r/walstad

This is my 14L Walstad tank, currently day 10 and I want to introduce some neo cherries in the future. Honestly not sure if I have enough greenery but maybe the brains trust can help with a couple curious questions.

Setup:

Plants include Rotalas, three Anubia Nana Petites, frogbit and some Christmas moss, which I glued to the wood, rock and the little driftwood (tree) up the back. I got the best things I could find on the day. Not much colour there but I hope that makes my cherries pop when I get them.

Boiled the shrimpwood, driftwood and the rock.

Used Garden Basics All Purpose Organic Potting Mix under my gravel.

The plants are growing nicely, rotalas have gained an inch and the frogbit is out of control, it's legs grow 3-4 inches a day and new leaves every day.

Light is on 9-12, 14-17

I am questioning my water balance.
Where I live my water is as soft as marshmallows, about 0.6KH and 2 GH. My pH is about 6 I think (lowest I can measure) and I added about 10g small pieces of crushed coral a couple days ago and 0.9g Epsom salts to add some hardness. Coral has no effect yet and pH remains crashed. KH is now 0.33 and GH was 4 thanks to the Epsom salts. My ammonia was 0.15ppm a few days ago but haven't measured that again today.

Mostly I have been concerned about the KH as it didn't shift with the coral so today crushed up about 1.5g into powder and added that to dissolve fast.

Am I just trying to hurry and need to chill out?

Any feedback or advice is welcome!

I’ve gone through 3 different bulbs already, trying to find the right one. I’ve decided to use the Philips par38 smart wi-fi led light now, but in these photos, it’s dimmed to 50% brightness. My rooted plants are looking great and growing well, but my floaters look bleak. I’m thinking of removing the red root floaters and having only frogbit, but the frogbit seems to be growing out with some brown streaks on them? Is the lighting still too bright, or not bright enough? They’re also on a siesta schedule.

I have one Nerite snail, neocaridina shrimp, a few of least kilifish. The fish do a good job of keeping the ostracod population in check. Parameters are okay, no nitrites, no ammonia, 7.4PH, GH/KH are in appropriate levels too. Nitrates fluctuate from 10ppm to 20ppm but I haven’t had it gone higher. I usually do a tiny water change otherwise, to not stress the shrimp out. My pothos was growing super fast so I actually had to trim and propagate it haha.

I just saw this in my aquarium, does anyone know what it is?