How To Create An Amazing Low Tech Aquascape | No CO2 No Dosing No Heater | Aquascaping 

Yep, nice video, I made a channel to show you can make low-maintenance, small planted aquariums out of glass bottles and I keep a few shrimp and snails in a glass drinks dispenser! My two latest videos on my channel shows the aquariums with commentary with one showing three shrimp fighting over an algae wafer!

Thanks. This channel and its message have come to an end, and that's alright. I have plans for another channel. It will still be aquariums, but will have a different approach, style, and message. Hopefully before the end of the summer. With the virus, we will see. But I am planning something new! So stay tuned in man and thanks for watching!

@@ADUAquascaping retiring?? Sad to ear it mate. Your channel was one of the best out there. Good luck with the new channel. Though I am confused as to why you would give up on an established aquarium channel to start a new one.

@@ADUAquascaping Are you deleting this channel?

@@zinabalbaiti9348 no, just taking a break. I am not in a position to have aquariums right now. I will be back later though. Maybe in a year or sooner

Also noticed bunch of his videos removed? What's happening?

Oh, man. I totally get that. I would still like to use CO2 on a larger scape, but yeah, it's really not needed on small tanks. It is exciting to see pearling in a low-tech setup. I find the lighting also helps as well as the water. Thanks for watching!

@@ADUAquascaping interesting channel. I almost never see pearling now as all my tanks are lowtech, but I still manage to grow healthy plants, slowly. I like the slower pace.

Yeah, me too. Slow, but healthy. Usually, if you increase your light and soften your water, then you can see more pearling in low-tech, but it's not necessary for sustained, healthy growth. Thanks for watching. I will have a new video out soon.

Michael Houlihan thank you for watching

Sebastián AF thanks. I just did it to keep it really simple for beginners. Next scape will be different for sure. In several months I will probably rescape.

freshestemo yes they are a decent fixture. Definitely one of my favorite plants. Currently my favorite.

Hey thanks! Hoping to get a new setup going soon! Thanks for watching. Keep your sleeves wet!

Skiddols hey that method works, and so does mine. Just my opinion and makes it very easy for beginners. Thanks for your input and feedback.

Makeila's Aqua Thanks Makeila. I have been somewhat inconsistent for the past few years or so myself. Have been busy with school, and my channel has suffered. I am studying environmental science and management. Emphasis on water reclamation, soil, and GIS geographic information systems, which is mapping using remote sensing data and imagery. Anything from population density, lung cancer, to urban heat islands and geological formations and phenomenon. Very broad subject. From health and safety officer to GIS specialist, environmental auditor, manager, sustainability director, etc... I just did a project on urban heat island effects and how they are directly correlated with vegetation biomass within and adjacent to the city. A lot of parameters are needed and I may continue doing research on the subject to make my findings more conclusive and robust. Physical science is a fun route. Usually small class sizes. If you want to get your mind stretched and have the books pounded into you than you should consider physical earth science. Hahaha

Very interesting! A lot of that actually sounds pretty familiar from AP environmental science, especially heat islands and water+soil, but like you said very broad subject. Lots to think about for sure. I know I want to do something in biology/ecology/environmental science, but I'm not quite sure what yet :P

Thanks, you will in time! Keep at it man

It is a Hydor 150 with a poppy bulb outlet. For 20-40 gallon 75-150 L. Good idea to have at least 10x the volume of your aquarium as your filtration rate in gallon or liter per hour. I usually change the water twice a month, and when I was really adamant concerning maintenance, I would do small water changes daily. 5-10% at a time. I use just tap water. My water is basic and alkaline with an 8.0 pH and high carbonate hardness, so this can add to your success. Having ample amounts of nutrients in your water is beneficial as most plants can acclimate to hard water especially with a soil substrate. Hope this helps

@@ADUAquascaping thank you for the info. My tape water ph:7.2 and gh:8. So it is soft. Also, the substrate I'll use has a feature that reduces PH. I mean, is it good for planting?

@@sefercandan3475 yes that will work for planting, and your water is great too!

@@ADUAquascaping hey there I'm new in this so let's say I change 10% water when I fill the tank back with water can I add some dichlorinator droplets since I put new tap water in the tank ??

