How it's going vs how it started early May.
19l Aquael cube with one Nerite, one Amano, a colony of red cherry shrimp that started with six and has since exploded to the point where I've had to sell a handful, and three gay Endlers to deal with the seed shrimp invasion.
Hi friends!!! I’m looking to start a 40 gal breeder community tank with the walstad method, however I’m confused on which type and brand of soil to get. All I hear is “organic top soil” not “this kind of organic top soil worked well for me!” So what kinds of soil have yall used? What kind of sand did you cap it with?
Day 60 numbers
Ph 7.4
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Kh 200 ppm
Gh 400 ppm
Tds 430 ppm
Light is 6 hours a day
Snails are doing great (1 nerite and bladder snails)
Shrimp (cherry) I added 5 and seem to have 2 left. 1 is easily to find and grazing
Plants are mixed results. Crypts are growing, Amazon sword is good, but many stem plants in the corner rot at the base, snails eat the stem and it's floating
I'm unsure at this point what to do. I hardly do water changes, just top off with distilled water.
Should I do water changes to knock down the gh, kh or what is best here?
Hello, so I set my first Walstad up recently but I’m concerned my sand cap is too thick. The grain size is .5mm-1mm.
I am noticing some trapped gas which I am releasing with my extra long tweezers (it doesn’t smell, tank is 3 weeks old)
Any advice for a newcomer?
UPDATE
Alright so update for anyone that’s interested:
I fixed the cap thickness.
So, there’s no livestock in here at the moment so even if I f*ck it up I figured I can’t kill anything so what’s the harm?
Anyway, the original sand cap was 1.5inches give or take and after emptying the tank, removing all plants and wood I have managed to reduce the cap all over the tank to 0.8inches give or take.
Thanks to everyone for the advice they gave it was very much appreciated.
Wondering if anyone could help me identify the types of moss each of these are? I was given some free moss clippings but I don’t know what kinds they are. Thank you.
I can't even post a pic because it's so awful. My tank is cloudy/ dirty since recently adding cories. It's sand capped dirt. I have removed/ siphoned up and replaced so much water you'd think it would make a difference but it's exactly the same, for a week now.
I know part of the problem is bacterial bloom and part of it is cories churning up waste, but I can't even see in the tank to clean it properly. I think all my fish are still alive, they seem to be coping ok and water params seem stable but it's such a mess I don't know what to do. I'm trying to add more sand to cap randomly but I can't see to know if I'm doing a good job. I don't think it's breached the soil layer but is all of this possible with mulm only? I do have a small HOB filter which obviously isn't enough for this mess. I know it's only a matter of time until the plants start dying as they must not be getting enough light. I've been feeding pretty sparingly and the bloom isn't dying down. I know adding fresh water could be contributing but I don't see a way past doing that as the brown stuff needs removing.
I have dwarf rasboras as well, shrimp, ramshorns MTS cleaners. Heavily planted (hopefully still)
Beyond fixing this immediate problem, can walstad people not have cories (Besides pygmy)? From what I've read having a mulm layer is good for the plants/ tank ecosystem but it seems I can't have that if it's just being stirred up all the time.
I have a strong bubbler so oxygen is not a problem.
I am not sure if I should add more fish or snails, or if I should leave it as-is.
I've had this 20 gallon long tank going since April. Substrate is EB Stone organic indoor potting soil capped with pool filter sand. I have a 8" sponge filter in the left back corner with a weak air pump (piezoelectric).
Stem plants are mostly Limnophila sessiflora, Pogostemon stellatus 'Octopus', and Rotala sp. Floating plants are 2 kinds of duckweed, Salvinia minima, and Pistia stratiotes.
All I have in there for livestock is my betta who seems super happy, one big ramshorn snail, a bunch of bladder snails, and about 12 neocaridina shrimps.
And also I know I don't have a lid, so I keep the water about 3 inches down from the top and have a pretty solid cover of floaters to prevent jump accidents (the 3rd photo is right after thinning out the duckweed).
Hi, I’m considering my first walstad style tank … probably somewhere between 40 and 60 litres.
I’m not new to the hobby I have 5 tanks already but they are all more aquascape style.
