# 5 Gallon Full - Walstad Method



## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

I have participated in the forum for a couple of months and it's been great, so I thought I'd finally start a thread for my 5 gallon tank. It's my first tank, and I'm following the Walstad method for the most part – no filter, fertilizer, or pumps – just a soil substrate with a gravel cap, a heater, and a 13W CLF light.

It's been set up for almost 5 months, so I'll spare everyone the details of it's evolution. Right now all I'm doing is feeding pellets to my Betta once a day, and a small amount of spinach to my snails once a week. And I change the water more often than is recommended for a Walstad set-up, doing about a 50% water change every 3 weeks. This is because I have noticed that as the water evaporates my pH increases quite a bit (from the tap it's already 8 ) and I'm worried that if I just do top-ups with tap water I'll get some serious calcium and carbonate accumulation. I don't have hardness test kits yet, but I have read that my water has 12-16 dGH.

The attached picture is more or less as things currently stand. I'll be adding some rotala rotifundolia and frogbit tonight, so I'll share more pictures once things settle 🙂


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Nice home for a Betta!

I think you could use more rooted plant biomass in your tank (e.g., Vallisneria spiralis. Sagittaria subulata, or more Cryptocoryne). 

And with a 5 gal tank, you could easily top off with R.O. water purchased from any grocery store. 

However, if you and your Betta are happy with the tank, I'd leave well enough alone.


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

Thanks dwalstad, I was concerned by my lack of strongly rooted plants too. I'm hoping the crypt undulata in the right can do a lot of the work as far as oxygenating the substrate goes, but I'd like to get some vallisneria spiralis too, if I can find some locally. 

A small undulata came off the main mass the other day and I planted it behind the driftwood. I'm excited to see how it grows in 😄

You're right, I could start topping off with a gallon jug of distilled water from the grocery store – it would probably last quite a while! I may try this.

The picture is the little baby crypt behind my driftwood.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

All bettas should be so fortunate to have a home like this.


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

Michael said:


> All bettas should be so fortunate to have a home like this.


Thanks Michael! I have valued humane pet keeping ever since my days breeding crested geckos.

Another quick update: I added the rotala and it brought the scape together and achieved the look I was hoping for. Now my frogbit just needs to get some big roots and things will be perfect.

I moved the heater to make room for the rotala and had to put the end of it into the bottom of a small pop bottle because the only heater with an adjustable thermostat available at the LFS was quite large and doesn't fit vertically otherwise. My Betta likes to swim down in there now, but she seems to know what she's doing around the heater and hasn't hurt herself yet. There's lots of room to swim in and out, and the heater doesn't touch the plastic at all.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate any feedback you might have &#128578;


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Very pretty tank. It was nice to see that baby Crypt. Good sign!

Is that hornwort (_Ceratophyllum demersum_) on the left side of tank? If so, you could gradually replace it with a rooted plant (Rotala, Bacopa or Vallisneria). (Hornwort is not a rooted plant.)

However, this is not a burning issue. Hornwort is a great plant and your tank looks like it's coming along very nicely!


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

dwalstad said:


> Very pretty tank. It was nice to see that baby Crypt. Good sign!
> 
> Is that hornwort (_Ceratophyllum demersum_) on the left side of tank? If so, you could gradually replace it with a rooted plant (Rotala, Bacopa or Vallisneria). (Hornwort is not a rooted plant.)
> 
> However, this is not a burning issue. Hornwort is a great plant and your tank looks like it's coming along very nicely!


Thank you dwalstad, I'm so happy with it. I think I got quite lucky; I had one small encounter with BGA but other than that it's been smooth sailing.

I agree with you regarding replacing the big stand of hornwort, I was actually pretty disappointed when I found out it is actually a floating plant, I like the idea of trying to keep things living how they do naturally, but for now it's serving a purpose, and I don't want it blocking lots of light by making it a floater.

I originally thought I was getting H2S bubbles, but they don't have a rotten egg smell. They have more of a sharp almost acidic smell to them. Anyone know what that is?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Probably CO2.


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

dwalstad said:


> Probably CO2.


Thanks again dwalstad. I'm sad I disengaged from the planted tank conversation here at APC, but the end of my degree put the pressure on, big time.

There's quite a bit to give updates on. I have almost stopped using hornwort because of the advice to put more roots into the substrate, so the big clump of hornwort is now mostly hygrophila polysperma.

I have another question. The rotala I put in ended up having wild ramshorns (at least I've heard of them being called wilds, they're very small and their shell is more disk shaped than larger species of ramshorns snail), and I'm having problems with something eating healthy leaves. I know there are still a few brown ramshorns that are doing it, but could these little wild ramshorns be eating plants too?


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## aryo.panji (May 16, 2017)

Reediculous_nanotank said:


> I have another question. The rotala I put in ended up having wild ramshorns (at least I've heard of them being called wilds, they're very small and their shell is more disk shaped than larger species of ramshorns snail), and I'm having problems with something eating healthy leaves. I know there are still a few brown ramshorns that are doing it, but could these little wild ramshorns be eating plants too?


In my tank, the snails only eats plants that are withered, if the plants are healthy they don't eat it.
I guess they can tell the differences, and that's a good thing, because the growth in NPT is so slow, i think plants withers slowly also. And the snails take care of it.


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

aryo.panji said:


> In my tank, the snails only eats plants that are withered, if the plants are healthy they don't eat it.
> I guess they can tell the differences, and that's a good thing, because the growth in NPT is so slow, i think plants withers slowly also. And the snails take care of it.


Yes, sadly all of my plants are showing signs of nutrient deficiency in one form or another, and the snails are eating the least healthy leaves on all of them. It goes against the method a bit, but because of the snail problem I am going to start dosing Tropica's all in one fertilizer (the green one) and hope that this resolves the issue.

I have hardy plants, but I think the tank is suffering from a relatively low bio-load as far as Walstad tanks are concerned, and a soil substrate that doesn't have compost. I guess if you don't follow the method from the beginning then modifications will probably be needed down the road as well.

Thanks for the input! I love having snails, and right now they're helping me see that my tank is out of balance.


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

PS: because of the fertilizer I am also going to start doing weekly water changes.


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## aryo.panji (May 16, 2017)

Reediculous_nanotank said:


> PS: because of the fertilizer I am also going to start doing weekly water changes.


IMHO what if the fertilizer dosing turn down a little bit, so the tank can balance on its own instead of doing weekly water changes.


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## Reediculous_nanotank (Jan 12, 2019)

aryo.panji said:


> IMHO what if the fertilizer dosing turn down a little bit, so the tank can balance on its own instead of doing weekly water changes.


I hadn't considered doing that, but it is a pretty attractive idea. I'm just not sure if I'll be able to achieve consistent parameters with the way my tap water is. Without water changes my tank water is constantly buffering down from the 7.5-8 pH tap water that I have, so when I do eventually decide to do an infrequent water change it has a big pH swing back to alkaline. If I do top ups with distilled water it continues to buffer down. If I get a GH test kit then I might consider top ups with my hard tap water.

Fertilizing seems to make it even more logical to just do water changes, but I'd love all the advice that I can get. Any other ideas on how I can promote stable tank water parameters, given the difference in parameters between my tap water and my tank water?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Since you are experimenting, I would just add a small amount of fertilizer and see if that helps. There's no reason to do water changes; just add less fertilizer. 

I also think that trying to maintain an ideal pH is a lost cause. Instead, select and maintain plant species that do well in your tank, particularly those that can use bicarbonates. You seem to have some of them already. With them, pH doesn't matter that much.


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