My 33g long

[matt11390]

Here a few pics of my tank of 33 gallons. It has been up since Feb of this year. Some specifics:

1) Do weekly 50% water change
2) 130w Coralife lighting
3) two whisper filters that turn water 10 times/hour
4) eco complete substrate
5) no CO2 or fertilizers
6) open top
7) got about 40 inches of fish in tank
- livebearers, rainbows, cories, one loach, otos, amano shrimps

I am tinkering with the idea of transitioning this tank to a natural set up. I read a recent article about heavy fish loads with heavy plant loads will work. Anyone have thoughts about this?

[Jur4ik]

There are many things that might work - but will they look good?
And what will the maintenance regime look like?

Do you realy need 1000neons in a small tank or would 50 be enough? if 50 wouldbe enough than you´ll have less maintenance to do and the tank will look much better.

[matt11390]

In that article it said the idea is that fish waste is what fuels the plants which in turn keeps the tank healty. Therefore there is no need for fertilizers or CO2. Water changes for my tank size would be weekly. It suggested I could go longer between water changes, as long as monthly. But I don't think that would be wise. Anywho, these are the basics in theory.