# 20L Low Tech Planted (new to forum)



## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

*Close ups*

Cherry shrimp in field of green


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

*Top view*

Shows the spread of dwarf baby tears. Still some coverage to go towards the back. I have pruned 2x so far


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## Charrr89 (May 15, 2013)

Wow dats nice !


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## Saxtonhill (Dec 28, 2012)

I like the simplicity of your arrangement. (Also love the footprint of the 20 long).


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

thanks Saxtonhill. My goal was to make it as simple as possible with as little maintenance as necessary. I do really like the 20L. I have an ADA frameless that I've been waiting to set up for a few yrs to use as my reef tank but it was hard not to use for this planted tank.


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

Thanks Charrr89


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

*Growth progression*

Here is what it looked like just starting


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## Melted (Nov 22, 2013)

Oh wow, that carpet is without co2 injection? how long did that take?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Threads like this give me hope to try "high light/co2 only" plants in medium light/non co2 tanks someday, thank you for sharing!
Can't beleive it grew so much in 6-7 months O.O


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## anastasisariel (Oct 4, 2009)

No CO2?? Unbelievable!


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

*No CO2 injection...believe it *

All my research was telling me it was needed for baby dwarf tears or a healthy planted tank for that matter...not so, not needed  High light with CO2 booster is the only thing I use! This is what it looks like after being up since May and that was even after a little die off from an early bout of hair algae. I dose a half cap of CO2 booster daily with high light for 9 hrs. My base is Amazonia with a supplement put down first...super sand or something like that? It was from ADA


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

Melted said:


> Oh wow, that carpet is without co2 injection? how long did that take?


It's awesome right...it's been 9 months


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

AquaAurora said:


> Threads like this give me hope to try "high light/co2 only" plants in medium light/non co2 tanks someday, thank you for sharing!
> Can't beleive it grew so much in 6-7 months O.O


Thanks...I'm happy I gave some inspiration, it can be done


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

wow this is almost exactly what i am starting to build! Glad to see the HC doing well. I have the same fertz so i am hoping to get results like you did. Subscribed!


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

bcbishop said:


> wow this is almost exactly what i am starting to build! Glad to see the HC doing well. I have the same fertz so i am hoping to get results like you did. Subscribed!


Very cool bcbishop, feel free to ask me any questions you have along the way. Planting the dwarf baby tears was probably the most stressful part for me. If you do utilize that plant, make sure it's planted with the soil moist and it will be a very slow fill. The roots are very delicate of course. If you have worked with them before than disregard my rambling. Like I said it was stressful to get it right or it was going to be a failure haha. I had nightmares about all of them floating to the surface


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## rexlinkfishguy (Aug 15, 2012)

Dang.. This gives me hope.. I'm hoping to set up a tank kind of like this low tech one. I have a 10 watt LED light on a 10 gallon. (10 watt LED is supposed to be equivalent to 50 watt Halogen bulb) I am planning on dosing Flourish excel and flourish iron. I also have Eco complete but dang.. Your carpet is amazing.. Do you think my plan should work for something like this?


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

Underwater_guy said:


> Very cool bcbishop, feel free to ask me any questions you have along the way. Planting the dwarf baby tears was probably the most stressful part for me. If you do utilize that plant, make sure it's planted with the soil moist and it will be a very slow fill. The roots are very delicate of course. If you have worked with them before than disregard my rambling. Like I said it was stressful to get it right or it was going to be a failure haha. I had nightmares about all of them floating to the surface


Awesome. Ya they are not easy to keep from floating. I am planning on doing a month of a dry plant to get the roots established. It looks like that's the way to go. Also going to do a soil mix topped with Eco-complete. Should help root growth I'm hoping. I'll keep an eye on this thread.


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

Where did you get your Amazonia from.


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## blue_waters (Oct 27, 2012)

Very nice. 

It looks like your T5 lights and GrowBEAM are just sitting on glass? Is that right? Do mind me asking whose T5s are you using? And what's your lighting schedule?


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## JohnEX (Jan 28, 2004)

That looks good. How do you think it would do if you didn't use CO2 booster?


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

bcbishop said:


> Where did you get your Amazonia from.


Adgshop.com

The rock came from them as well...manten stone.


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

JohnEX said:


> That looks good. How do you think it would do if you didn't use CO2
> 
> Not sure to tell you the truth, I was going to combine with injection to supplement but wasn't satisfied with what I was looking for so just ended up dosing co2 booster


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

blue_waters said:


> Very nice.
> 
> It looks like your T5 lights and GrowBEAM are just sitting on glass? Is that right? Do mind me asking whose T5s are you using? And what's your lighting schedule?


