3ft low maintenance (lots of pics)

ok so i'll do a bit of a history on this tank. this was my first proper tank that i ever had for myself. it was my dads company tank for over 10yrs..

it used to house koi and goldfish..i decided to make it a planted tropical tank..

think this was 2005:


dont laugh, i didn know much about plants fish substrate etc

DIY cabinet:


then i neglected this tank till about 2008

2008


then i decided to revamp it 2009:




and again 2010:



neglect:


got abit better:


then i left it for a long time.. fish were fine but plants were a mess..there was a huge mass of plants at the top. i had some very good emmersed growth at the top of the tank.. pitty i didn take a pic of it..

ive wanted a moss dominant tank for a long time now so yesterday i plucked up the courage, took out the wood pieces i had soaking in my pond and began to rescape..

this is when i was cleaning it out:


big bag of plant mass:


how it looked last night:


how it looked this morning:


i know the rock ontop of the wood looks highly unatural but the wood pieces dont sink so i have to anchor it down abit..hope when the moss takes over it'll hide it..

im hoping to carpet this tank with the little bit of lilaeopsis that survived my neglect..

also the amazons, some type of lilly and the Crispus on the right should take off soon to fill that empty space..ive also lowered the temp abit so the moss can do better..

any crits welcome..

 

Nice history on that tank... and interesting to see the difference over the years.

Love the new look with that wood. You wanting to create a carpet effect over the entire tank?

On the left of the tank there is a small black thing inside the tank, (not the magnet cleaner, the other thing). What is it, I see this has lasted some time?

 

I can spot the C02, 1 heater, 1 internal filter, 1 small power head, and the in-out of one or two canister - had to double check the heading. I miss read low tech vs low maintenance.

I really like the the wood on the right but currently all the kit in the tank seems a bit much or this just to clear the water faster initially. Would be nice to hide some of the plumbing .. also see you love parking the algae scrubber on the one side - do you really use it that often to keep it in the tank full-time?

later F

Pic 2 is real nice. Keep the pics coming as the new scape develops.

 

Nice time sequence, liked seeing those angels get bigger

 

yep, want to carpet the whole thing in "Grass"!! hehe..

that black thing is a small pump.. previously when this tank was heavily planted i had some flow issues..

---------- Post added at 12:11 ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 ----------

i hear u but..well i really couldn be bothered with this tank as it'll hopefully be my low maint tank where i just add water and some ferts occasionally this tank is too "tall" for proper light penetration IME. my high maint and high tech tank will be my new 1.2m!

this tank was my 1st so u can already see the common mistakes one makes through the sequence of my pics..

1.) had silicate gravel which is bad imo since the granuals are too big and, i think i read, makes ur water hard
2.) started with air filters
3.) moved to a cheap canister filter
4.) cheap canister filter wasnt enough so bought another one
5.) low flow because of 2 small canister filters so bought small internal filter
6.) flow was still bit low so bought another small pump..

but i had this tank was when i was a student and didn have much funds.. so u can see why i did what i did in the beginin its been through alot with me and i still love it.

 

What are the 2 big tall plants you have right in front in the one picture and then moved to the
bak left?

 

some type of amazon swords..im not sure

they were small when i got them but since i added CO2 they grew enormous!!

to give you an idea of how small they were, if u look at the 3rd pic, the plants infront of the white rock?theres 2 plants there that u prob cant see.. that was the original plants and its original plant size!

CO2 is a miracle worker.. its like the nitro in the planted world

 

you always seem to have a diffuser in your tanks, do you run your c02 of a single tank or do you have individual tanks, regulators solenoids etc. by the way the plants look super healthy in this tank.

 

NO WAYS DUDE this reg+solenoid is hooked up to 2 tanks.. this tank and a nano next to it.. i got another reg+solenoid on my 2ft.. but im going to condense things soon so that the one solenoid powers 3 tanks..

thanks for the comment abt my plants.. thats what i strive for.. if the plants are happy the fish are usually happy i just keep staring at those amazon swords hoping they'd grow up like NOW! haha..i shoulda been more patient instead of chopping them all down..anyways, im sure they'll grow again..