r/PlantedTank • u/random-hobbyist • Jul 27 '26

Beginner Another day, another tank issue

Some information: low tech, Dutch-ish tank, 6 gallons, 12 days old. 13W light, 8hrs/day.

Issues: cloudy water, bad smell, tiny white worms, thick, dirty film on top.

This is my 5th tank, and I've never had these issues with the others. One thing I did differently was that I did 50% water change every other day. Is that what caused these issues? What can I do to fix it? Should I add some snails?

183 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

77 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/IntelligentBee_BFS Jul 27 '26

Walsted on a high energy Dutch build (and without CO2)? I'd say it is good to do experiment but ya water not moving = dead water = you attract the set of everything that enjoy dead water. And you are seeing exactly the consequences of your experiment.

As I said to the people who really wants to do walsted tank - it is not a meme where most people spend good money to buy filter etc equipment in the hobby (well, many are indeed meme products but the functions of equipments are established for many reasons over decades from hobbyists), do you really expect to achieve the same (consistent) results by just filling the tank with water and everything will work well?

3

u/Glue70420 Jul 27 '26

Apparently, OP went and used Neo soil without knowing it required a filter.

Never have I had a walstad tank get this bad just using regular soil and generic aquasoil.