# Planted tank life



## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

Hello planted tank enthusiasts 

I’ve had a planted tank going for a bunch of years now, generally low light, and simple scape with driftwood and mostly slow growers.
There is a base of eco-complete and a bunch of crypts, a bunch of thin leaved java fern, and there are a few stems of hygro something and some elodea stems. Like I said low light and simple. The tank has changed a bit over the years with stem plants and amounts of Java fern up or down. It’s housed some limia, some platys ages ago, micro rasboras and some heterandria and Norman’s lampeyes

A question- how long could a planted tank go? Would there eventually be some sort of collapse? Thoughts and ideas welcome


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## infolific (Apr 10, 2016)

I don't think a collapse is inevitable, but having a system run successfully for a very long time isn't guaranteed. I think you'll need to monitor conditions and adapt your maintenance routine over time. For example, as more material builds up in the tank, nitrates might increase faster than they did early on. So whatever you were doing early on to keep nitrates down may not be sufficient years into keeping the aquarium. 

My longest running planted aquarium is 3+ years and it's still going so the above is speculation at this point


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

Thanks for the reply 
This tank has got to be more than 7 now, so maybe the addition of the fast growing stem plants is helping.


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