Going Low Tech

[ChrisP]

Im thinkiing of going low tech and ditching EI since I just dont have the time or desire to change so much water anymore. Its difficult for me as I cant keep my tank where I live so I have to travel to my parents every week and as Im about to start my last year of Uni I cant afford to give up my whole Sunday to do this.

Currently I run 2.5WPG so I am thinking of dropping this by half, I dose 15ml trace 3x a week and 10PPM KNO3 3x a week, any idea on what dosing I would use for low tech?

Plants consist of Hygro Polysperma, Glosso, Riccia, Hornwort, Amazon Swords, Crypts and Vallis. I think everything except the Glosso and Riccia should be fine.

Fish load is quite low for the size of tank so I am thinking I may get away with a waterchange a month or so, thats what I am aiming for anyway.

I think I would actually prefer to dismantle and give up all together for the time being but I dont really want to give up my fish to be quite honest.

 

[Themuleous]

Sorry to hear about the loss of EI, but I know what you mean it can be time consuming! As to what to do, I'd prefer to do a water change every two weeks rather than months, purely for the sake of the fish, but I guess its not vital, so long as the monthly one is quite big, say 25-30%, if not a bit more.

Think you're right about the riccia and glosso, the rest should be fine, guess you'll find out!

As to dosing, scarp everything but adding trace, probably on a weekly basis, but if the light downs down so will demand for the trace, so you might not even need to dose weekly. But that would be my initial thoughts. Having said that if you're doing a water change monthly, then perhaps once every two weeks would be better, you don't want to overdose and risk hurting the fish, etc.

Hope that helps

Sam

 

[ChrisP]

Cheers for that, Im now thinking of 2 tubes going giving a total of 1.25WPG, a monthly waterchange of 50% and weekly dose of trace of say 10ml or so.

Guess I will have to experiment and see hwo the plants go during time.