"endor" Llj's 36G Low-Light

[jmiller]

Just goes to show what is possible with low tech. Looks great.

 

[flyhawk]

i ahve to say, i think this is one of my favorite tanks

i do love crypts, and even the simplest wendtii ands alot of color to the tank!

 

[puppyjess123]

Wow again amazing. I can't beleive thats just crypts and some other plants. I wish my dad would let me start again with my taank Then i could try to get something like yours

I was reading the lighting and it said 2 14w right? Does a reflector help because i only have 25watts of light on my 45 gallon tank? Can i do a DIY one

-Lucy

It is a Coralife twin T5 fixture. Each bulb has 14W so 28W total. It does have a reflector build in. It was about $35. How long is your tank in inches? I think they also sell a 30" and a 36" twin fixture with a reflector.

I dont think i can afford $35 lol. But i heard of people just putting tin foil round the light or something like that?

 

[lljdma06]

i ahve to say, i think this is one of my favorite tanks

i do love crypts, and even the simplest wendtii ands alot of color to the tank!

Thank you very much. I love having this tank. It is very easy to care for.

As for the tinfoil. Nope, doesn't work. Better to have no reflectors than tinfoil. It doesn't reflect enough.

 

[Truck]

Loving this tank Llj, Great fish and plant selection, Low tech will always be the best method IMO

 

[lljdma06]

Loving this tank Llj, Great fish and plant selection, Low tech will always be the best method IMO

Eh, I don't know. For me, one isn't better than the other, just different. It really depends on the situation. I seriously doubt I will ever go high-tech with a large tank. I certainly respect those that do. Even with pythons to make the 50% waterchanges easier, I think just the initial expense and the labor for trimming, and dosing is excessive only to tear it down 4-6months later after the scape is spent. Low-tech in that situation is just as impressive and requires like a 10th of the work.

Now, I like high-tech for little tanks, though I think it can be harder because there is little room for error. It took about an hour to completely dismantle that 8g nano. It is easy to dismantle and setup in different ways. Plant expenses are smaller because there is less tank to deal with. I can keep stable CO2 with only fermentation and I can use liquid ferts, which makes dosing very simple. If I ever went pressurized, it would take less CO2 to get the desired levels. Glassware is also less expensive. Fish choice is more limited, but there are many small species available.

It will be very interesting to see how the susswassertag and fissidens do in this tank, as they are going from a CO2 to a non-CO2 environment. I will say that the E. tenellus I kept in my dismantled 10g (with CO2) is thriving in this tank and spreading little runners. It's just taller than it was in the CO2 tank. Growth is faster in a CO2 tank, but growth is managable in a non-CO2 tank and problems can be addressed easier in none CO2 systems. It is my guess that now that they are established, both plants will do quite well in the non-CO2 environment, only the growth will be slower.

llj

 

[antere07]

AMAZING tank i've just spent i dont know how long reading all your previous thread and this one and its certainly something to be proud of!
Although reading it when all your fish died it seemed like your tank died if you know what i mean it just went from being vibrant to duller still looked really good but just seemed duller.

Anyway reading all of this tonight has really made me want to get into planted tanks! I can only hope for mine to be as good as yours!

Its now 3:30am and im going to bed

Amazing tank

ant

 

[Biulu]

Is your bowfront a normal bowfront or a corner bowfront? If it is a corner bowfront I can understand you find it difficult scaping it, although you have always done great with that beautiful mopani wood of yours! I love normal bowfronts as they seem to give an extra space dimension to your tank, plus it gives me the opportunity to leave a bare patch in the front where cories can roam.

 

[lljdma06]

Is your bowfront a normal bowfront or a corner bowfront? If it is a corner bowfront I can understand you find it difficult scaping it, although you have always done great with that beautiful mopani wood of yours! I love normal bowfronts as they seem to give an extra space dimension to your tank, plus it gives me the opportunity to leave a bare patch in the front where cories can roam.

It is a corner bowfront. Very challenging to scape. It was a gift.

Thank you.

llj

 

[fishmad135]

its sad when livestock dies.. especially ALL livestock.. went to my mates house 2 weeks ago and spent about an hour marvelling at there 30 gallon tropical tanks full of about 40 neon tetra of different sizes, yesterday i went on tetra was swimming on its own in the tank.. asked what happened.. my friend has quarenteened a few rummy nose tetra for about 2 weeks and put them in.. ich had taken all but one neon tetra.. yikess.. not good..

 

[ian]

this is how i want my tank to look!

like you said earlier in the thread, its hard trying to scape a corner tank. I have moved the wood in mine, it was in the center, but i was wondering whether the golden rule ratio thingy actually can work in a corner tank?

 

[lljdma06]

this is how i want my tank to look!

like you said earlier in the thread, its hard trying to scape a corner tank. I have moved the wood in mine, it was in the center, but i was wondering whether the golden rule ratio thingy actually can work in a corner tank?

I'm sure it could work. I have a small sand path that is roughly 2/3 into the tank. If I chose to frame that path with another piece of wood, I'd have a focal point. I am too lazy for this, however.



Thank you for your compliment.

 

[lljdma06]

Time for an update. Been almost a month.

This time I cleaned the tank first! Photos are from today. I had moved the susswassertag covered wood from the dismantled 8g to this tank. So far, both the susswassertag and the fissidens are showing some growth. The placement of those pieces of wood may or may not be temporary. I need to figure out the direction of the 8g first. The long stringy stuff isn't algae but moss. Old moss that I cannot seem to kill.

The growth is pretty dense and this has probably been my easiest tank to maintain. Ever. It is the way for larger systems, IMO. I finally remembered to dose some TPN+. Algae is minimal. Thank you for looking.

Going to bedllj

 

[ian]

I think you should, or get someone to enter it for you. Wink wink nudge nudge

 

[lljdma06]

I think you should, or get someone to enter it for you. Wink wink nudge nudge

I think I'd have to ask the other mods first, but thanks.

llj