# Started my first walstad tank!



## Tu13es (Jul 8, 2009)

I'd been considering starting a shrimp tank with my spare 10 gallon tank. Since shrimp are generally considered much less of a load on a tank, I figured I'd use those. I wanted a tank that'd be pretty easy to maintain, and someone mentioned I should set up the tank using Diana Walstad's method, so after some research I found this forum. I already had a spare Aqualclear 20 filter and a light. So, I went and grabbed some of the Miracle Grow Organic soil, some gravel, and a canopy for the tank.

For plants, I've got a chunk of my anubias nana, a green crypt, and various smaller pieces of java fern and java moss. I'll probably buy some more plants to split between my two tanks to help jump start the growth. I also started using a DIY CO2 unit on my main 29gal tank this week. I'll probably make another one for this tank.

There's a ton of silt in the tank at the moment so I'm waiting for that to filter out before I take some pics.


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## Tu13es (Jul 8, 2009)

A few pics:


























Water's still pretty cloudy, working on it with water changes and stuff.

Wee!


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## Veloth (Jun 25, 2008)

Nice looking start. I have never had a El Natural tank but I thought the idea behind one was low light, no co2 tank that was a balance of fish and plants. What type of light do you have?


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## Tu13es (Jul 8, 2009)

The point is, as I understand it, essentially to have enough plants such that they are able to absorb all the fish waste. This cuts down on the amount of needed water changes and keeps the fish with plenty of oxygen and the plants with plenty of CO2. I added the CO2 to help jumpstart the plant growth. I put two light fixtures on the tank as well; I'm not sure what kind the one in the rear is, but the one in the front has two spiral CFLs of different colors (they're all I had!).


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## Mr. Larry (Jun 8, 2009)

I'm wondering if you might not need more Plants. I used a mess of plants in a 3 gal Walstad tank. Have had no problems and the plants are growing like crazy!

Larry


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## Tu13es (Jul 8, 2009)

Yeah, I ordered a bunch of plants yesterday, they should be here by the end of the week. Here's what I have coming:

-Hygrophila difformis
-Ludwigia repens
-Hemianthus micranthemoides
-Najas guadalupensis
-Vallisneria sp
-Myriophyllum mattogrossense
-Cabomba caroliniana
-Ludwigia brevipes
-Rotala macrandra

Wee!


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

I'll help you lead your way to El-natural setup. You have a good start. Here are pointers to be aware off. You may have too much subtrate. You should have about 1 inch of soil layer with about 1 inch of substrate on top. Yours look a little high. You can go up to 1.5 inches of soil and 1 inches of substrate too. El-natural is also low tech setup. So no DIY CO2. Filters for water movements only not for filtering. Some do but I avoid it. Less maintenance. No air pump unlike your picture. It will remove the little CO2 that is in the water...remember no DIY CO2. Start of with lots of plants if you can from the start but since you have shrimps your bio load is minimal so can be overlooked. There's a lot more, but this will be a good start.


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## Tu13es (Jul 8, 2009)

I did about 1.5 inches of soil and about an inch max of gravel. I had a 5lb bag of gravel and used the whole thing. I don't think it's too much since there seem to be some spots I missed a little where the soil is showing through.

I don't have an air pump - that's just the DIY CO2. Is there a reason why I shouldn't use CO2 with this tank?

I don't have any fish at the moment - was planning on shrimp, but I want to get things settled down before I introduce any life to it.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

I'm still learning, so take my advice with a pinch of salt, or maybe a Tablespoon...

The reason for no CO2 (unless you want it of course) is that you will get it from the natural decomp of the organics in your soil (among other things). It should be enough to keep your plants growing and photosynthesizing, which is why no air bubblers are recommended (they de-gas your CO2 from the water column). You DIY CO2 won't hurt anything, it's just not necessary (though your plants will appreciate it). Just make sure you get enough plants in there to use it.

For bioload, most folks get critters in as soon as possible because it's their waste that provides the plants with macro-nutrients. Just be careful of your timing because you mentioned having exposed organics through your gravel, which could overload your ammonia et cetera levels. Maybe some floating plants will help. You may end up fighting algae. That said, I blew soil particles all over the place with my recent planting job and have not had too much of a problem yet except the cloudy water I'm fighting while treating for ich (AHHHHHHHHH!!!!). That's a big pain for such a large aquarium. 

Ideally, you want your gravel/sand/whatever to cover you organic soil by one inch. I hope I haven't provided any erroneous info, but the beauty of this forum is that the folks are well informed and will correct me if I did.


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## Tu13es (Jul 8, 2009)

mudboots said:


> I'm still learning, so take my advice with a pinch of salt, or maybe a Tablespoon...
> 
> The reason for no CO2 (unless you want it of course) is that you will get it from the natural decomp of the organics in your soil (among other things). It should be enough to keep your plants growing and photosynthesizing, which is why no air bubblers are recommended (they de-gas your CO2 from the water column). You DIY CO2 won't hurt anything, it's just not necessary (though your plants will appreciate it). Just make sure you get enough plants in there to use it.
> 
> ...


Aha, okay. I didn't think the CO2 would hurt, and I may end up getting rid of it as well as the media in my filter. But, for now, I want this tank to get growing!

The filter that I put into this tank has been running on my 29gal tank for a few months, so the media in it is nice and mature. Is there anything else I can add to the tank in lieu of fish waste?

Also, is there any reason why I wouldn't want to add a few snails to the tank? I added some to my 29gal tank and they did a great job getting rid of the algae in there.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

When I set up my son's 20 gallon npt I started him off with a dozen ramshorn snails we caught in "The Wild", ooooooh, scary...and fed them as if I were feeding fish just to get some junk decomposing. I later moved a few into the 125 for the same reason. The plants suffered a little at first, but I think it was more due to getting used to the water and not having good light (had less than 1wpg starting off). Everything is going well now. Go ahead and throw as many in there as you can. They're pretty much no cost, and they'll really kick off the system, plus help out in the event of an algal bloom. The sooner you get critters in there the sooner you'll get your nutrient cycle going.

Also, there's a couple pics of the substrate I mentioned in the post just below this one (Setting up 125 El Natural). I think one of them has some of the snails in it.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Ok, it just look like your substrate is a little high. The height starts below the black strip towards the bottom of the tank so your setup looks like 4 inches from my perspective but what you state sounds fine. Usually, fish, snails, plants, shrimp are all placed in the tank in the very beginning. Just don't put the full bio load of a mature tank the first day. Put about half of your eventual bio load and it should be fine and you can enjoy the live creature right away. The reason we don't put DIY CO2 in the tank is because, it will cause the plants to grow faster than the nutrients in the water can supply. Thus require fertilizers and higher lights and eventually high tech. This el-natural setup is a slow process giving the tank time to mature slowly and with little human intervention...ie the perks of this method. Slowly mature means that there is very infrequent water change, less trimming versus high-tech method, hopefully little algae growth. Only daily concern is regular lighting cycle and feeding the fish.


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