RE: [APD] low maintenence tank?

["David Nesom" <david at nesom_net>]

Funky Punk Wrote:

>I guess my overt goal is to have an easy to maintain tank that looks nice.

>Basically I'd prefer to work with:

>Existing aquarium hood, ie no retrofitting.

>No Co2 added.

One of my tanks fits these requirements reasonably and I get a number of
compliments on it even over my more high tech tank. Main diff is that it is
a paludarium--though I suspect that the choice of submersed plants,
lighting, and substrate would meet your requirements quite well.

Here's the description:

20 gallon with 30 watts of 6500k fluorescent lighting (two regular LFS
bought light strips over a glass cover)
Substrate is a ~2-3" layer of Flourite red over a 1/4" layer of peat
No CO2
I do a 50% water change every two weeks
Fertilization: fish are fed twice daily (usually flakes but some frozen food
a few times a week). I also add 10ml of TMG once a week.

The plants grow slowly but are very healthy and in the year I've had this
tank setup I've never had any algae problem.

Here's the submersed plant list:
Microsorum pteropus, Anubias barteri, Cryptocoryne wendtii, Cryptocoryne
Petchii, Sagittaria subulata, Hydrocotyle leucocephala.

All of these plants are easy to care for and do not require high light, co2,
etc...

It's a light fish load too: 2 SAEs (algae control?), many different types of
snails, 2 Clown Loaches (to keep the snail population in check), 8 cloud
tetras (for color ;-)

I would be glad to post a photo but don't have a website to put it on--it's
really a beautiful setup though.

Good luck getting started and I hope this helps.

Best,

Dave





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