u/dandeliontree1

I got my first troupe of dwarf rasboras and I love them! I thought they would be shy but they are ALL over the water column. They're so fun to watch.

When I started my tank I seeded it with some copepods, they seem to enjoy hunting them. I wanted to get some daphnea as well so got some pond water and mud in a separate jar weeks ago to culture some but there are for sure predators in that jar because the daphnea population seems to be going down and not up. Maybe ostrocods? I'm probably overthinking this but would love a thriving microfauna population as well for food/ breaking down detrius. Are there any I should avoid adding besides the obvious leeches and planaria? What have you found easy to culture separately for food as I may do this as well?

Does anyone know what this plant is? I got it with some shrimp and want to plant it in the substrate as I have too many floaters already. Google images says water sprite but want to check with others.

I've shared a pic before but doing it again for planting.

Tank up for around 6 weeks, home to snails and 10 cherry shrimp for now. They seem happy and plants are growing. I'm considering adding some borora rasboras. Also considering getting a HOB or sponge filter for if I do need one but I have a few questions.

What are the drawbacks, if any, to adding a filter to a walstad tank? I read somewhere about it clearing away too many if the nitrates so the plants don't get enough fertilizer, is that a thing?

Does anyone use a filter part time or occasionally?

How do I know when I need to use it? What I'm I looking for to see that there's an imbalance somewhere and would be improved by filter use? Or is it just water testing based?

If you could start your tank/s over again? It would be interesting to see what you've learned and how you would change now.

I'm still pretty new but already I'd have used darker sand (but I was saving money and it started as a plant experiment). It's going a bit green already.

I'd buy less floaters knowing now how fast they reproduce!! I could probably have started out with one and have whole tanks full by now but I got three different kinds.

I still don't know how I'm feeling about the ramshorns I added. I love watching them and I know they're doing well keeping everything clean but people are not kidding about reproduction rate. And maybe I'm overfeeding but I have shrimp/ baby shrimp and I want to make sure they have enough food with the competing snails, as well as feeding enough so the plants get at least a bit of fertiliser too. It seems like a tough balance to get right. I'm manually removing some already. On the other hand, I've yet to see a baby MTS which everyone warns about. I'm sure my reckoning will come though.