@@carlossaavedra4723 yes you can add some to help! A few drops should be enough

It may be alright if you have a lot of plants and the aquasoil is low in nitrogen. I know Controsoil is low in nitrogen, but not sure about Fluval. There are ways. You could just start over and plant heavy during the rescape, and then do daily small water changes (10%) for a week or longer. Or you can siphon just the substrate into a bucket and then funnel in more substrate using vinyl tubing and a funnel back into the tank. You can take the inhabitants out or leave them in if using Controsoil. With Fluval just be safe and maybe start over entirely. The tank should be cycled within 21-30 days, so it's strange because the silica sand doesn't necessarily entice diatoms to grow for longer periods of time, it's more often a sign that your microbial fauna are out of balance, but in your case it may be true because of the strange persistence. Unless the tank is suffering from poor water quality and higher organic waste? Yes or no? Or is the tank well maintained? What kind of filter do you have and water surface agitation? Any setbacks in the past? During the cycling? Any additives or chemicals used?

@@ADUAquascaping I just use tap water and API stress coat for the water. I read that there's high silica levels in my tap water which could be one of the reasons why diatoms are still forming? around a 6 ppm of silica in my tap. I do weekly water changes around 20-25%. The Fluval Spec 16 has an integrated filter in it and currently there's not much surface agitation, I'm aiming my powerheads downwards. I add API Leaf Zone for ferts every time I water change and also API stress coat. There's a decent amount of organic waste because some leaves fall off my hornwort but I just siphon it whenever I do a water change. My substrate is a black sand.

@@ADUAquascaping If I do end up changing the substrate I plan on adding a LOT more plants. Currently I only have a amazon sword, hornwort, and Anubias.

@@ADUAquascaping I have a sparkling dwarf gourami and 9 neons in my tank but no cleanup, do I was thinking of adding 6 otos and maybe a nerite but I'm not sure if that would be overstocking. I read that otos really like diatoms

You will want to use ADA or Tropica for better results

Oh. And I have eco complete in my current tank.

With root tabs, dosing, and CO2 it can do well. Just so much easier to use Aquasoil, and especially in a low tech.

ADU Aquascaping okay thank you!!! I want low tech. I’m actually gonna do all if not 90% crypts in the 20long. So a good substrate will pay off in the end I hope 😁 always love the vids! 👍🏼✌🏼

ADU Aquascaping do you like dirted low tech tanks? Can’t remember if you’ve talked about that before. I tried it for half a year and called with fine sand. Got rid of it quick because it was bubbling when disturbed. Guessing anaerobic bacteria

Ecocomplete comes in a solution but it is just crushed lava rock which contains no nutrients. On its own, it's inert. You will be required to dose ferts, use root tabs, or both depending on your plant selection. I have a lowtec fish bowl with potting soil (not organic, didn't have any at the time I threw this one together) capped with ecocomplete. No ferts, no filter, no co2 under a dim desk lamp and it is thriving with a pearling MC carpet doing better than anything else I've ever tried or an currently running.

If you prepare your plants, trim the roots and get old leaves off, have adequate soil depth and do frequent water changes in the beginning you will be fine. It really is about letting those plants acclimate and keeping organics low while they do. Get rid of organics and inhibit algae or setbacks by doing biweekly water changes and even lowering the lights or reducing the photo period, but these two steps are not always necessary, so better to just focus on the plants and water quality. At first you don't need to dose fertilizer with soil, and this will also reduce risk. Of course the nitrogen cycle will still take 21-30 days as is the nature of the bacteria, but the plants will take up a lot of residual ammonia from the transitioning plants and the soil itself. Fluval soil is pretty clean and you won't have to worry about any ammonia spikes. Hope this helps.

@@ADUAquascaping thank you so much for responding. That's pretty amazing! You rock! Sir, if you see this. When could I introduce some neon tetra school of about 8 maybe 1 beta?

Thank you!

Thank you!

Hey, Animal Ark is the only place I know of

GreenThumb Scapers My tank is the proof. Making it easy is my angle. This is my experience.

GreenThumb Scapers I can explain it further in regards to dosing. I will add a bit to the comment. In my experience these fixtures work just fine and so do the Aquasoils. More often than not filtration is sufficient and water parameters. Especially if using an Aquasoil. I can't address all exceptions, but will elaborate on a few.

GreenThumb Scapers You asked where I was coming from and I said making it easy is my angle. The method I mentioned will work for other hobbyists and is easy and simple. More simple than topsoil, root tabs, or flood lights.

GreenThumb Scapers Aquasoil leaches nutrients into the water column, so most hobbyists won't have to worry initially. My moss and Anubias are both doing well.

