D.C._United_Caps_Fan (Mar 9, 2008)

topfrog007 said:


> Nice job mattco, I love your glass top, creative. BTW, if it's regular glass and not tempered you can get glass cutters($3-10) at home depot and cut it down to size. Although then it's a pain to open... at least mine is.


If you cut it to fit exacly, just get a small clear plastic handle to put on the top. Just rubber cement it on, or use aquarium sealant, and there you have it. A nice top, that is easy to open. The only drawback is, even with the low profile handles it will still be raised up just a bit so any light will need to be raised up about 1/2" off of the glass, but thats extremely easy to do.


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

You can also buy plastic piano hinges online for DIY glass canopies. I'm pretty sure either Dr.F&S or www.petsolutions.com sells them (maybe both...)


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

D.C._United_Caps_Fan said:


> Those are some nice tanks and healthy looking plants! You're at what, 2WPG on lighting, and it seems to be doing well for you. Just more proof to me that us low techies can have just as nice tanks w/ great healthy fish and plants, as anyone else! roud: Gotta love low tech, and its WAY LESS EXPENSIVE to boot! :icon_mrgr



The 20 is at 1wpg, the 29 is around 2wpg. Thanks for the kind comments.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

topfrog007 said:


> Nice job mattco, I love your glass top, creative. BTW, if it's regular glass and not tempered you can get glass cutters($3-10) at home depot and cut it down to size. Although then it's a pain to open... at least mine is.



Thanks. The glass is tempered, its just a shelf from an old cabinet I had. The edges are frosted and the light kind of glows from the edges, I think it looks cool.

Thanks for the comments everyone, we just got a 150 gallon a few days ago. It belongs to my sister, but I'm going to have a hand in the set up and care of it, I'll take plenty of pics as we get it started.


----------



## pirayaman (Mar 30, 2008)

wow man thats a lot of java fern///// more than i ever saw in one tank ///holy crap //// it actully looks good ////// i cant belive what i just said ///// but i like it


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

*Updates*

Here are some recent updates. I had let both tanks pretty much grow wild, the java fern had filled most of the 20 and the 29. In the 29, I pulled most of it out so start the 150, so I flipped the piece of driftwood up on end to give the wisteria some room to grow out. Then I decided to put white sand on top to reflect a little more of the light.

In the 20 I pulled most of the java fern out, trimmed and re planted the wisteria in a more dense arrangement.

All my fish are happy and breeding like crazy, thanks for looking.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

*Update 12/02/08*

First up is the 29, I rescaped it a while ago, and got the rams. I'm now battling hair algae, I just bought timers today for both tanks, so I'll cut my lighting back to 9 hours a day and see how that goes.




Got a 55 from a guy for $30, got a $15 shop light and two 32 watt 6500K T8 bulbs for $6. I swapped the Magnum 350 and the heater from my 29 into the 55, and the HOT and heater from the 20 into the 29. I bought a powersweep powerhead with a sponge filter for $27. Substrate is play sand from HD, $6. I used the sand and water from the 20, so the 55 cycled quickly. Its been up for about 2 1/2 weeks now. The algae is getting wild, so I'm hoping cutting back the light cycle will help.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

MODS, could this be moved to the tank journal section??


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Tanks look good! I really liked the look of the DW turned on end in the previous arrangement, but these look like they'll grow out really well too! 

Might I ask where you found the shoplight? I am trying to find an inexpensive light for my 30g tank, the one that came with it is too short and only spans about 3/4 of the tank so I'd like to get a longer one, but the strip lights for tanks are so expensive, if I can get my hands on a shoplight it might be a great alternative! I'm a low tech girl, so regular old T8 lighting is fine with me, i just don't want the ends of the tank in the dark anymore! :tongue:


----------



## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

All your tanks look really nice, makes me want to turn my 29g tank into a low tech planted tank. what floating plant do you have in your 55g, duckweed?


