# My 1st NPT Tank



## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

I've been reading the forums a lot and doing small experiments using soil since the beginning of summer and finally got my first NPT tank set up. I still wanted to stay small. It is 10 gallon with an incandescent hood with 2 GE 6500K 15W CFL bulbs on a timer with 4 hour siesta midday. I have an Aquaclear 20 running 2 sponges and the biomedia and a floam prefilter on the intake for a Edge tank. It is heated using an Edge heater (small and black---very sleek and unimposing).

The bottom layer is clay I found in a creek bed which I formed into uniform bars about 1/4 inch thick and 2 inches wide and baked on the grill (mineralized it), crushed up most of it and other I left whole and stacked to add height to the back of the substrate. This I covered with 3/4'' to 1'' of mineralized Iowa prairie topsoil mixed with mineralized clay/silt/fine sand I found on the bottom of a pond with lots of aquatic macrophytes. I wanted to do the soil layer as all natural materials I found in the area.
I capped the soil layer with 3/4'' in front and 1 1/4'' in back with Caribsea ActiveFlora Midnight black plant substrate. It is essentially crushed lava rock. I got a 20 lb bag at Petco for $5 on clearance.

I had $20 store credit at a LFS where I got tons of crypts, some bacopa, 2 little anubias nanas, and watersprite. I am not exactly sure about the species of cryps but I believe I have 8 small Crypt wendtii "Green" maybe C. walkeri plants (3-4'' tall), one bigger potted crypt which I think is a different wendtii variant (green with pink stripes) which turned into about six 5" plants, 2 little reddish brown crypts (maybe a Cryptocoryne beckettii), one that is a total mystery to me and I cannot find anything like it online but could possibly be a dwarf version of Cryptocoryne x willisii "Lucens", and a stem of Cryptocoryne wendtii "Mi Oya Red" I got on ebay for 99 cents.
It is a ton of plants for $17.

Planting went very well with a glade of green crypts on the left and one of green/pink on the right. Bacopa in the back and watersprite in the corners. Weird crypts in the front. I got lucky that all of the plants have been growing submerged in the LFS tanks for months. So far no crypt melt!

I left the center bare because I have an awesome corkscrewing root ball (I think it is mulberry wood) which I found in a friends yard, prepped, screwed inverted to a 1/4 plate of limestone, and I attached the anubias nanas to it and soon to add Xmas moss on the tips. It will look like a creepy twisted tree when it is all done.

Filling the tank went great and there was zero cloudiness from the soil. I checked parameters after filling and it read zeros for all nitrogenous compounds, fine for KH and GH, 8.0 pH. It has been 3 days and all params stayed the same with pH at slightly under 8.

The current tank residents are 4 Malaysian trumpet snails which hitched along with the plants and a single betta.

I was really surprised at how smoothly it all went but then again I did months of research and prep.

I'm kind of hoping the bacopa doesn't make it so I can plant a faster growing rooted stem ---- any suggestions greatly appreciated. I'm looking for something that will eat bicarbonates since I have such hard water. I might also add some Echinodorus tenellus to fill in around the tree and a few small tetras once I know the tank is cycled.

I will add pics as soon as I can.

Questions and comments please!


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Sounds great! Pictures please!

The fastest growing plant in my El Natural is _Hygrophila polysperma_ 'Sunset', and my water is similar to yours, moderately hard and pH 7.8. This plant has grown four times faster than everything in my tank, including _H. difformis _(wisteria).

The fastest growing rooted plants for me are vallisneria and _Helanthium (Echinodorus) angustifolium _'Vesuvius'. I have 3 species of _Cryptocoryne_, and they are all doing really well, if not quite as fast as the others. You can see pictures on the journal forum, "El Natural: Hidden Spring".

--Michael


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

Cool! Thanks Michael!


