low-tech neglected planted aquarium

[zakartaz]

I think I need to start selling my plants trimmings as well...

[PetaPanPipes]

Pretty cool, is that sagittaria in the middle?

[crystalclearwolf]

Very happy fishies I'm guessing. Also GIVE ME YOUR PLANTS!!! lol jk, I just can't get mine to grow well

[razorzrcool]

you could make like $100 off of trimmings and thinning of your plants/ EBAY

[freespiritxoxoxo]

I think your plants are really pretty, but you really need to give them a good trim and shape. They look very healthy.

[fuzzyfishable]

this made me LOL :3

[14joecool]

What kind of plants do you have in there?

[yournamehere954]

wheres the tank?

[Map10193808]

true amazon

[InkRoze]

Haha, that's awesome.

But what if your fish get stuch in the plants?

How will you find them?

:D

[InkRoze]

@InkRoze

Stuck, sorry

[schtals]

i think thats what proper planted tank should look like.

[0TheBestMan]

well, you're either a liar or you have a secret that everyone would love to hear. no way this tank is thriving off nothing but light. its simply impossible.

[yournamehere954]

@0TheBestMan Plants thriving on just light and water is not impossible. Look outside.

[0TheBestMan]

@yournamehere954 cheap artificial light and natural sunlight are two very different things.

[yournamehere954]

@0TheBestMan That is true, but it does work. I would not believe it if I was not doing it myself. My tank gets no sunlight and just has a 48" floresent light with 2 6k bulbs that I bought from home depot for less that $40. Yet my tank is green as ever. The key is to leave your pump off once in a while to keep the nutrients in the tank. You filter removes all the things your plants need. The plants will filter the water naturally as it does in the wild.

[froggybrib]

@yournamehere954 thats the dumbest thing I've heard. As if all plants outside only need sunlight and water... very wrong, very wrong.

[xHizukax]

you should put ordinary frog there dude..

[xHizukax]

that fish aint happy... most fresh water fish likes space, and yours is lacking ..

[HeliPilot1180]

another perfect example on how sometimes aquariums just work!

[grizzleface23]

you need more plants lol

[exmas2006]

what kind of lamps have you got ?

[achvoy]

Happy Fish!

[MannyScoot]

He might have some fert in the gravel.... It remains there for years .... If the aquarium receives low light and has fish, It has enough to thrive..... If he adds more light, the tank will grow real wild ...... Even water changes are not essential, Just adding di-ion water is all it takes.......

[chardnj]

hey dude..I have a extra lawn mower here hehehe

[TheFishman77]

Ya. even like this, the display is sick. Beautiful. Looks natural, wild.

[waynermills]

was the light left on overnight?

[Meowbay]

How many liters of swimming water is left in this tank, and how many fish are in there?

[Tzilla18]

looks like my tank the rotala and star grass grow like crazy

[ScreamEngenius]

this is absolutely beautiful!!!!

[Cybersix1980]

I love it ! ... what is your secret ??? i had a planted tank and like you didnt have much to spend on it all i did changed the water once a week but my plants all died :(

[myoutdoorworld]

@scaterg807 they used potting soil and cat litter

[dexmoire]

nice naturals! respect lo-tek / no-tek approach.

[skaterg807]

what substrate do u have anyone can answer

[dyjital]

@skaterg807 potting soil.

[dmfdmf3]

Very nice, but try that in the northern continent where the water is hard and harsh and the PH is high.

[johnnyartillery]

its sad how people can neglect something and it grows so much like this, and others work their asses off and cant get anything to grow! I really want a planted tank, but i dunno if have the energy for my reef and another tank to care for.

[JackoToonLad]

the fish must love it in there, if i were a fish id wonna be in that tank (or a lake or sumthin) :)

[Cheddar254]

i would love to see how it looks now, please post an update, im subscribed please do vice versa

[Cheddar254]

i like it ! its awesum!!! really natural!

[SpitRhyma]

lmao -- I wonder if i'm giving my tank TOO MUCH light...

[apauln]

is the substrate half way up the tank or is this just light not getting to the bottom?

[JS5074]

nice tank. so is a co2 system absolutely needed in a planted tank? im think about adding a couple plants to my 110 aquarium along with some driftwood and a few small pieces of base rock. anyone know if you can add plants with gravel as substrate?

[donkeyfieldmouse]

@JS5074

CO2 is not necessary in a planted tank, however some species do require it and CO2 is recomended. There is a difference between a planted tank and a tank with plants in it.

Most plants should do fine with gravel.

CO2 injection, fertilisers, specialised gravels, etc... are usually for best results. You can run a tank without that stuff (like in the video) but they are beneficial.

[JS5074]

@donkeyfieldmouse oh ok cool i thought you needed most of that stuff just to keep the plants alive lol i have just regular gravel in my tank and co2 systems are just too expensive for me at the moment but yea i may just try sticking in a plant just to see how it turns out over a month or so also one more question do you know if there are any fertilizer tabs that you just throw in the tank and they dissolve on there own whenever fertilizer is needed?

[donkeyfieldmouse]

@JS5074

CO2 systems aren't always that expensive, for small tanks you can get a all-in-one system for under 40 bucks. Try for some easy, fast growing, undemanding plants.

There are usually two types of fertilisers, liquid and tabs. Liquids are added to the water, and tabs can be, as in suggest, put into the substrate were desired and left there for the indicated time, releasing nutrients and stuff on there own.

I don't know if they're time released though.

