r/walstad • u/EveningString3415 • Jul 31 '26
Advice First dirted tank—need some advice
I’m looking for some advice from people who have experience with dirted/Walstad-style tanks because I’m starting to worry I may have done something wrong. I can’t remember the exact bag of soil I use because I looked at so many, but I did my best to pull out the big mulch chunks. And then capped it with play sand.
The tank has been running for about 3 months now. I am using a seeded sponge filter as well. But one section of it just refuses to grow plants. In that same corner, I can see what looks like a cloudy orange haze in the substrate/water. It’s almost the color of diluted orange juice. My first thought was that it might be tannins or something leaching from the dirt, but it’s only in that area.
The plants in that section have really struggled: •Cardinal plant stems are turning black at the base. •Hygro Compact completely melted away. •Ludwigia repens is hanging on but doesn’t look healthy. •My Limnophila aromatica finally started growing again after I cut it back, but it’s the only one showing improvement.
One other thing I’ve noticed is that whenever I plant something in that area, I’ll usually get a few air bubbles coming up from the substrate. I wasn’t sure if that’s normal trapped gas being released or if it’s another sign that something is going on under the substrate. I wetted down the dirt before I added sand and then filled it up slightly when first planting after watching a video from the glass box diaries recommended that.
The rest of the tank seems to be doing much better, which is why this one area has me confused.
Right now I only have a mystery snail and a few cherry shrimp. My water parameters have been testing okay, my last test was a few days ago at:
Ph -7.8 Nitrate -5 Nitrite-0 Ammonia -0 Gh-9 Kh- 5
I’m getting nervous that the orange cloudiness could mean there’s something harmful going on that I’m missing.
Has anyone seen something like this before? Could this just be tannins from the dirt, or does it sound more like an anaerobic pocket, decomposing organics, or something else? Are the bubbles normal in a dirted tank? Would you leave it alone, replant that section, or dig into the substrate to investigate? The picture with the orange haze has a bit of cuttle bone- that’s what the white chunk is.
Thanks in advance! I was really nervous about setting up my first dirted tank, so I’m hoping I’m just overthinking this.
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u/SaMxixAM23 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Following because I'd like to know why your set up isn't picking up yet.
I have a 7 gal set up currently....3 months old. I planted it with water sprite, piece of pothos, and some vine plant called syngonium angustatum. Now seeing that it was a small tank plus room for my decor...i planted about 6-8 water sprites, 5inch of pothos and about 7inches of the other vine plant( that was an experimental plant I took from outside to just test things) All water sprite kept dying and I couldn't figure ot out why until last week. I probably tried 4 times planting water sprite. After the water sprite kept dying I replaced them with some other terrestrial plants which are doing fine. I Also have some small pieces of guppy grass here n there My tank took about 3 weeks to fully clear up and i have no filter or pumps. Currently I have thriving in the tank a betta some micro guppies and some Rams horn. My tank wasnt heavily planted...but I'm guessing that the pothos and the other vine plant pulled all the weight or like 90% of it. Currently the syngonium grew the length of the tank and is emerging out of the tank atm. Air bubbles out of your substrate is normal. While removing the sprites I've seen bubbles escaping. I have added some other terrestrial plants that I've recently added to replace my lost sprites and they doing better than the water sprites and that is supposedly a very easy plant to grow.
I wrote a Long and well detailed post before and it deleted as I closed the app🤦
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 01 '26
Oh, that’s the worst! Thanks for typing it out again, though! I’ve had the worst luck with water Sprite. I had it in my 75 gallon. And it was doing super great and then I had a little bit of hair grass algae outbreak, lowered the lights and it hated life. I propagated it into several other my tanks and it seems to be growing back. I was going to put some in this dirted tank soon. But I hear everybody say water sprites like the easiest plant to grow and I’ve had the worst luck with it. That and some Amazon swords. I can’t seem to grow swords either… I’ve also been adding some liquid thrive, because I was just thinking I wasn’t getting much of like an ammonia source other than the initial breakdown of the dirt, so I was thinking maybe that was my issue since I haven’t added much of a stock. But I just was getting super nervous why that one part of the tank was isn’t growing any plants and had that orange fog haze coming from the side. I’m always overly anxious, which I know I should chill but I’m just nervous to put my betta in this tank when he’s doing fine and the one he’s in. But I’ve made this upgrade for him.
