Tobias

In my experience it is mostly an algae treatment that people use as a fertiliser. It will not get you high tech growth and it is not needed for low tech. If you are choosing between the two properly, choosing one and doing it well beats a permanent middle.

The maturity point is the one people miss. A low tech tank at eighteen months looks like nothing a high tech tank looks like at three, and that is not about growth rate, it is about the tank being left alone long enough to settle into itself.

Everything is slightly overgrown, the hardscape has softened, there is a bit of algae in places that do not matter. That is what people are actually looking at in the photos they like.