Any fish species ( that would fit in a tank that size ) that you wouldn’t recommend or would be an absolute no no and the reasons why ? ( that’s fish that wouldn’t work in the walstad method not fish that just wouldn’t fit in the tank size )
Thanks… I have a space for another tank and am trying to decide if to try something new…
The image on the left is my 15 month old 2.5g walstad tank. The other image is the same tank rescaped.
Plants:
Alternanthera Reinickii
Anubias Nana Petite
Anubias Minima
Bacopa Caroliniana
Bucephalandra Bukit Betung
Bucephalandra Lamandau Purple Mini
Crypt Wendtii
Lobelia Cardinalis
Pearlweed
Rotala Indica Bonsai
I loved the jungle-like appearance of the original build, but the plant positioning was not ideal; plants that needed light weren't getting much, the epiphytes were directly under the light source which led to photo damage on the leaves, and I had placed the crypt on the back, which got buried under all the pearlweed.
So, I did a massive trim and introduced an assassin snail to curb my bladder snail population (there were 30+). The assassin snail ate every single bladder snail in a week! And with a fraction of the poop now being produced, the bacteria balance went out of whack. According to Google, I had a major ammonia spike, which killed the assassin snail and made the water cloudy. I tried for weeks to get the tank to stabilize but water conditions didn't seem to change, and the plants were struggling too. I also swapped out my 5W LED lamp with a 10W full spectrum light during this time and the added intensity caused a severe algae bloom 😭 I was devastated.
So, I decided to restart the tank with fresh soil, sand and a bogwood I'd been soaking for months. I'm mad at myself but messing with the delicate balance of such a tiny ecosystem, but I'm also looking forward to the new build looking even better! Especially now that all the plants are in their correct spots. Can't wait to post an update in a few months!
I’m trying to do a tank with potted plants… I was setting it up and it seemed to be going well but I bumped one of my pots when I was putting water in and all the sand came out. Garden soil went everywhere 😭 very high clay content too.
I’m a beginner… any advice? I’d like to put some shrimp in here eventually (5gallons) and I feel like every time I go to catch some (which is why I tried to go with moveable pots) the water will get like this. I don’t think they will like that. I don’t mind if it looks bad as long as it’s healthy.
If it helps the plants are frogbit, Java fern, Java moss and hornwort. From what I understand they are ok with higher turbity but I am worried they will not be able to absorb enough light if I leave it to settle.
This was supposed to be relaxing (lol).
I should not have put this tank on such a high ass bookshelf.
My tank is 9 months old and for the first 3 months the tank looked amazing! Lush plants clear water. I was truly impressed.
Now it's gone to shit and I hate it. I'm cleaning it every week because the particulates have made their way up though the sand and gravel and my tank is ways cloudy.
Wondering if a high powered canister filter would be better or should I just pull the fish out and redo it with just gravel and gravel fertiliser.
Hi, I have a 3 liter bowl for snails and low requirement plants, it has no filter. And was wondering if adding a CO2 diffuser (to get fine bubbles) but pumping just air through it would have any effect on plant health or if it would be better to just add an airstone. Thanks for your opinions
Edit: The point being favoring gas exchange and air harnessing by the plants, I would like to know which of the two would be better for the tank overall
20 gal long,
I hear pea gravel works just as well if not better then coarse sand, (some forum posts and youtube videos) obviously i want the best i can get, and some fun texture variation.
So i was thinking soil then pea gravel and sand not exactly mixed but placed together, unless mixing is fine? not sure exactly how much aquascaping i can do in a tank like this.
My concern is anything they might put in the gravel or sand as i am not familiar.
I'm more worried about finding the right soil, i see scotts premium topsoil mentioned a lot, but it says it adds sphagnum moss and peat and i thought those were a no go.
Using Miracle gro organic outdoor potting mix feels iffy, using miracle grow anything really, and i read to go for topsoil rather then potting.
I'm conflicted so i figured i'd ask the experts here... all products listed below as images
Thanks in advanced for your time.
I recently redid my tank (ladden 60p/16 gal) and was wondering if I should remove the left side hardscape and only keep the right side or keep it as is? If I remove it, it would give me more rooms for the plants to spread out.
Tank is less than two weeks old at this point.