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

Week 1 Update:
All my plants seem to be doing fine with the exception of a single crypt stem here and there that has melted. The green with pink stripes crpyts are getting kind of rusty looking and the pink is not as vibrant as before. I think it is just adjusting to new water chem and lighting.
My ammonia has risen to about .40 ppm.
No nitrites or nitrates.
pH holding at 7.8
GH went up a little, I'm guessing from the crushed lava rock being submerged for the first time.
I attached my anubias nanas to the driftwood and just got some christmas moss in the mail today that I have yet to attach.
I had my first experience using hydrogen peroxide as an algicide the other day. It was interesting. I started in a bowl first just to see what would happen and then I shot some on the start of hair algae on the crypts and on the fungus that has formed on the driftwood. Cool bubbles
The driftwood is completely covered in a transparent fuzzy fungus. Its kinda neat but the wife thinks it is gross. I don't have any pest snails or shrimps yet so there is nothing to eat it off. 
I'm thinking about getting a different HOB filter. The Aquaclear 20 I have on there is kind of loud. The Aquaclears I had in the past ran totally silent. There is a petshop having a 75% off sale right now before they remodel so I might go buy a couple different little HOB filters and cartridges for like $5 a piece and just see what is quietest.
I do have a Red Sea Mini Power Filter I could use, but would that be enough volume?
I really want to get some hygro or vallisneria for the background because the bacopa isn't doing anything and looks like crap.
I'm really surprised the watersprite isn't growing much but that could be because there wasn't any nutrients until I started overfeeding the betta to produce some ammonia.
I will post pics as soon as I find where the camera went after the recent move.
Anyone have any suggestions on cherry shrimp and plant friendly tankmates?
Thanks


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The fungus on newly submerged driftwood is common, and will probably go away by itself. Snails help.

Some fast growing stem or floating plants will help with that ammonia, even something like hornwort that you plan to take out after the tank stablizes.

Most things I read say that otocinclus are the only 100% shrimp-safe fish. In a heavily planted tank, a colony of shrimp can survive moderate predation--at least I hope so, since that's the situation in my 20 gallon, LOL.

Try taking the cover off the Aquaclear. My 150 rattles with the cover on, but is silent with the cover off.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

My aquaclear still runs loud when the cover is off but a little less so. It sounds like the cover makes it echo. I forgot that the pump on the Aquaclear 20 is still 3 times as powerful as any other brand's filters of the same size so having that strong of a pump on such a small filter just makes it loud. I might try wrapping the pump itself in filter floss to dampen the noise.
I bought another Aquaclear 20 for $4 dollars and tried that but it was actually louder because the impeller blade does not fit tightly on the shaft and makes a rattling noise like there is a piece of sand in it.
I decided not to go with any other filters because essentially they all suck. Aquaclears are the easiest HOB filters to modify and I can play around with media all I want without the hassle of making it the exact same size as a filter cartridge of other filters.
I put some polyfill in a disposable nylon sock (like the have at shoe stores for when you forget to wear socks), and it cleared up the water wonderfully in just a couple hours.
The other night I noticed the tank was looking a little cloudy so I added this Caribsea Bioclear stuff that came with the substrate that is supposed to quickly clarify tank water. Well it made the water even more cloudy so I ran my params and my nitrites went from 0 to .30 ppm! Don't use this crap! Its a trap!
Anyways, the tank is clear now and a dose of Prime took the nitrites off my mind.
I super glued my christmas moss and anubias to my driftwood and its looking good. The fungus that was on the wood died off from drying out while I was gluing the moss on but 2 days was all it took for it to come back. My big old trumpet snail went to town on it tonight and cleaned about half of it off. Once I either get some more snails or shrimp I'm sure they will take care of it.
I'm thinking of doing a little rock scaping because I have a pile of shale plates that are about .25 inches thick and plat as a pancake. I might glue them together in a honeycomb to make a shrimp hotel.