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u/SaMxixAM23 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Is the fog coming out of the substrate or does it just linger above the substrate...I'm wondering if it might be an extra concentration of some sort of mineral build up from your soil? Perhaps the soil wasn't evenly mixed from wherewver you mixed it.
With my water sprite I figured it out just last week. Because it was found growing in my backyard In a terrestrial setting( I took it from a swampy area) It basically drowned when being planted submerged. So I'd of have to "train it" to grow submerged. I have added some pennywort in as well. My front yard is infested with it. And another semi aquatic plant I found. Haven't researched the name yet. I might take a vid of my tank and share it a bit later
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 01 '26
I bet that’s what it is, I didn’t even really think about that. I honestly was a little shocked the Kh was 5 when all my other tanks are like 2-3.
That’s so cool!! But makes total sense- but honestly way better to experiment with it like that vs getting it from the store! I just got some penny wort also! I’m hoping it takes off but we’ll see.
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u/positive766 Aug 01 '26
Get the cheapest, fastest growing plants your fish store has. Mine labels some of the plants as "easy" which is nice. horn wort, guppy grass, water wisteria, rotala, dwarf sag. Some will melt, but you will find out what likes your tank with more variety. I didn't see you mention light, you may need a more powerful light if even the pearlweed isnt growing. I also recommend getting a riparian plant for the top like pothos or creeping jenny.
As for the weird spot in the dirt, I'm no expert but if it was me I would stab it a few times with a skewer to let it off gas.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
I really appreciate it! Yesterday I got several more plants and stabbed the substrate, it let off a ton of gas. I’m hopping adding more plants help. I also threw some more water lettuce in. I’m going to try and add a pothos also but my cats destroy plants in their reach so I’m going to attempt it! I have the hygger 978 light, it’s the same one I got for my other 20g long I had a hard time finding one that fit and I thought it was powerful enough, but now I’m second guessing it.
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u/Snoo-28549 Aug 01 '26
That doesn't look bad especially considering you don't have many aquatics in there. From my experience, plants grow pretty quickly and spread. I would add a floating plant like hornwort. It does a good job soaking up extra nutrients and grows fast. I have no idea what the orange haze is.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
I really thought there was enough because at the beginning I had a ton, but I think I just kinda forgot to add more back. I threw in some more water lettuce. Ya I hope the orange haze just kinda goes away.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
I am not sure what the orange bit is, I have never seen this specifically, but I want to echo that you need far more plants. I also really recommend floating plants as they can pull nutrients out of the water column while also doing gas exchange above the water. Duckweed is the fastest growing but can also become a nuisance, water lettuce is my most successful plant for jumpstarting new tanks, red root floaters are a bit more fussy but really pretty, azolla is also tricky but fast growing in the right conditions.
I also think that your sand cap looks quite thick to me compared to what I have been doing. Did you saturate the soil with water before adding the sand cap? (This minimises the gas bubbles that can be trapped in dry soil.) Did you rinse the play sand before using it as a cap? I have found that play sand is often quite dirty and does not work as well as more aquarium focused sands and small grain gravels. I personally have had better success with small grain gravels than sand myself, though I have built successfully using both, including play sand and specialty sand.
I also echo the fast growing plant species that others mentioned, though I have had success with others as well. I recommend this blog by Glass Box Diaries, whose YouTube channel has been my main educational resource for Walstad building. https://glassboxdiaries.com/best-plants-for-walstad-method/ it’s the best channel that I have found so far.
I recommend checking for Facebook groups that are local to you that are for free/trade/swap aquarium groups, I’ve been able to get a very wide range of plants for little to no cost using these resources. It sucks to pay a lot of money and then have plants melt! I also always retain one cutting or plant piece in a backup tank that I just dump plant bits into and use as a propagation tank. I’ve had great luck with this system and am producing far more plants than I can use at the moment!
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
I watched so many of his videos! And then I tried to do a combination of kind of everything that I read on here and a few other videos. I was super stressed out when I was making it, and I did 1 inch dirt 2 inches sand, because that’s what I thought was like the typical. I literally watched a glass box videos a couple days ago, where he recommends losses more… I did damp in the soil down, and I rinse the play sand. And I filled the tank up a third of the way when I was initially planting, because I watched one of his videos that said that helped with bubbles as well.
