# My First El Natural



## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

So here is my first attempt at El Natural. I am VERY happy with the results and want to thank Dataguru because I got the info on the process from her post on her betta tank (but did wing it a little.) Also, I have read Diana Walstead's book about three thousand times so thank you to her also.

First I got my shovel and dug up some soil from my veggie garden. I would classify it as either a Sandy Loam or a true Loam. Then I hand picked out as much as the larger organic material as possible. I then dumped about an inch of it in my 10 gallon and then filled the tank up to the top with water and swished it all around with my hand. I then siphoned off all the water I could and repeated the process. I did this to remove more of the organic matter. Then I planted and topped off with gravel. Then I carefully filled the tank with water, less than 2 hours later the water clear so I added my fish. I must admit to cheating a little because I added one capful of Excell on Day 2 but haven't added anything other than fish food since. I have a filter in the tank but turned it off today because my platty gave birth, I will probably take the filter out if things continue to go well.

The gravel I used is technically too coarse but I was determined to only use free/on hand materials. All the plants were harvested from my 55 gallon and the wood is from a near by stream. The tank gets some southern exposure and the plants pearl when the sun is hitting them.

Here are some pics:

Starting:


Filling:


Finished:


Things look even better now two weeks later and I will post an updated picture ASP.


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## graedog (Jul 10, 2004)

*Cool*

Hi Trees

its no good when no one views.
I dont know much about the natural tanks and no one i know does it here in Australia ( oops sorry miss fishy)

I will check back when you get a bit more growth and post another pic.

All the best
Graeme


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

*An updated pic*

Here are some pics of the tank that I took today. I really need to go out at night and practice some more with my new camera. You can't tell by looking at these pics but I have actually taken college level photography classes and can actually take decent pictures! lol.

This pic does a pretty good job demonstrating new plant growth. I am going to try to fill in the left front of the tank with more hygrophila difformis. I thought I would like the foreground just planted with the chain sword but I don't. Also I would like to move the crypt because I don't think that it shows up very well against the driftwood. I think it would look much nicer with some hygro behind it.



Here is a kinda neat close up of my pearl gourami


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

Nice tank, you've got some good growth going for just two weeks.
I'd leave the crypt where it is. It should fill out soon enough and balance out that side of the tank nicely.


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

Looks nice  looks very healthy 

I agree with shaadrak... leave the crypt be and itll fill in. It slows them down alot when you pull 'em back up... Now that I've finially settled on where I want mine its put on ALOT of growth. Probably as big as a large coffee can now

Take care 
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

This isn't the most artistic photo but it does a good job of showing the plant growth.





> It should fill out soon enough and balance out that side of the tank nicely.


I'm actually going for a kind of triangle shape with the plants tall on the left side and slopping down towards the right. Its an effect that would probably look better if I had a blue backing on the tank but then I wouldn't get sunlight. The crypt is actually a small variety. The mother plant that I harvested it from in my 55 is about 6 inches tall. It didn't seem to mind the move to the 10 gallon but maybe I can just coax some Hygro behind it to make it pop more. Thank you for the nice comments I think the tank is moving along very well and am now wondering why I didn't use soil in my 55. It's hard to take the plunge!


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## joemomma (Apr 7, 2006)

Very Nice!


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## TAM (Aug 21, 2005)

Trees,

Your tank looks great. Keep the pictures coming, and maybe I'll get up the nerve to try El Natural too.

TAM


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Nice tank, it is really filling in well and I like the aquascaping. I think its cool your gourami are so photogenic and they seem to be posing for the camera. Or maybe they are just begging for food because they see you.  

I know it was hard for me to try a soil layer the first time, now it feels like the only way to go!

Keep the pictures coming please, it will be neat to see how the effect changes as the foreground fills out.


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

"....... I know it was hard for me to try a soil layer the first time, now ...."

I sort of felt the same way when I first read about the method..... this was after reading STACKS of material about high(er) tech methods.... I had really talked myself out of trying to keep plants. When I read about using soils I was like "Surely its not THAT easy!!?!?" ..

......... Yes... it is 


Nice looking tank - cant wait to see how it fills out 

Take Care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## Tentacles (Jun 25, 2006)

I like the chain sword foreground idea. 

You were lucky you could use free soil. The soil at my place is hydrophobic alluvial sand!


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

*New Pics*

So here are some new pics which are already old because it took me so long to post them. I am getting better at taking aquarium pics but there is still room for improvement!

Here is the tank shot:









Here is a picture of some of my plattie babies. They are cute little buggers but soon I'm going to have to find them a new home. I can count 15 so who knows how many more are in there. Also one of the Moms is going to drop again any time now.










And here is a nice shot of my crypt:










So things are moving along pretty well. I added a narrow leaf Java in the left coner and an Anubias on the right in front of the wood. I need to find something green to put in front of my ludwigia (if I identify something wrong let me know! most of my plants were bought from LFS without names so I'm working out of a book to identify them). The ludwigia kind of makes a dark hole the way it is now. I will probably just grab some more lysimachia from my other tank to fill in front of it a little.


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## abnormalsanon (Jun 6, 2006)

Looking good! Those gouramis look very happy


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## Astral (Sep 24, 2004)

Good looking algae free cryp you have there. Please keep on posting more in the future.

I'm waiting (impatiently) for Diana's book as I have an empty 15G that is waiting to be NPT'ed

Frank


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## graedog (Jul 10, 2004)

*Wow*

Wow

thats looking amazingly good Trees
Your water is so clear and plant growth is fantastic

Keep taking great pics
Graeme


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

abnormalsanon said:


> Looking good! Those gouramis look very happy


I hope they aren't too happy! I can't handle any more babies right now lol

And Graedog I finally got my bowl. Well its square so technically I guess I got my cube. Soon I will be following in your nano footsteps. I even have my betta but I have him in my 50 gallon right now so I don't know if I will ever be able to get him out lol. I would like to try some shrimp too so if I can't get him out I'm going to try to find some. I put some in the 10 gallon NPT about 3 weeks ago but I never saw them again so I'm assuming they died and got nibbled up. I don't think that the platties or gouramies would eat them but who knows.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Nice tank. The progress looks very much like what I got in my first soil tank. The plants quickly took off. 

Thanks for the pics. I found photographing tanks very tricky. But it looks like you've mastered that as well.

Good going!


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

*Shrimp!*

My shrimp have reappeared! YAH! So after at least a month of not seeing these guys I had given up hope but they came out of hiding at feeding time and I was able to get a decent pic of one:









How cute is that! lol Can you tell I'm excited?


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

That's great! I'm glad you didn't lose all your shrimp. I know the feeling as I have kuhli loaches that go missing for weeks at a time. It's such a relief when they show up again; and then they hang out like they didn't do a vanishing act. :???: 

I missed your update before so I just wanted to say your tank has filled in beautifully. Nicely done!


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

So I redid the tank in early January because I had to move it anyway. The new substrate cap its black beauty blasting grit over the orignal soil layer. So far things look good. I think I need to upgrade to more light because the plants are looking a little stretched. In its old location it was getting full sun but in the new place it only gets an hour or so of sun.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/gallery/files/6/4/8/7/redo_662356_original.jpg


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