# New Ultra Low-Tech Aquarium



## nunopires2001 (4 mo ago)

Hi,

I am returning to this wonderful hobby after 5 years of absence.
Being father of 2 children explains why I was on sidelines during the last years.

So, I have made a very simple setup and specifically low-tech, since I am really short on time. My plan is just to feed the fish daily and do a 2 hours maintenance per month.

You can see the Aquarium on the photo:
Dimmensions:59cm x 45cm x 40x (around 100 Liters)
Plants: Anubia Barteris var glabra and Echinidorus Red Rubin
Fish: 4 Corydoras Sterbai, 1 SAE, 4 neritina snails, 4 amano shrimps, 2?3? Ottocinclus(they are not resisting)
Substrate: It's not fertile, just using some sticks to feed the echinodorus roots
Fertilizer: Nothing
Light: Supposedly 2400 lumens (8000 Kelvin), 24 lumen / liter

My question is, what do you think about this setup and layout? What suggestions can you give me to improve it?

Thanks!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

nunopires2001 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am returning to this wonderful hobby after 5 years of absence.
> Being father of 2 children explains why I was on sidelines during the last years.
> ...


It's a nice setup!

If you are trying to skip weekly water changes then I would definitely add more plants. Some crypts can be pretty low maintenance and will help a lot with removing nutrients.


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## richard.hayward.melb (7 mo ago)

I think you have more equipment in there, judging from your photo. A heater and a filter? I can see the water temperature is around 27 degC?


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## nunopires2001 (4 mo ago)

minorhero said:


> It's a nice setup!
> 
> If you are trying to skip weekly water changes then I would definitely add more plants. Some crypts can be pretty low maintenance and will help a lot with removing nutrients.


Thanks.
I was thinking about adding another echinodorus or maybe a Valisneria behind the big rock.



richard.hayward.melb said:


> I think you have more equipment in there, judging from your photo. A heater and a filter? I can see the water temperature is around 27 degC?


I have an external heater (300W) and a external filter (Eheim 2213).
I like to see the aquarium without equipment. Just water, decoration, plants and fish.
Yes, the temperature is around 27º.


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## kfish (Nov 14, 2020)

Nice tank. If you don't like seeing equipment, you should replace the Eheim intake tube with a diy black one or paint the Eheim black. That green vertical strip is the first thing my eye goes to. It seems out of place and distracting in an otherwise very pleasant display.

If you do not want to add more plants in the tank, you could use emergent plants. 

How long has it been running. Time will tell if a monthly maintenance is enough. 

I set up a tank with the same goals as you; low tech, low maintenance. It's at zero nitrates even with a little fert. added 3x weekly. I still do a 50% wc weekly. Takes 15 minutes.


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## nunopires2001 (4 mo ago)

Thanks!
Do you have a thread for your tank? I am curious to see it.
I have the tank running for 1 month and a half. For now everything is going well.
Anubia and echinodorus are growing slowly, as I wanted, but are on great condition.
Monthly TPA with a low density of fish seems to work well.
I agree with you, that the eheim intake tube is harming the layout.
I am planning to add a plant to cover the tube. Do you have any suggestion?
I was thinking that a valisneria would survive on this low tank and match well with the big stone.
Cryptocorine might be another good choice, but not sure if they can reach 30 to 35cms in order to cover the tube.


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## richard.hayward.melb (7 mo ago)

nunopires2001 said:


> Thanks!
> Do you have a thread for your tank? I am curious to see it.
> I have the tank running for 1 month and a half. For now everything is going well.
> Anubia and echinodorus are growing slowly, as I wanted, but are on great condition.
> ...


Vallisneria sounds like a good fit. The height and shape seem to match well. The flow is on the opposite side of the tank, so it should stand straight and not bend with the flow.


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## mourip (Mar 15, 2020)

minorhero said:


> Some crypts can be pretty low maintenance and will help a lot with removing nutrients.


+1 for Crypts. -1 for Val.
Val is like a weed. It grows quickly and spreads quickly by runners. If you pick the wrong type it will reach the surface and spread across it, blocking out light to other plants. I had some and had to pull it out...


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## nunopires2001 (4 mo ago)

Thanks for the advise
I am going with the crypt recommendation, so I planted 3 Cryptocoryne crispatula ( I think is var. balansae) behind the stone and 1 Crypto Parva more at the front.

I also added 20 tetra cardinal, they will be my schooling fish. I though about danios zebra. LFS has them on all imaginary colors. But they don't look natural at all and they are quiet nervous.
The aquarium is on my office where I work all day, I guess seeing danios swimming like crazy all day long, will put me under stress...

The Crypto Parva is a wonderful plant. The Crispatula/Balansae does not look so nice, let me see how they evaluate.
The tank is low light without fertile substrate, but I added root tablets.

Lets see what happens.


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## nunopires2001 (4 mo ago)

Hello my friends.

I think I need some help. My slow growing plants are being covered with some algae.
Can you help me out identify the algae and try to find a way to solve this issue?


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Light, Approx 30 fish, daily feeding and minimal maintenance = ALGAE. For that to work, maybe 3 fish and very low light.


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## nunopires2001 (4 mo ago)

Hi, almost 3 months after last message is time to give an update.
From the initial setup I removed the Echinidorus Red Rubin. It is a huge plant, was covering the whole aquarium.
I aso added a floating plant (Salvinia I think) to diminish the light on the anubias and did some PO4 fertilization.
With this the GSA gone away from the anubias.
As you can see on the photo the Cryptocoryne crispatula is doing very well on this low-tech environment. On other hand the crypto parva is stagnant and probably I will have to replace this plant with something more adequate to low light and low fert.

I also switched my filter to a much more powerful system, now I have a fluval 307 with plenty of filtering capacity.

Here it is the aquarium


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