No. I have another tank (55) that falls under Walstad's description of low-tech., except for the gravel (no soil). This tank (70) has all the bells and whistles of a "high-tech" tank: 5lb. pressurized CO2 w/ Milwaukee SMS122 controller, Flourite gravel (gonna change to E-C, though), Rena XP3, Inline CO2 reactor, substrate heat, moonlights, 200W of PC broadspectrum lighting, PMDD ferts., timers, etc.
The growth rate and foliage shape/color differences between the two tanks are remarkable. Granted, I'm still running 2mm fracted quartz gravel in the low-tech tank, so my color and shape in that tank might improve once I throw some better substrate in it. Regardless, the plants in the 70 grow about 3x faster and have much better color shape. The emergent leaves of those lillys are almost violet. You can actually see the lilly bulbs floating at the surface in the "before" pic. The pictured growth is only about three weeks!
