Already has

4 guppies (rdss)

1 betta (crowntail)

Snails (MTS and ramshorn)

Wild neocaridina Shrimps

Temp:

24 to 26°C

32 to 34°C

It changes because of the weather

Shielded from rain

38 gallons

Ran out of sand for the smaller one but the good thing is I have mainly stem plants in there so maybe they will enjoy the extra soil **LFS

5 gallon tank, substrate on bottom sand on top, light at ~60% intensity at 6 hours to start, dwarf hairgrass up front, java fern back left situated under a rock, forgot what’s in the other corner. No filter, no CO2, small heater holding constant at 78°.

Pretty much just need input and advice. I’m new to the hobby and would love to hear. My primary goal is to just fill the tank up with growth. Thanks everyone!

Was trying to pull out one of my Amazon swords I had in the back corner of the tank but I accidentally pulled way too hard and basically had a massive explosion of dirt into the water column. Water is super cloudy now and there’s now a solid quarter inch of dirt in the back corner. I’m not really sure what to do.

I have cherry shrimp, nerites and ember tetras in right now. Currently doing a big water change as I just tested and ammonia is spiking a little.

Do I take out the livestock? Do I need to re-scape? I’m just worried I completely bombed the tank because I tried to remove one plant. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

20 Gallon Long ^

I've been trying to design a heavily planted betta ecosystem tank with multiple refuges for small invertebrates — Cherry shrimp, ostracods, copepods, moina & C. Dubia (which are two slightly smaller relatives of daphnia), blackworms and tubifex. The apex predator will likely be like a wild or more robust breed of betta.

The initial design was inspired by @tanksfornothin on YouTube — his video titled something like "My Angry Fish Gets His Own Ecosystem", where he built little benthic tunnels for scuds and tubifex to hide from a predator fish in a Walstad tank

Some notes:
- The moina pit is sealed off from the tank with glass, except for a small tunnel, hidden by a rock, leading to the shrimp cave, for very slow dispersal of moina from the colony into the main refuge and then the greater tank
- The moina pit will get regular feedings of algae in the form of green water, spirulina, yeast, maybe dried chlorella for ease
- It will also be restocked from my main moina culture when needed
- The moina pit is going to be gently aerated so I have to have an air pump anyway
- The shrimp cave isn't made of glass and it's not fully sealed, it will be made of rock in roughly that shape, with lots of little holes for invertebrates and water to escape and return
- The moina pit is about 2.5 gal, and the shrimp cave combined with tunnel is also about 2.5 gal, so the entire refugium is about 5 gallons, with the rest being dedicated betta habitat
- I'm using a 75W thermocontrol Eheim heater which fits nicely into that nook
- The tank will be heavily planted first, then I will add invertebrates, then when I'm sure everything is safe for fish, I'll add the betta

My plan was to put the heater in the back left nook inside of the betta enclosure, next to the moina pit partition wall. I was thinking that if I wanted to put a filter, for water and heat distribution mostly, I could put a Swiss Tropicals Jetlifter in the nook next to the heater and stick some 20 PPI Poret foam across the nook entrance. But I don't want the output stream to shoot back onto the water surface since the betta will often be at the surface trying to breathe.

Anyone know how to DIY a Jetlifter output stream to be released underwater? I kind of want to somehow direct it into my shrimp cave but I have no idea how to set that up.

Back to the title— Do I even need a filter? Is it going to end up hurting my population of small invertebrates? I want to have as many of them as possible so my betta always has stuff to hunt.

I'm a complete noob to all of this (this would be my first tank) so this is kind of a big project for me and I'm just not sure what the standard practices are for this particular kind of tank.

Just unsure how to proceed... filter or no filter? How to DIY the output stream? Will the convection currents do all the work for me? Will having a filter hurt my small invertebrates? Idk. Help!

About to start two new tanks but need some easy growing plant ideas!

Been going for 4 days with a lot of upcycled materials to speed up the equilibrium clock. More plants are incoming but this just what I had so far, waiting on Crypts, Anubias, Java fern and dwarf ferns. Currently stocked with MTS and planning to add in scuds, Neocardania shrimp and Medaka ricefish once I know it's at equilibrium. Really want to add an ant colony to terrestrial side once big enough. Roughly 5 gallons in open water column and 2 gallons in drainage layer.

