# Ameekplec's 75g low tech planted pleco tank



## ameekplec.

Well folks, there have been some requests, so here's a FTS:









Equipment: (75g tank)

Lighting: Coralife 48" T5 56W (Full spectrum + 6700K)
Substrate: 5 bags flourite
Heating: Eheim Ebo-Jager 250W
Filtration: 2x Eheim 2217

Occupants:
5x L081 Gold Nuggets
5x L134 Leopard frog plecos
2x Farowella vitatta (Twig cats)

10x Rummy-nose tetras
4x Featherfin rainbows (2M 2F)
7x Harlequin rasboras
3x cardinal tetras (Need more, or moving to another home)
6x Wrestling halfbeaks
1x marbled hatchetfish (no idea where the others went...)

Many many red cherry shrimp and snails.

Plants:
Aponogeton Ulvaceus
crinum calamistratum
crimun natans
cryptocoryne blassi
dwarf subulata
dwarf ambuilia
hygrophila polysperma 'ceylon'
ludwigia repens
Nymphea zenkeri red tiger + green tiger
Vallisneria natans (americana)
Mircosorum pteropus - 'Windelov', 'narrow leaf', normal
hygrophila corymbosa 'augustifolia'
echinodorus amazonicus (amazon sword plants)

and possibly one or two more species. haven't trimmed in a while so it looks a bit messy.


----------



## planter

well I'm impressed. 

Nice work.


----------



## Sunstar

I want your tank....I want your plants  Well I got most of those here.... but I want your tank. Very nice, very green. I'm loving it.


----------



## Chris S

Very nice setup, lucky pleco's! 

I love that narrow leaf ludwigia repens - I'm still kicking myself for removing mine.


----------



## Ciddian

so nice!really do love low light planted tanks. I cant wait till i can work with something a bit larger than 20 gallon pft.


----------



## koopagurl

lol, is that my crinum natans? it looks happy there.


----------



## ameekplec.

Long time no see Koopagurl!

Yes, that is your c natans. It's come to growing quite well, and is starting to add some height. 

I'm planning to add a aponogeton capuroni to the right side too. Got it from menagerie a week or two ago.

This tank was set up I think in March or April. Took a while to fill out, but now there's so much driftwood and plants in there as to give the L081 lots of different territories.


----------



## Tabatha

Wow, that's a stunner!


----------



## Sunstar

I WANT a large tank like that... argh... I am hurting.


----------



## twoheadedfish

that's a good looking tank. i'd buy it a drink


----------



## koopagurl

arghh...yeah because i have school in another town, i don't lurk around on this forum as often. but i want to get another planted tank by Christmas.


----------



## I_dude

Nice tank Ameekplec.
Spent a long time today trying to figure out which plant was which.


----------



## ameekplec.

Not in order:
3. Aponogeton Ulvaceus
13. crinum calamistratum
2. crimun natans
5. cryptocoryne blassi
10. dwarf subulata
7. dwarf ambuilia
12. hygrophila polysperma 'ceylon'
9. ludwigia repens
8. Nymphea zenkeri red tiger (b) + green tiger (a)
11. Vallisneria natans (americana)
9. Mircosorum pteropus - 'Windelov' (a), 'narrow leaf'(c), normal(b)
4. hygrophila corymbosa 'augustifolia'
6. echinodorus amazonicus (amazon sword plants)
14. Anubias barteri


----------



## Sunstar

Looks Amazing. 

Let me know if you sell again later. you have a couple I'd be after... 13, 3, 7  I am such a sucker for plants.


----------



## Cory_Dad

I'm not gonna look at this part of the forum ever again...


----------



## Mr Fishies

That is a very nice and natural, balanced looking tank. Two thumbs up.

Those plants look really healthy! I've seen different people interpret "low-tech" in different ways. Any chance you'd be willing to share some info on your maintenance routine? Are you doing any regular water changes, adding any ferts, dosing any CO2 or Excel?

Also, is there a pad of riccia floating in the top right? Or some L.minor?


----------



## I_dude

Thanks for labelling the plants.
It helps to know whihc plants I want to buy of you in the future


----------



## ameekplec.

Mr Fishies said:


> That is a very nice and natural, balanced looking tank. Two thumbs up.
> 
> Those plants look really healthy! I've seen different people interpret "low-tech" in different ways. Any chance you'd be willing to share some info on your maintenance routine? Are you doing any regular water changes, adding any ferts, dosing any CO2 or Excel?
> 
> Also, is there a pad of riccia floating in the top right? Or some L.minor?


