I definitely spent more time on maintenance on my planted tanks then I do with my current reef. Weekly trimmings were a pain in the butt. This is more of a problem with a high light/co2 planted tank with fast growing plants.If you can maintain a reef tank, you can maintain a planted tank. Once you dial in CO2, nutrients, and light, the only real maintenance is weekly water changes and trimming. Water changes are easy (I find much better results with re-mineralized RO water). You can achieve a full grown in look much faster than a reef tank, which I find satisfying.
the pictures of the tanks are from his shop, and I agree they do look amazing. They also sell them complete with plants, equpiment, and insstallation.Look up Takashi Amano of ADA. His tanks are amazing. I tried emulating the look but didn't up keep it, as they require lots of pruning and attention. Natural look, only 3-4 species of plants...it requires alot of restraint to not add something that takes away from the look.
During COVID, I thought it would be an easy way of having a tank that I didn't need to maintain as much as a reef...boy was I wrong.
I find that less intense light, adequate fertilizing, and more amano shrimp and snails work bestI've tried a very small planted tank in sort of a side-hobby not too focused way, and failed because I couldn't stay ahead of algae. It was a ton of work keeping it off the plants and eventually I just lost the battle. Had a few snails, but maybe not enough.