Nano Walstad tank startup

[sciencefiction]

I thought I'll just open a journal for my not so well aquascaped Diana Walstad method tank.
It used to house a betta but he died during the heatwave here, the tank reached 32C and the betta didn't do well for some reason. So I took the chance to rescape it. It used to be a low tech tank just with plain sand. Light is the very old 11W one that came with the tank but it gets natural sunlight too. Here is the latest picture before I torn down the tank:

So I emptied the tank, binned all the hydrophila and rescaped it. The tank is just 10 days old. Details and results below:

Tank size-28L

Substrate consists of:
Soil-B&Q Verve food and vegetable planter(My partner got that for his veg so I just risked it)
Mulm-had collected mulm from cleaning the filters on my other tanks, mixed with the soil.
Red earhenware clay-mixed the soil with about 10% clay
Cap-white sand that was already used in the same tank.

Flora-cuttings from another tank:
mexican oak leaf
ludwiga palustrus x repens
anubias nana(was always in this tank)
echinodorus(identified as helanthium or latifolius)
hydrocolyte tripartita
bacopa australis

Pictures on day 1 after planting:

In another couple of days:

Then another couple of days:

Trimmed it once after the above picture and now it's like this as of yesterday:

It has no inhabitants still besides some micro ramshorns(not sure about scientific name) and 2-3 MTS snails. I am still not sure what I'll put in there fish wise, needs to be something very small or just another betta.

 

[Michael W]

I'd go with a betta or shrimp. I have the same tank and I plan to stock a Betta this Saturday from Tyne Valley Aquatics providing they have some (fingers crossed).

 

[sciencefiction]

Thanks Michael. I already have shrimp in 3 tanks so it gets a bit boring. And I am not keen on another betta as it will remind me of the previous one. I am thinking to get axelrod rasboras.

 

[NanoJames]

That's a really nice tank mate, I like it how there's no strict positions of plants like in some of Amano and the like's tanks. More natural! Also, for fish don't cross out micro rasboras. They wouldn't bother any shrimplets that a betta would quickly pick off. Also look at Chili Rasboras! Good luck

 

[sciencefiction]

Cheers James. I like Chili rasboras but can't get them easily here so it depends.

 

[sciencefiction]

And todays picture of the tank. It's left to it's own devices obviously. The reason I opened the journal is to show one have healthy plants with no CO2 or ferts and expensive gadgets.

 

[sciencefiction]

Thanks for the likes lads. Tank is going great apart from the fact that I don't do anything to it. Its out of shape as a result but I'll take a few pictures to update the thread. Plants are thriving.

 

[sciencefiction]

Well, that's it at the moment. A bit boring because I haven't rescaped or done anything to it besides cutting the plants. The picture is horrible because I haven't cleaned the glass since setup and there's a flare from the window.
I'll shape it up a bit when I have time.

 

[roadmaster]

Is handsome affair,but surely the plant's are receiving nutrient's from the soil no ?
I mean you said No CO2 no fertz,but plant's must get nutrient's from somewhere no?
I hear lot's of folk's make the statement no CO2 ,no fertz, but then they describe soil clay mixture,aquasoil,etc for substrate which would both feed the root's as well as leach into water column, or...they proceed to post a picture of said tank with numerous fishes which one must assume are being fed= nutrient's from food/waste from fishes.

 

[sciencefiction]

I would presume they receive nutritients from the soil and it gets replenished with fish food I feed the shrimp with. But I only feed very little. The tank has seen no ferts or CO2 and sadly no water regular water changes due to laziness but it doesn't seem to bother the shrimp.

I have explained in my original post above what the soil layer is mixed with. It's topsoil with a bit of red clay and mulm from my other tank's filters I had collected. There is no aquasoil but I guess the topsoil had some nutritients.

 

[sciencefiction]

Just one more pic a bit clearer I hope. Looking at it now it needs a scrub but the shrimp love that stuff on the glass

 

[EnderUK]

I'll be watching your progress, it's looking good.

This is giving me ideas for my old goldfish death trap which is the same tank. I'm thinking no filter, lots of plants, leaf litter with a betta and cherry shrimp.

 

[sciencefiction]

It works great with a soil substrate. The only problem I've had is that it gets overgrown easily. The plants become like spaghetti tangled all over the place I do have a filter though, for flow and redundancy.
Leaf litter is nice but then the leaves cover the substrate and decrease the planting area. I have a leaf litter tank myself but with emmersed house plants instead and some floaters.

 

[EnderUK]

I decided that I would order a 200l/hr HOB, as you say for the flow and redundancy, I acutally have the u1 in mine as well, but it's far too big imo. Order a cheap pl11w 6500k blub see if it works, if not I'll strip the hood apart and put in a 13w or 18w ballast.

I'll be going dirt with mine as well. I like the over grown jungle look. I'm looking into plants now I like the look of bacopa australis so I'll keep an eye on how your carpet does as well. Funnily enough I'm going to have to change some of my plants of choice cause 3 of them are the same as yours and I promise I wasn't looking at your tank when I was on aqua essential ha.

 

[sciencefiction]

Get what you like. It can never look the same.
Bacopa australis is a very easy grower, it grows floating as well with no problems and it doesn't need good light to grow but it does need one to carpet. I had it carpet in another soil tank I have,which has LEDs. Carpeting can be promoted if you trim the bacopa to the bottom with just a couple of leaves left, then it will send flat runners. I also had glosso carpet in the LED tank which also isn't dosed or has any artificial source of CO2.
The light over this tank is crap, it's several years old and is just 11W and I set it up with soil last year so I don't think it will ever carpet in this tank to be honest. And I think it's due to the light possibly. However, nothing else is different between the two tanks bar the light unit. Both have the same soil setup and good flow.

Good luck with your tank. I am sure you'll be pleased with the easy and consistent results topsoil provides. I've never had to deal with any type of algae and plants just grow. Some may go through a period of adjusting until they adapt depending on the plant.

 

[sciencefiction]

 

[sciencefiction]

I tried to take a picture but I don't seem to be able to get a decent one so a short video below which is also awful. I still haven't cleaned the glass so sorry for the hazy glass.

 

[sciencefiction]

I noticed today some bubbles coming out of a plant, pearling like activity It's pretty cool so I took a short video. I haven't yet done a water change to trigger it(not in the last year anyway ..) Please excuse the ugly pink heater.

 

[sciencefiction]

Bought 3 baby ottos today,the last ones in my local shop, just acclimating them and they'll go into this tank but not permanently. I'll eventually move them to a 5f tank. I hope the poor things make it. They are very small and underfed but I adore ottos. My other 4 I've had for a couple of years are like aeroplanes, very active.

The water they came in has a TDS of 390ppm and they are now going into a TDS of 200ppm so hopefully I won't shock them much.

 

[sciencefiction]

The ottos seem to have settled well from what I can tell. They are like butterflies inside the tank this moment cleaning up everything. They haven't stopped munching on stuff so I hope I'll see fat bellies soon