northtexasfossilguy

I find these low-tech tanks very interesting. Good luck with yours! Amazing flower by the way!

Heres a bit on my low-tech adventure:

I have two jars in my place that have been running with the same water for a few months, with top offs of course. One has a large Macrobrachium shrimp in it bought for 10cents, the other has only plants. I don't fertilize or do anything to it really except feed the shrimp daily. It actually is a very colorful little creature as an adult.

In my experience, I'd say sponge filters are the best for low tech, and the cheapest filter. I tried several types.

I noticed that the plants in the container without the shrimp did much worse than the one with the shrimp. It was pretty interesting to see the symbiosis that has been created between the animal bacteria and plants in comparison with the absence of the animal. It's sort of the "El Natural" / "Walsted method" type tank, but I just don't bother with them. I wanted to see how well it would do by itself with the worst care possible, and I found that almost everything was very resilient, especially those cheapo feeder shrimp. In my experience, I'd say sponge filters are the best for low tech, and the cheapest filter. I tried several types and I think sponges are the most reliable and allow the poo or "mulm" to get into the substrate instead of being trapped in the filter. Gravel/fluorite mix is what I used, and I think is better than aquasoil personally as the large size of grains lets water through more easily, and allows the waste to sink to the bottom.