Not my best photo but it's good enough for now This is one of my two low tech tanks, it basically started as a grow out tank for plants and grew into my first really successful planted tank. It's no pro scape, but to me it looks natural and simplistic. Only additive I use is SCAPE liquid carbon. I use inert substrate and natural waste produced by fish\shrimp and snails along with a T5 2x39watt unit, also running a Dophin C-1600 canister filter with bio balls for bio filter. There's a sponge wall by the filter intake which acts as the mechanical filter and feeding wall for shrimps... Just goes to show you don't need all the fancy gadgets for a nice planted tank.
It's a good first attempt, but why starve your plants when there are cheap and easy dosing methods such as PMDD (Poor Man's Dosing Drops). Waste from your livestock alone may not be providing enough iron as it appears that some of your plants are showing early signs of chlororis.
Thanks R.C. I recently started using SCAPE complete as well. I haven't had any issues with plants dying or leaves rotting. I'm still learning as I go along but thus far I'm doing much better as I've done in the past.
Update on my low tech. Since just before last post I've been dosing ferts and C02. I've trimmed the plants a couple times, especially the Ludwigia grows like crazy.