The answer to 'Why do they sell...' anything is $$$. People will buy it, so someone will sell it.

High tech vs low tech approaches to planted tanks usually means different materials, different start up costs and different maintenance schedules.
There is also any gradation in between, that might be called medium tech.

With any of those basic methods, the secret to success with any of them is to keep things in balance, not to deprive the plants of something.

Light: I run most of my tanks with about 2 watts per gallon of fluorescent lights. (1/2 watt per liter) Most are a 'Plant' bulb combined with a 'Cool White' or 'Daylight' bulb. Most tanks are near window so they get anything from bright northern light to a couple of hours of direct sun. (I close sheer curtains in the summer).

High tech will usually be 3+ watts per gallon if you are using T-12 or T-8 bulbs, or less watts per gallon if you are using T-5 or T-5HO.

CO2: In a large tank like that (roughly 60 gallon) you could use DIY CO2, but you would need several bottles, and rotate changing them out (this is how I do it) or Excel.

High tech is pressurized CO2.

Low tech is allowing the fish respiration and decomposition in the soil to supply the CO2 needed by the plants.

Fertilizers: I have a substrate that will soak up fertilizers and hold them ready for the plants. (High cationic exchange capacity) so I add dry ferts (most economical) but have reached the point that if I occasionally skip a week there is enough fertilizer in the substrate and fish food to keep things going for a while.
High tech = more careful attention to dosing.
Low tech = allow fish food to supply the fertilizers, but starting with an enriched substrate is very helpful.

Substrate: I tried my garden soil. Too high in clay. This makes great vegetable soil, but the aquarium would cloud and never settle out.
Mineralized soil: Very good for high tech to low tech.
Packaged soils: Read the label very carefully, and ask lots of questions, do research on line... make sure of what you are getting!!

Filtration can be broken down to water movement and cleaning the water. I like to have something close to 10 times the tank volume of water movement. Most of this is from the filter, but I also add power heads.
Too mush water movement (you can hear the waves) allows too much CO2 to escape, so if you are adding CO2 you want to minimize surface movement. Gentle ripples are about right.

 

 

Wow that really helps put things in perspective, I'm definatly going presurized c02 purely for ease of not making up the bottle and dealing with sludge ect. The lighting confuses me slightly as I have 25w at 10000k t8 and I'd need seven of these to get the desired 3wpg. Or are 25watt tubes quite low? And I'd quite easily find 2 90watt tubes. Is the moonlight tube useless or okai for rest periiods? As for soil I'm still drawn to putting in a mineralized soil with a fine gravel on top would adding a crushed fert tab be to much with extremly mmild dosing? Bahhhhh I'm confusing myself I hope my questions are'nt so n00by that they are frustrating. Thanks for reading. Ryan.

 

What you need is a new fixture all together if you intend to go High tech. You can't just put a new bulb in and get higher wattage, it isn't like incandescent. The ballast sets the wattage, not the bulb.

For lights catalina aquarium makes some affordable, quality lights. Fishneedit does too.

 

There's a sticky here comparing Low tech vs High tech. Its a good read and will give you some insight on both methods.

Before you decide which way you want to go, remember to be decisive with what you want and how much will you be willing to put into it (both in time and money). Just know that a high tech tank requires a lot of input from you: you have to stay on top of Water changes, fertilizing, Co2, plant pruning etc. With lower tech you can relax a little bit more, but you will still have to be knowledgable of what's going on.

There are interesting plant species and layouts in both ways, so no matter what you choose you will have fun and have your ups and downs...

A high tech tank is very delicate... its like a patient on life support. So if you have a busy schedule or go away on vacation often (3+ days) then make sure you have someone to take care of your patient. Can't forget your Co2 bottle is empty, can't allow your pH controller or needle valves to fail, can't forget to fertilize, can't allow to run out of ferts....... if you can do this, then go for it. If not, then there's still plenty other things to do.

Good luck and have fun!

 

Hey f1ea, I had a little look into that sticky and it was helpfulll but the whole sticky kind of goes abit off topic so I'd fort I'd as the question what are the basic differences, and dianak very helpfully explained. after looking at the maitenance of a aquabasis soil I'm being slightly put off by the chance if I go away for more that a few days which I do often then it could fail as no one around me is into planted tanks, or fish to be honest so I'm going to go pressurized c02, mineralized soil from the D walstad method not quite high light but not low light some where inbetween so ill have to look into that abit more. Why is it that the high tech route requires a lot of water changes and the low ttech doesn't surely? Thanks. Ryan.

 

High tech requires more water changes because you do more fertilizing and thus need to do water changes to prevent them from reaching toxic levels. Generally we fertilize in excess to assure we are not limiting the plants with that(and causing an algae outbreak).

50% water changes using a hose take my about 12 minutes in my 75 gallon tank, every week. I use that time when the water is low to pick out dead plant leaves and inspect my tank.

 

Medicthree thabk you for the posts theyQ are very helpfull, if your taking out 37.5 gallons were do you get another 37.5 to replace it with that is of adequate temp and isn't full of nastyness from the tap. I'm using a c02 'starter kit' on myy 5g its like an areosol tin u preess down on that then it fills the diffuser and that dissolves apparently into the water are there systems any good? I've been keeping an eye on my fish gasping at the top and they seem fine.

 

I use Seachem prime to remove chlorine/chloramine, I do not have anything else to worry about. I intentionally introduce water that is 3 -5 degrees F cooler, using the hot water heater to get there. I am not sure what nastiness you are talking about, but outside of the most sensitive fish, tap water is sufficient and stability is most important.

I have never used or seen a co2 system like the one you describe, but I must admit that it seems by concept to be inefficient. An active diffuser would work much better. But you would end up using more co2. This would lend you much farther away form the natural tank.