Thanks for all the compliments guys! I love the tank too 

Low tech, as in non-CO2. haha, the lights aren't even on a timer: my father turns it on in the morning, and off at night whenever. now that's a timer. No ferts, no exogenous CO2 supplementation.

There's a good balance of slkow growers (most of the plants) and a few fast growers. The stems (limno, hygro, sagittaria) are there for fast absorption of nutrients (Nitrogenous wastes). Slow guys for show 

I think part of the reason it grows so well is the fact that the plecos get fed so much so often and create a lot of waste, which is then utilized by the plants. Water changes used to be 20% every week, but I found this to be a bit much, so they are at 30% every two weeks. With that said, it is filtered by 2 Eheim 2217, so there's no slouching on that end. And even with the high feedings and WC every two weeks, the rummy-nose tetras have never once showed any sign of discomfort or dulling.



I_dude said:


> Thanks for labelling the plants.
> It helps to know whihc plants I want to buy of you in the future


No problem. lol, a lot of these plants I have no idea how to cultivate (c. natans and c. calamistratum, among others), others I know how, but do not want to try bulb cutting (zenkeris, Ulvaceus), and others are just slow grower (almost everything else). But ask away, I may be trimming back to fit other plants in


----------



## ameekplec.

Well, it's been a while since I've taken a pic of this tank, and it's had it's share of ups and downs.

The tank was doing pretty well until about the end of the summer last year when BBA was taking over - a combination of old bulbs, lack of maintenance and severe overfeeding - led to the gradual demise of many of the plant species.

After about 4 months of double dosing excel, doing weekly/biweekly 40 gallon water changes, constant filter cleanings, gravel vacs over 80% of the substrate and replanting many of the plants, it's back to almost where it was before. Many of the species that were in there before were too high maintenance (in terms of requirements) for this tank - now there's only a few species in there and they don't require too much work, just a trim here and there.

All the inhabitants made it through fine, besides the shrimp. More were re-introduced, and they're doing much better now.


----------



## ShrimpieLove

Wow your tank looks great!


----------



## shadow_cruiser

I absolutely love the natural look of the tank. This was the look I was going for originally but not enough, patience,money and time set me back. My dream planted tank would be in a 75G, it's very rare to find a good used one


----------



## vrb th hrb

this is a dream tank for me......

besides feeding them well, how do you keep the plecos from destroying your plants? I keep alot of plecos and they would tear those plants apart


----------



## ameekplec.

They're all generally well behaved. Also they're not terribly interested in the plants ever. They get veggies occiasionally but their main diet is shrimp and earthworm sticks and hikari algae tabs.

What plecs do you have? I don't think baryancistrus nor peckolita are known much as plant munchers. As for disturbing things, everything is well rooted so they really don't get dug up or tossed around too much.


----------



## vrb th hrb

currently these are the least number of plecos i've ever had

between the 46 and 75 gallon current i have:
5-6 inch adonis
3-4 inch sunshine
3 inch royal
2 inch leopard cactus

and a 10 inch reverse gibby that will be moving to a friends tank in the up coming weeks. they all chow down on a variety of veg, peppers, melon rind, sweet pots. with the exception of the L114 as he goes more for the shrimp/carnivore pellets and any scallop or fresh shrimp i put in the tank 

i know commons/gibbys are pigs and will eat anything plant based. but i suspect the few giant danios of eating the roots of my frogbit up as well.....


----------



## Dis

The tank looks great. I'm getting ready to set up my own 75 g and was wondering where did you get your driftwood?

Thanks


----------



## ameekplec.

It's the standard malaysian ironwood sold at most LFS. Cherry picked of course right when BA got in a huge shipment.

Some of the smaller log pieces in the front are just found driftwoods though


----------



## PACMAN

I'm loving the tank! all of those plants survive on no co2??? what about fertilizers? What made you decide to run 2x 2217s? I have 1 on my 75 gallon malawi cichlid tank, and thought it was more than enough. I want to convert back to tropical in the future, something along the lines of your tank.


----------



## ameekplec.

Yep, no CO2, no ferts. It's not amazing or anything, but not bad all things considered.

There's 2x 2217s as there's a lot of plecs, plus the 2217s help to circulate the water around all those plants. That, and I had 2x 2217s on hand so I set them up for the heck of it.


----------



## killer007

ah...i very like your planted tank...
hahahah good for shrimps


----------



## DaFishMan

Your tank is lookin great. And wait till that E Amazonicus grows, it'll be a tankbuster


----------



## igor.kanshyn

Your tank looks perfect!


----------