Thats right, they are sitting on glass. I got cheap t5 lights from Aqueon - 2x 6700k. Thats the only lighting I used for the majority of the tanks life until I got the growbeam in dec. growth was fine before the add on lighting but the additional light makes the fish pop a little more. The schedule is 9 hrs for the T5s and about 6 for the growbeam, which comes on 1.5 hrs after t5 and 1.5hrs before t5 turn off.


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## plantedPL (Jan 15, 2014)

Hey I love your tank! I actually had a similar build for my first planted tank attempt that went downhill quick. I also had a 20L and was using fluorite topped with sand and had java ferns, crypts, and dwarf hair grass. I used the same light fixture as you and dosed excel daily but nothing would grow except algae. I can't grasp how you've gotten your plants to flourish with almost the same setup! 

Your tank has definitely inspired me to give it another go. What is your dosing regime like?


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## pinkman (May 16, 2013)

tank looks really nice.


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## anfield (Dec 1, 2013)

I wonder how much it helps that there is no competition for CO2/nutrients from faster growing plants? How often do you change water and how much?


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

plantedPL said:


> Hey I love your tank! I actually had a similar build for my first planted tank attempt that went downhill quick. I also had a 20L and was using fluorite topped with sand and had java ferns, crypts, and dwarf hair grass. I used the same light fixture as you and dosed excel daily but nothing would grow except algae. I can't grasp how you've gotten your plants to flourish with almost the same setup!
> 
> Your tank has definitely inspired me to give it another go. What is your dosing regime like?


Thanks! I only dose a half cap of CO2 booster daily and a half cap of API Leaf Zone every other day. That's it. Oh, one other thing pre-tank set up...I laid down a bed of power sand first and then put the Amazonia on.


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

pinkman said:


> tank looks really nice.


Thanks pinkman!


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

anfield said:


> I wonder how much it helps that there is no competition for CO2/nutrients from faster growing plants? How often do you change water and how much?


Good thought anfield. I think that is definitely part of it. I did have rocky period about 4 wks after setup, hair algae was chocking my plants and they were slowly turning yellow and dying off. What I did was cut the top layer of growth of my plants and that took the hair algae with it. I upped the CO2 booster and cut the light period by an hr from 10 to 9.


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

anfield said:


> I wonder how much it helps that there is no competition for CO2/nutrients from faster growing plants? How often do you change water and how much?


Forgot to answer the water question, I do a 25% water change every week. I use purigen and bamboo charcoal in my filter


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

*Cool pic *

I like the light affect from this long shot


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## Aquaticaquariums (Jan 16, 2014)

Truly Amazing, right now i have a planted aquarium with a t5 dual 48w 30 gallon. 30 x 12 x 16 and i have jungle vals and more. What did you use to hold your baby tears down?


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## blue_waters (Oct 27, 2012)

Incidentally - the active ingredient in API CO2 Booster is Glutaral - which is the same ingredient in Flourish Excel - Glutaraldehyde (or what they're claiming is a polymerised version of that).


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

Aquaticaquariums said:


> Truly Amazing, right now i have a planted aquarium with a t5 dual 48w 30 gallon. 30 x 12 x 16 and i have jungle vals and more. What did you use to hold your baby tears down?


Thanks aquatica. I didn't use anything other than the soil. I separated the clumps in smaller clumps and planted with the soil moist, then I drip filled. I had probably about 15 to 20% float to the top. I did try to hold back down with toothpicks but just gave up and chalked up to accepted casualties. I was really sweating it because I knew that if they all floated it was probably going to be a complete failure. Fortunately most stayed in the soil.


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

blue_waters said:


> Incidentally - the active ingredient in API CO2 Booster is Glutaral - which is the same ingredient in Flourish Excel - Glutaraldehyde (or what they're claiming is a polymerised version of that).


Wow, interesting


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

Aquaticaquariums said:


> Truly Amazing, right now i have a planted aquarium with a t5 dual 48w 30 gallon. 30 x 12 x 16 and i have jungle vals and more. What did you use to hold your baby tears down?


Very cool, so how do your T5's hold up? I've been replacing on average every few months because they lose there brightness that quick.


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

*Pruning time*

Pruning time, shrimp get way to curious for their own good


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

Underwater_guy said:


> Pruning time, shrimp get way to curious for their own good


No pic attached, trying again


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## Underwater_guy (Aug 18, 2013)

The Aftermath


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