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

Franco said:


> My aquaclear still runs loud when the cover is off but a little less so. It sounds like the cover makes it echo. I forgot that the pump on the Aquaclear 20 is still 3 times as powerful as any other brand's filters of the same size so having that strong of a pump on such a small filter just makes it loud. I might try wrapping the pump itself in filter floss to dampen the noise.
> I bought another Aquaclear 20 for $4 dollars and tried that but it was actually louder because the impeller blade does not fit tightly on the shaft and makes a rattling noise like there is a piece of sand in it.
> I decided not to go with any other filters because essentially they all suck. Aquaclears are the easiest HOB filters to modify and I can play around with media all I want without the hassle of making it the exact same size as a filter cartridge of other filters.
> I put some polyfill in a disposable nylon sock (like the have at shoe stores for when you forget to wear socks), and it cleared up the water wonderfully in just a couple hours.
> ...


nice with the tank, just letting you know that the aquaclear will quiet up, just takes a few months. My aquaclear 20 is litterally silent, not even kidding, but it did take a few months. My 110 is also fairly quiet but it has a few more months to run before it shuts up


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

I wrapped polyfill around the whole filter and secured it with rubber bands. It is unsightly but at least it is quiet now.

I'm trying to find a fast growing plant to help out but can't find anything locally at the moment except for hornwort and anacharis. Those are both fine plants but I want something that roots and will be a permanent addition to the tank.

I got some ludwigia repens but it really isn't growing yet so we'll see how that turns out.

I'm thinking about adding an ocelot sword to put in front of the filter intake tube but I am afraid it might get a little too big. I was also considering pygmy chain sword to fill in some space throughout the tank but I feel I should really focus on fast growing, nitrogen hogging plants. 

I'm also not noticing any gas buildup whatsoever in the soil which seems odd to me from my prior experiments with soils in nano tanks. It is possible that my soil is just sooo mineralized that there isn't any heavy decomposition going on yet, but what I am afraid of is that I used too much gravel for the cap.
The cap is crushed lava rock and appears to let a lot of water get to the soil but I haven't witnessed anything escaping the cap yet.
I also haven't noticed any good growth from any of my crypts, mostly just a leaf melting here or there so I'm wondering if they are not rooting in the soil.

I think with the oto and the ghost shrimp added, my diatom and moldy wood problems are on the decline.

They haven't touched the hair algae yet so I blasted it with some Hydrogen peroxide and did a 50% water change a couple hours later. It looked as if it had no immediate effect but turned red the next day.

I would really like to find some good floating plants but can't find anything except duckweed and watersprite (which isn't growing well in the tank anyways).


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

if you want a fast grower, i'd get water wisteria/wisteria. It grows about 2 inches a week under decent light and no co2 in my 55. You can actually look at my journal to see the growth. water sprite should have become a weed. are you dosing ferts? Also, an airpump might help if your not using co2, since it takes co2 from the atmosphere and mixes it with the water. Or if you dont ;like the unsightly bubbles (which i hate), you can add more fish that will produce a bit more co2 for a little boost. That might not be the best idea because the betta, but look around a bit. If all else fails, flourish excel is the way to go. I dose daily on my 55 which has t5ho at 2wpg, and no co2, with only 8 tiger barbs, and im getting 3-4 inches a week from my anacharis. Try it. 

So to recap (since this was kinda long):
Ferts like flourish and flourish iron will help with the crypts and keep everything nice and green. Flourish excel can replace co2, and a small 250 ml container (8 bucks) will last you 5 months to 10 months, depending on if u dose every other day or every day. More fish could be added, or an airpump to raise co2 levels, (but remember, the surface agitation will lower co2 levels if you use a diy or pressureised co2) and get some wisteria. good floating plant is riccia, since it doesnt have roots or rhizomes to attach to things, so no filter clogs (i think) and i think java moss is the other alternative. hope this helps man, im a bit of a newby myself, but i've read up enough, and have kept a decent amount of plants to back most of this info up. hope your tank does better.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

I am actually trying to eliminate iron in the water column to reduce/prevent algae. I was dosing API's ferts (K and Fe) but it seems to cause algal growth. Shouldn't the rooted plants get all the iron they need from the substrate?
I might try the wisteria but I can only get it from Petco in the plastic tubes and it is grown emersed.
A little bottle of excel around here retails for $20 but I may try it if I can find it online for cheaper.