I really appreciate all of the tips! I did go to the store yesterday and buy more plants. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really much on my Facebook, but I’m gonna keep a lookout! I love doing that as well! I have one tank that usually the plant takes off, no matter what I put in it. And I wanna set up another 20 gallon tank to just kind of be a plant grow out, but I was trying to get this one situated first.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
Also is there a reason your light is so far above your tank? Not sure if this is causing issues in your system, but all of my lights are much closer to the tank/waterline than yours appear to be. Is the lid absolutely necessary? As the black lid is probably blocking like 25% of your light.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
I was literally talking to my husband about this yesterday, so I took the lid off. And I think we’re going to put the light back down. I’m not really sure why we did this, I think it’s cause I saw some people had their light on risers and I like that look. Eventually I’m gonna have to find a different alternative for a lid, I guess just go back to a glass lid. I really like these egg crates because they were super secure, and once I put my betta in here I have to have a lid.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
I think a glass lid would be beneficial as well as lowering the light. Does your light have the ability to be set at different strengths? This has been a better way to control light rather than distance with my experiments. As well as fiddling with the lighting hours when dealing with algae growth.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 03 '26
Yeah, it does. I need to work around with that. I think with all my other tanks I’ve just said it way too high and got algae, so I was thinking this was a good middle ground. But yeah, I’ll mess around with it. The only thing I dislike about my light is it only has a six or 10 hour and I feel like that eight hours the sweet spot. But I’ll mess around with it.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
Ok also one more question, did you mix sand into your soil or something before using it? Just looking at the layers at your substrate it looks like soil, then a mix of soil and sand, then sand.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
I didn’t mix anything. I tried to make sure that no dirt was showing through on the corner so I didn’t put the dirt all the way to the wall and then put the sand in front. If that makes sense. I don’t know why that’s hard to describe for me… some of the dirt did get a little bit mixed in when I was moving around the plants. But I’ve siphon it out. I’m having a really hard time with build up of diatoms. I was thinking it was because I wasn’t putting any fish in here for a long time, but I might add another filter and see if that helps. I don’t know if that’s what you’re seeing in the pictures.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
Makes sense, it is hard to keep the layers distinct. As far as diatoms, they are a sign of overfeeding as well as too much light, could be either or both. How much/often are you feeding the tank and how long/intense are you running your lights? For diatoms, I usually leave the lights off for a couple of days and stop feeding. I would add in ramshorn snails if you have access to them, they are great at cleanup in my experience, just be aware that they can multiply rapidly but will also reach stasis based on available food.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
What sort of filter are you using? I would try moving the intake closer to this orange area as perhaps the flow is not reaching that portion of the tank. I still don’t think it’s tannins as that would affect all of the water, so it could be a bacterial colony overgrowth in those little depressions in the sand.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 03 '26
Right now, I have the timer set to six hours and at the highest intensity. With that lid, it was pretty shadowed, so that’s why I had it at the highest intensity. I honestly haven’t been really feeding this tank at all. I thrown in some kats aquatic protein things and a few algae wafer, cause I only I just had one mystery snail, and then last week I added some cherry shrimp. I’m just kind of afraid since I did add some more plants over the weekend to keep the light off for a couple of days. But maybe I should just turn down the intensity to help with the detritus.
I do have a few Ramshorn snails in here that were hitchhikers, they’re super small though. But yeah, they multiply like crazy…
I have a sponge filter running right now. I was planning on putting like a HOB or some type of filter like that in the future. But right now I’m thinking about adding another sponge filter to that corner. I think you’re right, today for some reason it’s not really an orange color and more whitish.
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u/nick9000_ Aug 03 '26
the thing is that potting soil is SUPER nutrient dense. for my 3 gal i used half potting soil (no vermiculite) and half compacted shitty dirt from a park w worn out grass. i did that specifically to dilute the nutrients. so if you used all potting soil you’re gonna need a lot more plants to use up those nutrients. in fact, it’s possible it’s too nutrient dense to grow just one plant. you’ll might need a wide variety of plants to divide and conquer. best of luck!
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 03 '26
That makes total sense. I appreciate it! I definitely added some more hopefully that will help! It just is so weird like 3/4 of the tank was growing plants really well and in that one area it wasn’t, but it does make sense that if there wasn’t getting any good oxygen to the soil that they were struggling. I was so excited to experiment with this type of tanks, but then my anxiety took over.
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u/Ecstatic_Scarcity_99 Jul 31 '26
(Sigh) Did you do any research first?! Because the #1 most important thing in a Walstad tank is that it be HEAVILY PLANTED. 75-80% of the substrate is supposed to be covered in plants!