[JS5074]

@donkeyfieldmouse wel my tank is a 110 gallon so it'd definitely be expensive for me at least lol but ill definitely have to look into fertilizer tabs for my tank tho if u know of any easy plants to care for that would be great if you could send me the names of them

[ThatGamesGuy]

0.33W/l lighting??? WOAH, what plants are those? I would love to get my hands on plants with those low requirements.

[staceL]

ooo

u got urself a jungle o.O

[kalexander777]

You're so full of shit. I had a tank like that for months, low light, no soil, no co2, and that looks as good as my co2 fertilized, T5 lit aquarium.

[supertasticasian]

@kalexander777 i hope your just joking because if your not that's sad. hygrophillia deformis grows like a weed, and thats the main growing plant in this tank

[cozmoz365]

@kalexander777 He didn't say no soil, he said no ferts.

[commonSagitario]

Let me tell you what to do.

Go prune your hairgrass and Indian ferns.

Get some neon tetras they love such tanks.

add a bottle of JBL ferropol fertilizer according to instructions.

Cut them to size and do the rest if you have to.

[TheKushFiend]

bet those fish love it xD

[shotglassproductions]

this is awesome

[Sean117Ply]

one word.... cosey :D

[bingwo]

How do you keep theses plants alive? what's the secret?

[zerocool212121]

the secret is dont forget to water:)

[juanjesuschong]

lol even on this chaos  it´s beautiful ,nice tank

[jksuis9]

dam what kind of plants are those. cause if they can survive like that then i want them:)

[welcomegohome]

you left the light on?

[welcomegohome]

nice. i wonder what the fish survived on.

[nothingxbutxpoison]

im still researching on planted tank and i wanted to know if the iron plant growth hurt the fishes in the tank or not???

[Grak70]

No. Plant supplements (including iron) do not hurt fish if you dose as recommended.

[nothingxbutxpoison]

oh ok thnx : ]

[HydroArchSage]

Think of all the money you can get from selling some of the pruned plants!

[jpetrucci05]

lol, the title had me laughing. Reminded me of my planted during my last semester in college.

[urocyonc]

Nice plants. :) Looks a lot like two of mine when I came back from several months away. It evidently didn't occur to DH to prune things back at all.

The fish like it, though, as long as they've got room to swim around. *g*

[FishLoverX]

did u on the light for the whole month during ur away?

[Vtricks]

is there any way to maintain the color of the plants?? mine is kinda brownish...

[8ighty]

1) water change

2) high intensity light

3) iron supplement

4) increase CO2 levels

[insekured]

what kind of plants do you have in there?

[kareemhalfawi]

Did you go on vacation to celebrate coming out of a coma? This is definitely more than a month's neglect especially with those parameters.

Still, so much potential!

[america85353]

wow that tank would be over flowed with co2 and ferts .... i think it would look nice if u trimmed lie 1/2 so it would be like carpet ...

[BIGGESTxxEMINEMxxFAN]

carnt wait till i get mi new turtle tank its gonna cost a boooooooooooomb tho

[FishLoverX]

ooo... are u gonna plant ur turtle tank?

[dogchain65]

nice

[quaqa88]

Imagine what the tank would look like with added CO2 and fertilizer! Anyways, nice tank. I think it looks cool.

[IKillCowsWithMusic]

My shrimp tank would be better if it had this.

[SpitRhyma]

What is .33W/L if you translate that to W/G?

[killacross]

about 1.25 watts/gal

[bg031]

Love it!

[jaguilarxjs]

can I have some lol =D

[4erosmith]

too much plants but this is THE HEAVEN for the fishes! xD

[tuftthewhale]

no fertilizers? what substrate do you use? must be pretty potent to get such lush growth considering the low fish load.

[triggermiki]

how can i get rid of the greenish mold like thing that affects the clarity of my aquarium?

[leecristo]

...Algae?

Water changes. That and less light. If it's something other than algae then I don't know what to do.

[HildeIII]

Lovely mess. What ferts do you use? What else do you do to get such lushes growth?

[crosseyed55]

wow....can i have some when u do decide to trim them?....seriously....ur gonna have to do it sometime lol!

[hamza8810]

Any updates on this?

[Rachel225566]

my plants arnt growing at all :(

[Mistah2]

dam that looks nice,

[musho3210]

its happened to me before, when i did a major trimming there was so much gunk on the sandbed.

[movinKaz]

ahahahaahahha Piece of shit aquarium! haahahaha

[Duboisi]

Realy nice tank, would like to have more closeups.

[insekured]

hmm..maybe neglecting is the way to go :p

[sambernyowo]

Love the concept of being low tech!

U inspired me again!

Thx!

[mishmosh2000]

I like this jungle look!

[bmallick]

omg i think it is too late to start trimming now

[philipogeng]

wow that's alot of plants.

[egementt]

I have Sagittaria subulata, Rotala rotundifolia, Heteranthera zosterifolia, Ludwigia repens and Hygrophila difformis in this low-tech tank.

[SpitRhyma]

@egementt dude i can NEVER grow ludwigia repens in my tank!!! It grows for a month or 2 then suddenly crashes. R U sure you're calculating the 1.25Watt/G correctly?

For a while I had the wrong total wattage number for my lights and then I added it up one day and I'm like "holy shit"

[Zushi0Sushi]

I'm amazed that your tank supports such a dense concentration of plants. What kind of plants do you have in their?

[xbeckieboox]

vodka;)