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

Karackle said:


> Tanks look good! I really liked the look of the DW turned on end in the previous arrangement, but these look like they'll grow out really well too!
> 
> Might I ask where you found the shoplight? I am trying to find an inexpensive light for my 30g tank, the one that came with it is too short and only spans about 3/4 of the tank so I'd like to get a longer one, but the strip lights for tanks are so expensive, if I can get my hands on a shoplight it might be a great alternative! I'm a low tech girl, so regular old T8 lighting is fine with me, i just don't want the ends of the tank in the dark anymore! :tongue:


I got it at a place called BI-MART, I don't know if they have those in your area. Its made by a company called Lights of America, its just a 4 ft stainless shop light. I'm sure you could find it or something similar at a hardware store or home improvement place. Thanks for the comments.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

gamexeater said:


> All your tanks look really nice, makes me want to turn my 29g tank into a low tech planted tank. what floating plant do you have in your 55g, duckweed?


Yep, its just duckweed, stuff grows really fast, I take out a couple of scoops with the net every time I do a water change. Thanks for looking.


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Your tank looks awesome. It reminds me of the tanks this one guy had. He was selling java moss and I went to his place to buy some. Like me this guy was clearly a planted tank addict, he had an aquarium in just about every room in his tiny apartment, it looked like a small aquarium shop. His tanks looked great. He was using white pool filter sand(nothing underneath, not even laterite or fert tabs) in all this tanks, no c02(DIY or pressurized), and as far as fert dosing goes he told me that he just used a capful of flourish comprehensive once a week and Seachem excel every other day. He even had a brackish tank. All his tanks were fully stacked, including many algae eating critters including nerite zebra snails, bristlenose plecos, mollies, and he had no algae(water was crystal clear). He stated that he did 30% weekly water changes in all his tanks which ranged from 30-40 gallons. He said that his success was due to lighting 6700K double strip T8 fixtures. Actually his success was more due to the plants he was growing and I don't think he even realized that. The guy had mainly low to medium light plants and a ton load of java ferns, java moss, rotala indica in his tanks. That is why he succeeded in having algae free tanks without injecting c02.


----------



## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Thanks for the info! No, I have never heard of BI-MART but I'll write down the brand name (i like the look of your light too) and see what I can find at Home Depot or Lowes  Thanks again!


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

*Updates 1/27/09*

Here is a 10 gallon that will be a cherry shrimp tank in a few days.




Here is what my 29g looks like now. I added a few plants, and let everything grow out.




Here is the 55g now.



Bolivian Rams in the 29g













What do you think??


----------



## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

The 29 looks good and it'll look even better once it grows out for a couple more months. Once the carpeting plants take off it's gonna look like a nice jungle in there


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> The 29 looks good and it'll look even better once it grows out for a couple more months. Once the carpeting plants take off it's gonna look like a nice jungle in there



Thanks for the comments!


----------



## kara (Jan 25, 2009)

Really nice pics. Thanks! :thumbsup:


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Tanks are looking great! :thumbsup:


----------



## Cactus Bastard (Jun 5, 2007)

Mattco26 said:


> http://g.imageshack.us/img177/ramsep8.jpg/1/


What is the plant in the far right of this picture? (The paler one with the slightly spiky leaves.)


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

kara said:


> Really nice pics. Thanks! :thumbsup:


Thanks!


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

lauraleellbp said:


> Tanks are looking great! :thumbsup:


Thanks!


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

Cactus Bastard said:


> What is the plant in the far right of this picture? (The paler one with the slightly spiky leaves.)


I'm sorry, I don't know. Its the same as the tall ones in the last full tank shot of the 29. Wish I could remember, maybe someone else knows?


----------



## ohyeahcrx (Mar 21, 2008)

Mattco26 said:


>


So all thats in this tank is the wisteria and a couple java ferns? looks sooo good. Infact this has inspired me to do a planted tank with my 20 gal long:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

*New photos-Click for full size*












I added DIY Co2, and added more light. I now have 4 32W 4ft bulbs, each overdriven 2x. The growth is amazing. These shots were taken on the 7th.






Took these 2 real quick today for comparison.


----------



## Mattco26 (Sep 27, 2007)

*10g-Click for larger photos*

Here is a shot of my 10g, and the Betta I rescued from Petsmart.


----------



## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow, these tanks have really improved! Great job!


----------