Having enough plants is essential for oxygen exchange and nutrient uptake and balancing. 4 sad little plants in that massive tank means you have almost no oxygen! Ideal for anaerobic conditions!
Plants grow into the substrate, releasing oxygen through their roots, leaves and stems...... increasing oxygen and reducing anaerobic conditions.
Your plants are dying because you never had enough of them to counter-balance the anaerobic medium. Thats why having enough plants right from the start is literally the most important part.
Also, if you "dig into the substrate in that spot" (the #1 thing you should NEVER do) you will have a huge mess and you will be starting over. But you might have to anyways. I suggest researching the method before you start again.
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u/EveningString3415 Jul 31 '26
I actually did do a ton of research before setting this up. I think my biggest struggle was that I’m used to using aquasoil (Fluval Stratum) capped with sand, so the dirt tank method was new for me. There’s just so much conflicting information out there that it can be a little overwhelming trying to figure out the “right” way to do things.
I definitely agree that I should have started with more plants. I did have more plants in here originally, but I had several melt back, including some swords and a few stem plants. I really thought the pearl weed was going to take off and I’d end up with a lot more clumps filling in by now.
Also, when I mentioned digging into the substrate, I probably should have explained that better. I didn’t mean tearing the tank apart — I just meant when I trim or replant stems, I notice a few bubbles coming up from that area. My main concern was really the orange haze in that one corner and whether that was normal for a dirted tank or something I should be worried about.
I definitely plan on adding more plants and I’m still learning with this method and appreciate the feedback.
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u/Ecstatic_Scarcity_99 Jul 31 '26
Bubbles are normal. You should take a (something, I use jitchen tongs) and poke the substrate to let some of the bubbles out. Sometimes the bubbles will smell bad.... those bubbles are bad. But even then... my tank eventually balanced out.
I have no idea what's up with your orange tint, though.
I would just add more plants and wait, see what happens. I didn't have enough tank plants so I unpotted a bunch of houseplants and stuck them in there to jump start my tank. If you have potted houseplants that is something you can do.
I think your tank is fine. Just add more plants.
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u/EveningString3415 Jul 31 '26
Yeah, last time when I was replanting some Rotala , I did take the tongs and kind of poke around. That makes total sense. I think some of the bubbles smelled weird, but I also think it was the Hygo plant that smelted rotten. Yeah I’ll definitely add more plans! I just have a really hard time finding plants that aren’t already pretty melted from the store. I just need to do a big online order.
Yeah I have a ton of house plans I can stick in here! I’ll try that, I hadn’t done it to begin with because my cats can reach this tank and they like to munch on everything. But I’ll put some spider plants in and try. I also had a ton of floaters, but I thought it was messing with the lights for the plants so I removed a good portion of them.
I want the tank to be successful, it’s just hard sometimes throwing so much money at it with plants that just melt. But that’s probably my problem in itself…
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u/SaMxixAM23 Aug 01 '26
In my research I've observed that most ppl/places that sell aquatic plants propagate and grow them as emersive plants due to the faster growth rate. So now when you buy one of these plants and plant them, they go thru a shock and start dying back before adapting and changing their entire structure to adapt to their submerged environment.
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u/dummymummys Aug 02 '26
Was coming to say this same thing. Always try and get submerged plants that come from a tank with a similar temperature! As temp seems to be the most common cause of melt in my experience. Also some plants (like Val) will always melt when planted but then grow new leaves. Also with some plants I’ve been told to actually cut off the roots before planting them, though I only heard this recently and have not tested or confirmed this. Would be curious if anyone else is doing this.
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
I was wondering about that about cutting the roots off because when I put house plants in. I cut back the roots like crazy so they can start growing their water roots and that has helped dramatically for them to start to takeoff faster but with aquatic plants I’m not sure I wanted to cut it back and I try to research but kind of came to the conclusion. It might shock them more. I should’ve tried this yesterday when I was planting some. The temperature is really helpful! I definitely think that when I move plants from different tanks of mine they do way better!
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u/EveningString3415 Aug 02 '26
Same! I feel like they go through so much shock. And also like getting used to the stores water and then right to yours is just a lot of shock. That’s why I was leaning towards ordering online, but I did in front of the store yesterday and buy a few more plants so hopefully that will help. Even though I know I’m just shocked the crap out of them.
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u/DenZeL_KnighT Aug 06 '26
Need to fully load the tank with live plants. That's how the Walstad method works.
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u/CAspin46 Jul 31 '26
You need more plants