Show off you Low-Tech Tanks here!

[Gboy66]

Oh my gosh that is gorgeous! Thank you for sharing! I see a hatchetfish...what else is swimming arond in your beautiful tank?

Thanks i have hatchetfish, glowlight tetras, angels, a peacock eel, and a german blue ram

 

[Fdsh5]

56 gallon column tank



75 gallon just got Rescaped



20 gallon shrimp tank.



37 gallon endlers species #2 tank

Only t5 lights on all of them and weekly flourish comprehensive. The 56 and 75 get daily excel as well.

 

[savage]

View attachment 75025

56 gallon column tank

View attachment 75026

75 gallon just got Rescaped

View attachment 75027

20 gallon shrimp tank.

View attachment 75028

37 gallon endlers species #2 tank

Only t5 lights on all of them and weekly flourish comprehensive. The 56 and 75 get daily excel as well.

Love it! What kind of moss you have going in the shrimp and Endlers tank?

 

[savage]

20gal one month in.

I really like the way you have this scaped. Looks well thought out.

 

[savage]

Great tanks! The bar is set really high. I can't wait for spring to hit the Upper Midwest so I can troll the waterways for some killer driftwood and rock.

 

[Fdsh5]

Just a big old wad of java moss. They love trolling through it looking for food and eating the tiny leaves that grow on it

 

[Sharkbait54]

10g with blue hygro, wisteria, and banana plants. Stock light and dose supplement weekly.

 

[savage]

10g with blue hygro, wisteria, and banana plants. Stock light and dose supplement weekly.

Love the banana plants. Bikini Bottom!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Wy Native Bog Tank

Started out as a tank for carnivours plants, evolved into a American snapping turtle holding tank, and then into its current morph; a Wyoming native bog-like tank.

Tank:
The tank is a 20gal long Turtle-tank made by Zilla; tank is only about 1/4 full of water

Equipment:
Filters: AquaClear AC30 HOB filter, and Whisper internal filter
Lighting: Aqueon strip light w/ standard aquarium bulb and an Aqueon twin tube strip light w/ one standard aquarium bulb and one Floraxam plant bulb
Top: standard Zilla center-hinged screen top

Scape:
The tank was scaped using GE type II 100% silicone and river rock, it also contains a single piece of unknown (but most likely cottonwood) driftwood

Substrate:
Aquatic: standard aquarium gravel
Terrestrial; peat moss and sand mixture

Fauna:
Invertes: crayfish (possibly Orconectes virilis), damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, freshwater mussels, mayfly nymphs, planaria, scuds, snails, and stonefly nymphs
Vertebrates:
Fish, most likely some type of shiner (possibly sand shiners)

Flora:
Emergent: Equisetum, Forget-Me-Nots Mint and native sedge
Floating: Duckweed
Submergent: hornwort
Terrestrial: moss, native fern, and a orchid

Set-up:
To create the scape, I simply siliconed river rock into position, then filled in behind with the peat moss and sand mixture. I made no attempt to create a water-tight barrier, as I figured on working with hydrophytes.

Since everyone likes photos (and that is the point of this thread), here are a few of my favorite shots, and a current FTS.

 

[savage]

Started out as a tank for carnivours plants, evolved into a American snapping turtle holding tank, and then into its current morph; a Wyoming native bog-like tank.

Tank:
The tank is a 20gal long Turtle-tank made by Zilla; tank is only about 1/4 full of water

Equipment:
Filters: AquaClear AC30 HOB filter, and Whisper internal filter
Lighting: Aqueon strip light w/ standard aquarium bulb and an Aqueon twin tube strip light w/ one standard aquarium bulb and one Floraxam plant bulb
Top: standard Zilla center-hinged screen top

Scape:
The tank was scaped using GE type II 100% silicone and river rock, it also contains a single piece of unknown (but most likely cottonwood) driftwood

Substrate:
Aquatic: standard aquarium gravel
Terrestrial; peat moss and sand mixture

Fauna:
Invertes: crayfish (possibly Orconectes virilis), damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, freshwater mussels, mayfly nymphs, planaria, scuds, snails, and stonefly nymphs
Vertebrates:
Fish, most likely some type of shiner (possibly sand shiners)

Flora:
Emergent: Equisetum, Forget-Me-Nots Mint and native sedge
Floating: Duckweed
Submergent: hornwort
Terrestrial: moss, native fern, and a orchid

Set-up:
To create the scape, I simply siliconed river rock into position, then filled in behind with the peat moss and sand mixture. I made no attempt to create a water-tight barrier, as I figured on working with hydrophytes.

Since everyone likes photos (and that is the point of this thread), here are a few of my favorite shots, and a current FTS.

That is sick! Very cool.

 

[redsea]

Awesome tanks everyone!

 

[Wy Renegade]

That is sick! Very cool.

Thank you, I enjoy it a lot - when time allows.

 

[Smcoyle87]

I could stare at all of these tanks for hours lol

 

[Lovin Fish]

I could stare at all of these tanks for hours lol

I agree!!! There pretty great!

 

[Lovin Fish]

How do you get one of these started? I always think these tanks look great but don't know what plants to get or how to make them grow. Or rocks or anything like that. What's some advice?

I'm working on setting up my first low-tech also! I am going to use top soil, pottery clay, dolomite, flourite, and Muriate of potash. Browse through the planted tank section of this forum and you will probably be able to find some info about setting up.
I just did a lot of google searches to find out the best way of going low-tech for what I want. There are several different ways. Each has it's own reasons.
Have fun and good luck!

 

[Tcal01]

This is mine. I just have an aqueon t5no fixture on it and I'm going to be dosing excel soon.
Fauna: male betta, harlequin rasboras and otos (going to soon be adding shrimp and maybe a micro crab)
Flora: vals, rotala, moss ball, Java fern, dwarf hairgrass, microswords and small Amazon swords that will be moved once they outgrow the tank
The second pic has a better shot of my betta

 

[OBEYtheFISH]

More low tech, in order:

80g BW tank

115g angel tank

120g cichlid community tank

You put hitech tanks to shame lol

 

[jbuck]

47 gallon about 3 weeks in. Unable to do any more for the mean time as we have rather suddenly decided to move and I figured the less I have to uproot and change the better. I am thinking of losing the white gravel when I redo it in the new place as it is going brown quite quick dont know if some algae eaters may change that and keep it all white. Thinking of putting some sort of carpet grass along the front too.

 

[Smcoyle87]

Re-scaped (a little)

 

[Squall]

Here's my 10 gallon.