So after not having a tank running for quite a few years now we picked up a little 60L tank (actually picked it up over a year ago and its been sitting empty).
She who must be obeyed finally kicked me into action so decided to go for a "low tech" planted tank. The idea being to set it up and run it as cheaply as possible. However when digging through my old fish stuff I found a full bag of ADA substrate and enough CO2 to run this tank for about a year so it will be going to a high tech EI "lite" tank eventually.
So the issues I have had so far:
The light unit is not good enough. It was purchased without enough knowledge (Modern LED lighting is new to me) and it is nether long enough to fit the tank properly or strong enough to work for a high tech setup. For now it will have to do and I have tried to scape the tank around the light (using a LUX meter to check for light drop off). The plan is to either get a light the will do the job by itself or to get a second one to work along with this one.
Second issue I have had is I was planning to use my old Ehiem 2324 canister filter. It is old though and when I set it up last night I immediately flooded the living room. I then also snapped the Valve locking handle. It looks like I can get a replacement O ring and handle though but for now there is no heating and no filtration.
Third issue is that the plants I ordered don't fill up quite as much space as I was hoping. Some also turned up in a pretty bad state so not sure they will come to much. Hopefully will pick up a few extras at the weekend.
Plants at the moment are just selected for ease of growing and to try and grow out as quickly as possible. Over time I will probably be switching these out.
Hardscape is basically "make do with what I have to hand". I glued some bits of wood together to make a bit more of an interesting piece and used some slate to make some cave areas (may get Kribs or Rams in the future). Its not ideal. The tank is narrow front to back so making a nice scape is difficult. Add to that the limited choice of material and trying to leave spots where the light is working best and its not the nicest hardscape I have ever made. It's not too terrible either though and once the plants go in it will soften it up a lot.
Stock wise it wont be anything special. Flame Tertras, Cardinal Tetras, Glowlight Tertras, Cory's, pair of rams/kribs and shrimp/snails.
Anyway here is a photo of the mess I left it in last night after attempting to dry the living room carpet....
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they normally just end up as an overgrown jungle though.
