# low tech planted tank



## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

I have seen some lists of low to moderate light plants, mainly sword plants, anubias, crypts. I really like that short micro grass but think it is high light. 

Most of my fish like hiding places, slow current, and shadow, or twilight darkness, and specfically are nocturnal or crepuscular so I want to set up a realistic planted tank that echoes these preferences. I interpret this as room lighting, maybe 1000 to 1,500 foot candles of light. 

Although I love looking at the high tech planted tanks, I feel they favor the art of diorama and bonsii, a bit more than the natural environment of fish. Although I am not here to start an argument, can I get some feedback on low tech planted tanks?

It is interesting, but I was reading that planted tanks have been around since the 1850s, before the invention of the light bulb, and most likely in tank heater, filter, or small electric pump. I wonder how people back then cared for their exotic fish when they could not test for nitrates? I suspect they just did water changes.


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

The ethanol lamps have put under the bottom sheet


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

Arthur7 said:


> The ethanol lamps have put under the bottom sheet


Is that a code?


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

It's true. The first hot-water ornamental fish were Makropoden. My father had any. The lamps were used for heating. The floor was made of sheet metal.
Electrical heater came later.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I'm not real clear on how to apply candle power,as in tanks our greatest concern is temp(color).You would prefer "daylight" of 6500-6700 K(kelvin).Freshwater can also use upto 10,000K.
Most important is lighting cycle(how long lights are on).Aprox 6-8 hours should work well.If you don't use lights but can get indirect daylight some lowlight plants may do fine.They probly just won't grow much?


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Low tech can be lush too, I would look into some floating plants like banana plants, frogsbit, tiger lotus or dwarf water lily, it will allow your plants to capitalize on the light from your fixture, and provide both dimness and roots to hide in for the fish underneath. I think mangrove plants might work too.

As stated, candlepower is a dated measure of intensity. When you want to look into how effective your lights are, you'll want to look at Lumens and Kelvin rating. The Lumens are a measure of light intensity, and Kelvin rating determines what the color spectrum of the bulb is. Freshwater plants prefer Kelvin ratings in the 5500K to 10000K range, and Lumens are arbitrary as they depend on many things (reflectors directing more light into the tank, strikeback on large-diameter tube fluorescent fixtures, reflection/refraction of light as it strikes the surface of the water, and attenuation for deep tanks).

The BEST way to measure the effectiveness of your lights (and also horribly expensive) is PAR, or Photosynthetic Active Radiation (measured in micro-Mols of light per meter squared per seconds). It can only be measured with a PAR meter, hence the horrid cost. However, there are ways to extrapolate based on Lumens and Kelvin, as above, or use of Kelvin and a less-expensive Lux meter like I do.

Most people do not get that technical though. I'm a nerd/engineer, so I geek out over things like this. I hope I was at least semi-informative and not overwhelmingly technical!


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

Candela is the luminous intensity. Specific brightness per watt.
Lumen is the light flow. A lamp with more watts also has more lumens.


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

Since posting this, I have aquired a dwarf water lilly, which is doing quite well. It is planted in dirt, which was how I cycled my tank. Half the aquarium is dirted with sand under and around. I ended up having to use gravel as a cap, because it seems loaches love burrowing in mud.


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