Very informative. Thank you! Personally, I tried something like this approach and wasn't able to grow anything successfully. Had a light that was 1 watt/gal (dunno the par :/), used ADA aquasoil, trimmed when I needed to (which was rare since nothing grew aside from Java moss), did regularly weekly water changes. I tried growing Amazon Swords, Anubias, Water wisteria and Moss. Only the java moss thrived. Everything else barely clung on to life even after 4 months. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that my country is tropical and temp is 29C/84f, but I've been seen aquascapers like Dennis Wong succeed at such temperatures. Wonder what I did wrong... Also, it's interesting to see that your approach is quite different from Tom Barr's for Low tech. Have you found yours to be more successful? For eg, he recommends using a carbon substrate (e.g. Pest moss with leonardite) capped with something somewhat inert like Onyx sand or Flourite, arguing that the nutrients peter out anyways and I believe Onxy sand/fluoride is easier to clean. Additionally, he reccomends doing water changes rarely. His explanation being that When you do WC, CO2 increases and algae is a lot better at adapting to CO2 swings than plants, thus will outcompete plants when CO2 is slightly higher and when CO2 is low as well. In other words, the plants will struggle to compete when Co2 fluctuates (I'm not doing his explanation justice, But I'm sure you're familiar with this reasoning before). It's fascinating that your that half of your tips differ from his. Please do elaborate your findings. Also, I got some brineshrimpdirect food as per your recommendation and my fish look bright and colourful thanks!!!!

It was around 74 degrees F. Not too cold. Those were Oto cats. Great for the clean up crew

25% of full power most days and usually for about 8-10 hours a day

I will wave my hand at the substrate to kick up detritus and then siphon it up during a water change

@@ADUAquascaping Ahhhh. ty

CL Cuber aquariumgardens.co.uk

Cam'sJungleAquaria They just eat algae and sometimes blood worms. Easy to care for

I was using a Hydor 150 canister. Nice build and ran quietly

@@ADUAquascaping thanks so much!

Crypt spiralis Tiger. Check out my set up tutorial video for this scape. Thanks for watching

I would recommend a a few small tetras. Between 5 -10 for this size tank. Ember Tetras are awesome, or maybe even Endler guppies. Those are colorful and small in size. Then you could also get different types of shrimp too. Amano shrimp and Sakura shrimp work well. Thanks for watching. Yes, with the right plants, soil, and light the hobby really can be this easy. The secret is a lot of water changes at the beginning to bring down all the organics in the water, which happens as the plants and microbes mature. So just keep the organics down and trim dead or dying leaves. Most people will also get Diatoms at the beginning of their aquairum, so don't worry. It will go away on its own as the tank matures. You can also get a couple Oto Cats to help eat the Diatoms or any other algae as well. They love Diatoms and all types of algae.

@@ADUAquascaping well, glad to hear it brudda. See you soon!

natextreme the cows in the canyon ruined the jump line for the summer. Haha. Nothing I can do. Rocks everywhere. I am really liking the Tropica Aquasoil. Works really well and the plants root well in it.

Thanks!

That is a glass poppy bulb outlet and inlet. For style and aesthetics, and the poppy version slows down flow and adds more agitation for increased gas exchange

Check out my latest video about quitting the hobby. Thanks for watching

I show the tank

Oh oops. Sorry and thank you for the reply

Usually 25% of full, but sometimes 50%

Nice! That is a nice setup

Thanks! And the system and method will work!

Dang dude, I would advise just using RO water or at least diluting your tap water with RO water. Like 50/50 or 80 RO water/ and 20 tap water

Heh.

Haha, try out a Finnex planted plus!

@@ADUAquascaping Well I actually used a glass drinks dispenser for a small 1 gallon aquarium, it was bought at a car boot sale for £2.50

Reegan Kistler apistogramma is the fish name I believe. But they really shouldn't be kept in a 5 gallon. I would personally say ~15 gallons is a minimum. And they aren't guppies. If you want one that looks that good you'll be best off finding a breeder to buy from as your local fish store probably won't get them with that color quality.

Reegan Kistler p.s. they are also called the cockatoo dwarf cichlid.

Andrew Bennett 8-10hrs

Yes Monte Carlo. Works very well

Thankyou so much

I am not using anything other than the row of rocks and some plants on the edges. Because I have no sand in the front it is easy to create this slope because there is no fear of mixing substrates. So you can just use driftwood or rocks to help keep the slope up. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

Cheap flood lights work well, but have bad color rendering. UNS, Finnex, and Current all make decent fixtures. Fluval 2.0 as well works for low tech

Hey watch my setup video of this aquascape

Jordan Yang yeah it will work. Alright sounds good man