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

sounds rough man :/
dont fret though, if the substrate is leaching out iron supplements (which is bad), that means your cap might not be very good. I like sand because its really tight grained when used as substrate. So you should probably look for a better cap. yes, plants absorb iron waaaay better through their roots, but that depends on the plant. Something like wisteria (which for me is planted in neutral, crap sand) has a pretty strong root system, mine has grown roots about 2-3 inches long after 8 days, but also likes to absorb through the water column, hence the large surface area of the leaves. algae can be contained by dosing higher amounts of excel too. It acts as an algaecide (however you write that) as well, and apparently works very well. I got mine off ebay for like, 11 bucks. Could have bought the 500ml for just 3 more bucks, but didnt see it 

btw, i just noticed you have crypts mostly, and yes they should be feeding almost entirely off the substrate. I dont know why their having trouble. best choice to suck nutrients out of the water is water sprite, anacharis, wisteria, and i think rotala indica or rotundifolia. anacharis having to be the fastest growing, and if planted densly enough, the best looking. with wisteria being just as good, and pretty good looking, i just like the twisted jungley look of the anacharis.

i tend to repeat or blab on, so sorry


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## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

I agree with the water wisteria, it is a good planted tank, but when the leaves fall off, you can let them float to the surface and they will sprout roots and act as floating plants. its pretty sweet. Depending on where you live, water hyacinth is a fantastic water coloum feeder, it develops a massive thick grey root system that hangs in the water, while leaves are emersed draw co2 from the air, and are held up by spongy airfilled bulbs. be careful though, it is illigal in some states. also, mine may or may not be starving my other floating plants, idk how conferm it though lol.
As for tankmates, i have endlers live bearers with my cherrys. no matter what fish you keep with the cherrys, some baby shrimp will be eaten, shrimplets are at the bottom of the food chain. But endlers will not catch all of them in a well planted tank (add java moss) and will not bother the adults.

if you get endlers, do not get guppys. (they will interbreed and we need to keep the twp fish separate or endlers may go extinct)


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

Maybe I will try some wisteria. If it breaks up and acts as a floater so much the better. I can get water hyacinth here but i don't want to drop my water level 4 inches to accommodate it. I love duckweed for its N sucking powers but it gets blown under the surface and just gives the tank a messy look.
There is plenty of hornwort growing wild around here but in my experience it drops all of its leaves because of the change in lighting and makes a mess.
I love anacharis/elodea. It is actually my favorite aquatic plant but I wasn't going to use it in this tank because it does just make a twisted mess and never seems to want to stay in the substrate. I've never actually had it root into the substrate before. 
The cap seems to be really good at keeping the soil down but maybe it is leaching iron. It was mineralized over months and with the little clay I added, I could see that the iron was oxidized. Shouldn't it stay oxidized in the substrate if it was oxidized to begin with?
I have not been able to find any iron test kits so I have no idea if there is actually iron in the water column.
The crypts are putting out new small leaves and some of the old large leaves are melting but it isn't full blown crypt melt. Out of the 20+ crypt plants in the tank there is maybe one leaf per plant that is melting. I'm guessing it is just breaking in to the new water conditions. I also noticed that the colors are changing in the crypts. The greens are getting brownish pink streaks. Change in light?
I have some java moss just hanging around the bottom in a ball and christmas moss glued to the driftwood which is getting a little brown, might just be adapting to new conditions, too.
Do you think I should add the ocelot sword? I can get a beautiful plant for $5. Would it be a heavy enough feeder if I had it directly under the light?

Thanks for all of your input.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

I might be making it seem like I have more problems than I really am. Out of all of the NPT horror stories I have heard I would say my tank is successful. At least I don't have green water!


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

haha, i think i might get green water algae soon  darn actinic lights


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

Went to Petco on my lunch break today and they didn't really have any plants I wanted so I got some fresh, just off the truck elodea. Its the growing ends, not the middle part like petsmart sells.

