My first attempt at a Walstad tank

[Prince]

This is my first attempt at a Walstad tank. Well actually my second my first attempt went h0\horribly wrong at the start as forgot how light SMS is when its dry. The soil floated to the top through the SMS. Being that the tank is only 2.5 gallons I just threw the dirt and SMS out the back door and tried again. The second time I wet the soil before topping it with wet SMS. I managed to cramp a piece of driftwood with Anubai barteri I thing a bronze crytp, 10 Corkscrew Vals, two wisteria clippings (One of which was a leaf that grew a root while floating that when planted started to root.), a dwarf sag, and some other plant I can't recall the name of.

Sorry for the crappy pics i had just finished some planting this morning and some of the oil has to settle.

As over stocking is a key element, I plan to stock it with 4 to 6 Boraras Merah, 4 to 6 RCS, one Dario and maybe an Oto.

 

[emartin]

Looking good for a 2.5gallon tank..!

 

[fischfan13]

I'm waiting for you to say that the filtration is a 30g sump.

 

[Spine]

Looks nice so far Prince. If you run into any issues GWAPA is a great resource for you.

http://gwapa.org/wordpress/

 

[tug]

The Apogge PAR sensor is what's needed.

At low light and limiting CO2, the fish waste alone will contribute a significant amount of N and P. But, what is low light? Even DW isn't very clear on that, but somewhere around 20micromols.

For nutrients, add some soil, and you can likely do fine for a few years, but will run lean on N over time(4-12 month range I'd say).

If you add a little KNO3, or say 1/10th EI dosing once every 1-2 weeks, this should be plenty. The surface floating plants buffer against too much of a rise in nutrients, as the floaters will be highly responsive to nutrients, far more than the submersed plants. This is how I understand commercial aquatic plant growers know, when the duckweed starts getting a little yellow, they add more ferts, N.

Good luck. Planted tanks rock.

 

[mscichlid]

Good luck with this project!

 

[Prince]

Update!

Here is some http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/...t=49ea393b.mp4 and Photos from my 2.5 gallon Walstad.

 

[Tony]

That's really cool, Prince. Probably going to swap out my desktop reef setup at work for something similar to this. My empty 5 gallon tanks are calling me.

 

[Sonny Disposition]

I haven't had the nerve to try one of these. She has an article about windowsill shrimp tanks, so I might try this on a really small scale for some Elassoma or some red cherry shrimp.

Good luck with this, Prince.

 

[Prince]

Some of the Red Root Floaters are turning a pale green. I can't remember what that is a sign of.

 

[Tony]

Some of the Red Root Floaters are turning a pale green. I can't remember what that is a sign of.

Low lighting maybe?

 

[verbal]

I think it might be a lack of iron.

 

[Prince]

Thanks, I'll remember that. But it was a false alarm caused by the lighting when I had to due some pruning.