# 9 Month Walstad Tank Progress



## Siberian (Jan 16, 2011)

So, I started out as a complete newbie at this (see my other threads) and I'm up to 9 months without the tank completely collapsing on me. 

I have lost some fish along the way.  Worst one being my Paradise Fish who I quite simply accidentally cooked this summer. He's a cold water fish and I think the tank hit 90+ degrees one day in the summer while I was away. It was a combination of hot summer weather and my basement being semi-flooded, so I was actually running the heat a bit to dry it out, which in combination with the outdoor temperatures that weekend I'm pretty sure got the tank well out of the normal range. When I got home he was dead. I was so focused on the water issues in my basement I forgot to think about the fish. Oops. 

I also lost all 6 of my green tiger barbs to some kind of disease that only seemed to affect them, one by one.

The only other odd thing I've noticed is that over summer most of my Egeria Najas (well, all except some small bits in another tank) which used to grow like crazy at first has died off. I'm not sure I really miss it though.

Outside of that things have gone fairly well.

Anyway, over 9 months we've gone from this:










To this (3 months):










To this (9 months):










I'm pretty happy with it. Outside of a few significant water changes during an ich outbreak I've done nothing but top off the tank once a week due to evaporation. For filtering I'm down to just some very coarse filters + lava rocks in the canister. The fine filter I had was clogging more often then I felt like cleaning it so I just removed it. Oddly enough when I did that I stopped having 'scum' on the surface of the tank. Wierd!


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The tank looks really good, and thanks for the progress photos.

I think you did exactly the right thing with your filter media. Filters are best used to circulate the water and act as back-up biofiltration to stabilize the tank and safe-guard against accidents. This is especially true on a heavily planted and well established tank. I use nothing but lava rock in my filters, with a coarse sponge over the intake to keep baby shrimp and fish from being trapped. I clean the sponge when the flow from the filter slows, but the lava rock stays clean and unclogged for many months.


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