I stripped the leaves off the bottom 1.5 inches and pushed them into the substrate. They don't look out of place.

I noticed my betta, oto, and 3 ghost shrimp were swimming a lot (more than normal) around the front of the tank so I took params.

pH 7.8 --- been stable for 2 weeks
Ammonia 0 ppm ----- down completely
Nitrites 1 ppm ---- up from .25 a few days ago
Nitrates 6 ppm ---- up 5 ppm from a few days ago

Could it be that the new nitrites are stressing out the critters?

Diatoms are disappearing and the fungus on the driftwood is gone.

I've never monitored a cycle on an NPT before. Are the params normal? Tank is almost 3 weeks old.

In my previous couple dozen non NPT tanks, cycling has gone quite textbook and I normally would have instant ocean salts (about 1 tspn/gal) to help out the fish but I haven't done that with this tank yet.


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

NPT stands for newly planted tank right? If that is all correct, then nutrients should be fine after 3 weeks. the nitrites might be stressing em out because ottos are sensitive to slight water changes, and the fast movement from them might be stressing the betta, since their not really affected by the nitrites unless their really bad. And the ghost shrimp might just be in like a breeding mood or something because of the water change, or their stressed to, but i've known ghost shrimp too be pretty tolerant. Thing is though is that their are 2 kinds of ghost shrimp that look identical, but one requires slightly brackish while the other is true freshwater, so you may have the brackish water one and the stress might have just gone to them. Their are a multitude of possibilites that might be causing this, but this is all i could think of.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

NPT stands for Natural Planted Tank aka Walstad type tank aka El Natural Method
The water change was a few days ago so I don't it was that that is stressing them. They seem fine today. I will recheck params -- Maybe the nitrites went down.
When I planted the elodea, maybe a little soil squirted up and bothered them. 

Will elodea actually root into the substrate? I've only ever had it grow the tendrils in midwater as far as I know.

I got some duckweed and water meal out of a swamp today on my lunch break so after I clean and inspect it, I will add it to the tank.

I think the ghost shrimp might actually just be swimming around more because they are more comfortable now. What do baby long armed prawns/shrimp look like? You know, the ones that get mixed in with ghost shrimp and then grow to 16 inches long and eat all of your fish and plants?


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

haha, never had long arms mixed with my gs. elodea will root, but just not that well, i had only about 3 of my 15ish stems sprout stems after 11 days


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

I've never seen egeria densa in the wild but I've seen a lot of elodea canadensis and it does not root in the bottom. It grows tendrils like egeria to grab onto other elodea and form the dense mats in lakes and streams. It IS stuck in the bottom but it is just because the seeds or overwintered plants get covered with decaying matter. Pretty much like hornwort or coontail as we call it in the wild here.

I gave my shrimp a good look over and I am pretty sure they are the same ghost shrimp I've always seen in stores except that they have bright red spots on their antennae, tail, and foreclaws. Really cool looking for ghost shrimp.


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

thats interesting...My anacharis have roots in em. Not big, but their definately roots. elodea canadensis is still different, as egeria densis definately forms roots. Its just that some do and some may have tiny ones we can't see. Mine has roots, but only a few stems but i am a million percent sure they are all egeria densa/ anacharis.

and cool about the ghost shrimp, i never liked em that much  Had 5 with 3 with the red spots like yours, but they all died within a month. Terribly short lifespans, they usually only live 1 year too, and most are already a few month when sold. I think i got the fake, brackish species too, because my water perameters are perfect (all zero on readings) and they still eventually died.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

There are at least a couple dozen species of shrimp called ghost shrimp, some of which are brackish. I've had them live over a year before in FW compared to a month in brackish. The trick is to not feed them anything. That way they grow slow and live longer. I think the most common reason they die is that fish pick on them and stress them to death.
This time around, when my betta attacked them upon introduction, the shrimp fought back and he learned his lesson. Now the shrimp act like they rule the roost.


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## popomon (Oct 12, 2010)

haha, thats cool. My betta never messes with my other fish after he got pwned by a femal half his size


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