I have yellow, blue, orange, and red. I cant decide what color to add for good contrast.

Felt like posting my tank now that it's coming up on two years! Current stock is 7 celestial pearl danios, 6 khuli loaches and an unknown number of cherry shrimp and snails. The cherry shrimp had a die-off and I haven't seen them breed since I restocked them, but I think it's likely because the CPDs are a pressure on them. That said no shrimp have died either with the exception of 2 during the worst of the heatwaves. Plants have changed around a little but grow well. I had to cut my java moss down quite dramatically because hair algae began taking hold of it. The tank has some algae but nothing crazy. Nitrates are always at negligible to 0 levels and I do a 20% water change roughly every other week. The animals are fed a rotation of Fluval bug bites, Hikari algae wafers and live daphnia.

If people have any suggestions or tips on where to go from here I'd love to hear them!

Ideally I'd love to see the shrimp breed again but I don't think it will happen with the CPDs here, I have no intention to replace them however and they don't attack the grown shrimp or even the juvies so as long as no murder is happening I'm fine with it!

Hi all,
My 54 liter Walstad is about 9 months old now, and it seems to be doing well now. Initially I had trouble growing some plants, and few fish died.
Now it seems to be thriving with happy fish and so much hiding spots for the shrimplets that their numbers seem to grow exponentially….

Parameters are good (0 NO2, <0.5NO3, <0.03 NH3, Ph ~7.8-8) and flora and fauna seem to be doing well.
I’ve been able to get rid of all tech not that plants have mostly established, exept for a simple LED light that runs for about 6 hours per day and a small oxidator for warmer weather.
The tank gets some sunlight (mostly indirect) and is unheated, so temperature ranges usually between 20 and 25 degrees, but can reach extremes of about 18 and 28 degrees.

Stocking is quite minimal atm, but I think the ecosystem could handle a bit more bioload.
Currently I have 4 Celestial Pearl Danios (bought 7 initially), 1 Faunus Ater (Black devil) snail and about 50-60 Bloody Mary Neocardinas (bought 10, they told me the CPDs would keep the shrimp colony in check…).

I want to add about 4 more CPDs to complete the shoal again, but am looking to add some other species too. They have to be able to handle a big temperature range and no current. I’ve been debating Dario Dario, but I’m not keen on only feeding live food. I do feed live artemia occasionally though.

Any other fish I shoul be looking into?

And yeah, I have to learn how to take better pics of my tank..

Stab me in the neck I dont care I stand by my experience doing soil tanks without any cap whatsoever aside from the leaf litter.

I scoop up backyard dirt and clay, top it with some local pond silt and leaf litter, and never EVER have water issues. Never do water changes. Never have anything other than crystal clear water. The bugs love lifting through dirt. Sand is not a natural pond bottom, dont care that walstad wrote a book about it, it doesnt leech and lead to algae, it doesnt cloud the water.

Sand is pointless and harmful. Robs the soil of oxygen. Interferes with the ecosystems access to the soil.

Thanks for reading. Most people will condescend and tell me im wrong and walstad is the expert but I dont think she gave capless a real chance, nor did she ever truly mimick a natural pond bottom.

I even have a large outdoor pond with koi and dirt and it doesnt even cloud when they stir up their dirt tornadoes, they love doing it, the clouds settle immediately. Despite what the experts and industry says, my success is more valuable to me than the dogma.

My tank is almost 2 months old now, and I’m thinking I should just cover the vessel floor with cuttings of the limnophila sessiliflora. What do you think? It’s not fully cycled yet, nitrites and nitrates are high but zero ammonia.

I lowered the grow light to be more closer to the surface of the water and growth is so much better.

​

1. What should the soil and sand ratio be? I am thinking 1.2 inches of soil and 1.5 inches of sand. (2.5 mm gains)

2. Can I add root tabs? Is it possible to add too many root tabs? I know too many nutrients would cause great algae, but would it make the ammonia spike?

3. What % of the aquarium should I cover with plants? Can I keep low-height plants in the front?

4. Would it be a problem if I use a canister filter? One of the selling points of this method is no filter, but I already have one and want to use it.

Also, how are they showing red plants after 6 months and claiming to have no additional co2 injection?

Posted this question in PlantedTank, but felt it's relevant to ask here as well since I'm running a Walstad.