An Update on the 12 Litre Lucky Bamboo Aquarium

My second tech-free aquarium now has been running for about two weeks. During this period, green algae grew rapidly and soon had covered the sand and some of the plants. Due to this, I had to remove the java moss from the tank. Most of the algae have disappeared by now, though.
Unfortunately, the offshoots of umbrella papyrus did not grow well. I guess, the water level is too high for them. I decided to filter the tank by lucky bamboo exclusively, and added two more branches of it.

12 litre tank filtered by Dracaena sanderiana ('lucky bamboo').

A Second 12 Litre No-Tech Aquarium Follows

Only several weeks after I had decided to use some free space on my window ledge to install a tech-free aquarium, which is supposed to be filtered by the umbrella papyrus Cyperus alternifolius only, I've set up a second 12 litre tank directly next to it.

First Fish Dwelling in 12 Litre No-Tech Tank

Several days after setting up the 12 litre no-tech tank on my window ledge, I could observe little copepod-like invertebrates in the aquarium. They must have been brought in when I introduced the umbrella papyrus in the tank. Now they were feeding on the microalgae that had started to grow.

Nitrate was at 20 mg/l which is about the same as in the tap water I am using. That means that the umbrella papyrus ad not yet started to significantly consume nitrogen. As the nitrite levels were below detection limit, I decided to add the first fishes: 6 a-few-days-old Heterandria formosa, born in my 25 litre tank. I figured they might welcome the copepods as a snack and at the same time wouldn't adversely affect the water quality too much.

A group of adult male Heterandria formosa.