Comments on: How to setup Low-tech Planted Aquariums

By: Julia Timmons

Julia Timmons — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:57:13 +0000

I am working on setting up a 55 planted tank using your guide (thanks for all the help and consolidation of knowledge)!. Several questions:

1. Compact Fluorescent come in a spiral configuration or a long configuration. I already have a hood for a reptile cage which has the spiral fixtures. Are these ok to use?

2. The dosing of the fertilizers is a wee bit confusing as to what size tank you are speaking of. There is a note about dosing for a 20 gallon, but no reference I see as to what size tank your dosing recommendations are for.

Thanks again for your help!

By: Julia Timmons

Julia Timmons — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:56:52 +0000

I am working on setting up a 55 planted tank using your guide (thanks for all the help and consolidation of knowledge)!. Several questions:

1. Compact Fluorescents come in a spiral configuration or a long configuration. I already have a hood for a reptile cage which has the spiral fixtures. Are these ok to use?

Thanks again for your help!

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:33:51 +0000

Can this strategy be applied to 75 gallon tanks?

By: ajit

ajit — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:25:49 +0000

nice article. Are the seachem products available in India?

By: ajit

ajit — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:23:16 +0000

are the seachem products available in India?

By: Ann D

Ann D — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:02:02 +0000

Hi, I’m in the process of setting up a lowtech, low light 10 gallon tank, and I had a question: I’ve bought the Seachem Flourish NPK line, and doing calculations I came up with 13.6 mL for PO4 to equal what’s needed for 1.61 ppm. I was just wondering if this sounded right or did I really mess the calc.s up? It seems like a lot, but I don’t know if that’s just because it’s diluted or what.

(I also got 1/8 tsp Equilibrium; 2.79 mL NO3; 3.5 mL K)

Thanks for any help!

Ann

By: Eve

Eve — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:28:11 +0000

Yes! I have the same question. What are the cheep fast growing plants you are referring to?

Thank you

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:12:11 +0000

Thanks so much for this article. I found it a bit hard to follow Tom’s article for some reason, but yours has made this really simple and I wish I knew about it all BEFORE I got onto the stressed filled roller coaster that is CO2 injection…ugh what a nightmare…

Well done, keep up the good work.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:36:22 +0000

Hi Sudeep,

I want to start a 10gal low tech planted tank without excel so I have a few questions. Would it be better to have 2 15W compact fluorescent spirals or one 26W cfl (both 6500k)? I know that’ll put me at about 2.6 – 3 wpg but since spiral cfls are less efficient, would that be ok? My next question is about the Equilibrium, KNO3 and KH2PO4 dosing. For a 10gal tank, do I just cut the dosages you gave for the 20gal in half? Also, do I just take a dose of the dry fertilizer and dump it into the tank or do I need to dilute them first? As for plants, I was planning on putting in a bunch of java fern and green cryptocoryne wendtii. What are some of the cheap, fast growing stem plants you recommend? I apologize for the plethora of questions, I’m rather new to the hobby!

Thanks for your time!

Gabe

By: Enayet

Enayet — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:15:42 +0000

Sudeep,
Very nice article and I revisited the site after a long time. The article as you mentioned is now expanded. One area you may want to address in the article is bio load in such environment and its impact on keeping the system balanced. Another area that you may want to mention under maintenance is frequency of cleaning the filter and filter inserts.

From my experience, the single most important factor in this set up is light and photo period. You have done a nice job in addressing it.

It seems you have great liking for betas! They are nice fish indeed.

Bhalo thakbe,
-Enayet