If you plan on adding livestock to this tank, I'd advise against using liquid carbon - the active ingredient is a strong disinfectant. It's really high-tech setups with intense lighting and heavy fertilization that benefit from added CO2. In a low-tech tank like yours, the livestock would typically provide enough CO2.
However, since you don't plan on adding any livestock, using liquid carbon isn't a major concern, although some plants can be sensitive to it - Vallisneria, for example, doesn't do well with Excel, but you're not using that anyway.
low-maintenance plants
Re: low-maintenance plants
I'm planning to add livestock eventually, but for now I'll just see how the plants do on their own.
Re: low-maintenance plants
A comprehensive liquid fertilizer will give your plants a good head start. Since you're in England, I'd recommend looking into TNC Lite - it's a great option that can be used with or without fish in the tank.
Regarding the floating plant roots, their growth really depends on the nutrients available to them. I've noticed that when there are fewer nutrients around, the plants tend to extend their roots further in search of more. For example, I used to have Water Lettuce in a tank without fish, and its roots would grow all the way down to the substrate. But when I added fish, the roots would shorten significantly. This was particularly noticeable in my quarantine tank, where the plants would have to adapt to changing conditions. My experience with Frogbit was similar - the roots rarely exceeded 15 cm, and that was in a tank teeming with fish. One of them even bloomed, which was a nice surprise.
Regarding the floating plant roots, their growth really depends on the nutrients available to them. I've noticed that when there are fewer nutrients around, the plants tend to extend their roots further in search of more. For example, I used to have Water Lettuce in a tank without fish, and its roots would grow all the way down to the substrate. But when I added fish, the roots would shorten significantly. This was particularly noticeable in my quarantine tank, where the plants would have to adapt to changing conditions. My experience with Frogbit was similar - the roots rarely exceeded 15 cm, and that was in a tank teeming with fish. One of them even bloomed, which was a nice surprise.
Re: low-maintenance plants
Plants still in the substrate after a night, so I might've done something right for once. Got a bit of white fuzzy stuff showing up on the wood, but that's expected I think.
Considering adding some moss to the wood - it's looking a bit bare at the moment.
Considering adding some moss to the wood - it's looking a bit bare at the moment.
Re: low-maintenance plants
on the liquid ferts, I've decided to go against the bottle's instructions - it says weekly dosing, but I'm planning to split that weekly dose into daily bits. From what I recall, this should be more beneficial for the plants, so I'm hoping that's the right call - please let me know if I'm wrong.
Re: low-maintenance plants
That approach is often suggested, I'm not convinced it's more beneficial, what with plants being able to store nutrients and all, but I'm sure it won't do any harm._Vodnik wrote: ↑Sun May 07, 2023 12:19 pm Hi,
I've got a 25L tank I'm planning to convert into a low-tech planted tank. I'm after some easy-to-grow plants and I'd love for you to review my plan and let me know if it's got any chance of working. I've had a few attempts at using plants in the past, but I'm not exactly green-fingered and I don't get too caught up in the details.
My plan is to use Tropica substrate capped with sand, and I'll be dosing liquid carbon and ferts daily. I'll have the lights on for 8 hours a day, but the tank will also be near a window, so we'll see how that goes with algae.
The plants I've got in mind so far are Sagittaria subulata, Staurogyne repens, Limnobium laevigatum (Zorchzon Frogbit), and Anubias barteri Lynxa - I'll tie or glue the Anubias to the wood. No livestock planned for now, I just want to see if I can get a decent planted tank going over the next few months.
All feedback and suggestions welcome - I'm counting on you to help me get this right!
Re: low-maintenance plants
it's been a month and things seem to be ticking along. Plants appear to be doing alright, no major disasters. Hygrophila's grown a fair bit, that's for sure. Wood's a right mess, covered in algae, so I figured it was time to bring in some cherry shrimp - 6 of them so far. Plan, for now, is to keep it a shrimp-only tank.
Re: low-maintenance plants
Shrimp's got eggs, can't really see them but they're there. Plants doing alright, no major losses so far.
Re: low-maintenance plants
Nine months on and I'm guilty of letting this tank just tick along with minimal maintenance from me - a bit of plant trimming here and there, mainly just to stop that one plant making a break for it. Still need to get a thin algae scraper to get into the bottom front of the tank, but that's not a bad thing as it's giving the shrimp more grazing space.
The shrimp colony has done well, up from 6 to around 20 now. Had a few losses, about 5 of them have been found on the carpet after their adventures out of the tank.
The tank's still right next to my desk, which is a great distraction from work - I can just sit and watch the shrimp doing their thing.
The shrimp colony has done well, up from 6 to around 20 now. Had a few losses, about 5 of them have been found on the carpet after their adventures out of the tank.
The tank's still right next to my desk, which is a great distraction from work - I can just sit and watch the shrimp doing their thing.
Re: low-maintenance plants
Honestly, I've struggled with frogbit in the past. It was probably outcompeted by the salvinia minima I was keeping it with. I recall trying salvinia minima in a smaller tank and it was falling apart, only to realize the surface agitation was too high. The thing is, surface area plays a big role.
I like saying some plants are "bulletproof," but truthfully, there's no such thing. It all comes down to the tank conditions.