10 Gallon Walstad Tank

[attibones]

I recently purchased Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium and I'm only on chapter two right now. However, I've been researching this method on the youtube for quite some time, and I feel like I'm ready to start the work for it. Because my 20 gallon will be a PITA to tear down so that I can start this experiment, I'll be using my 10 gallon which has recently had problems keeping plants alive. With the death of my puffers (I lost them due to starvation. I was unable to find a source of snails at my father's house where I'm staying for the summer), the tank only has two male guppies in it. 
 
I'm using a Marineland LED light thing (I'll look up the specifics soon), a TopFin 10, cycled, a homemade sponge filter (might be cycled, I'm not sure; it's mostly to plop in the hospital tank for extra air), a 50 watt adjustable heater, sand substrate, and something like five plants which are not doing well.
 
Today, I intend to pick up MiracleGro organic potting mix, a bag of gravel, a new piece of driftwood, and some plants which I will drop in the 20 gallon until I'm ready to move them to the smaller tank. I will also move the guppies back into the 20 gallon while I work on the tank. I will leave both filters in the tank. 
 
I will be picking up amazon swords, anubius species, java ferns, as well as several crypt species. I will provide a full list of plants when I return from the store shortly. 
 
An image of the tank as it currently stands will be posted shortly. Before I can run to the store, I've got to get my bedroom straightened. It's a wreck! 

Today the tank looks like this:

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Pick a different sword plant, amazons grow huge. You cannot prune them like other plants. you either leave or remove the entire leaf. Look into either parva or compacta swords which will work in a 10 gal.
 
Here is an amazon sword in my 75 gal.:
 

 
Here is a compacta in a 29 gal. tank. I have had that plant over a decade and that is the 2nd tank is has lived in:
 

 

[attibones]

I have had success with pruning my amazon sword. The tips of its leaves do brush the surface of my 20 gallon, but every time I trim it stays healthy and keeps growing. Plus I like to get them started in smaller tanks and then move then up. I've had one for two or three years now which at one point was almost two feet tall (when it was in a 55 gallon). Now I keep it about fourteen inches. However, my experience is probably atypical, considering I know several people who have not had any sort of success with these plants in smaller tanks.

I do like amazon compacta though. I've got one or two in the larger tank now. My LFS was out of healthy ones, so I'll pick up a few tomorrow. I like having a couple of tall plants surrounded by smaller. Either way, I only ended up getting the following:

1x El Niño fern (I like these guys, may put it in the twenty)
1 package of bacopa
1 package of crypto undulata
1 package staurogyne repense
1 package lobelia cardinalis
1 box of mixed bulbs (the true test!), supposedly contains 1 water lily, 1 water onion, and 2 aponogeton.

Also picked up two neat pieces of Mopani. One piece sort of broke but I can't figure out where it broke off, so now I have three cool pieces to spread between the two tanks.

Got a 5lb bag of natural looking gravel. I will probably not use it all. Also got 8 quarts of MiracleGro organic choice potting mix. I might need more (it's roughly 3.5 pounds), but we shall see. I don't have time now to put everything together, but tomorrow I'm off work, so I'll get everything worked out. I've got work in half an hour.

Tomorrow, LFS gets in new fish, so I'm hoping they get in new plants. I'll stop by and pick up more plants then. So far, I've spent like 70 on this project, most of that from overpriced plants. However, I only have access to a PetsMart today, so I'll take what I can get. Tomorrow I'll check out the other aquarium shops in the area.

 

[attibones]

Woke up this morning super pumped about the tank. Drained the tank and took out all the sand (well, most of it) and dumped it in the backyard. My dad will probably be upset about where I dumped it, but that 5 gallon bucket gets super heavy when it is full of about five pounds of sand and three gallons of water. I had to do it in two trips.

Then I dumped in the bag of MiracleGro. The whole bag. I didn't realize that it would take up half the tank. So then I scooped most of it out. Left about an inch and a half to two inches. This is where I messed up. Instead of just planting all my flora and then topping off with gravel, I added about a half gallon of water to get the soil moist. This would have been okay if I hadn't actually poured in enough water to cause most of the soil to float up. Then I panicked, dumped in the gravel, and then began planting. The substrate looks a little funky, but when the water clears, I'll be able to have a better look.

Now I've got the tank filled with water, conditioned it, added in all my equipment, and I'm watching the water slowly clear up. I've already skimmed several cups of floating soil from the surface. I'll need to do it again soon. I also need to keep an eye on the filter intake. It clogged within minutes.

I ended up adding all the wood pieces to the tank. I didn't want to soak them because the tannins are so beneficial, so that's kind of adding to the weird color of the water. I'm uploading a picture to photobucket of the tank as it currently stands now.

 

[attibones]

My water is red! I'm not sure if it is because of the driftwood I added or because of that plus the soil, but I'm definitely doing at least a 50% change today as soon as I've done some French homework. (I'm terrible at this language.) I haven't put in any fish yet, so at least I don't have to worry about that. Any one know if this atypical?

 

[attibones]

I just tested the water stats and I'm getting some crazy ammonia results!

The test tube was deep deep green, kinda bluish-black! I went ahead and tested for nitrites and I'm definitely seeing some (didn't check the specific number). Fortunately there are no fish in the tank. I'm assuming this is because of the soil I put in, but we shall see how it plays out. I did like a 65% change while the test processed, so that I could, you know, see the tank, but now the tank is dark again anyway. I think I am going to get another small bag of gravel tomorrow and then drain most of the tank, add the extra gravel and then refill. I think the water is just pushing the soil around. Time for some more reinforcements.

Guides to the Walstad method seem to frequently say you can set up a tank and add fish in the same day, but there is no way I'll be doing this with my tank. I think I would lose every fish and never be able to see a body.

I'm just going to let the filters process the huge "bio load" for now. It shouldn't take too long since I'm seeing results already.

 

[attibones]

Well the water is clearing up beautifully now! The water is still a lovely tea color from the driftwood, but I've added more gravel (and plants!!) to keep the soil from doing whatever it pleases. 
 
Went to Petco today and picked up two bamboo shrimp and two nerites for the other tank, but I'll probably end up putting one of the shrimp and both the nerites in this tank once it is prepared.
 
I got a bunch of plants too:
 
1 java moss clump (it was wrapped around a styrofoam ball, but the moss looked healthy so I just untied the fishing line, threw out the styro ball and attached the moss to a piece of wood)
Anacharis
3 pots of crytpo species (I'm not sure exactly what species)
Water wisteria
Some other mystery plant which kind of looks like a Cardinal plant, but I'm not sure. It's much taller than the cardinal I've got in there. 
 
I also got a new thermometer (I needed a new one) and this fake moss ball, but I didn't realize it was fake until I opened it up. I guess I thought it was a dried moss ball with little packets of stabilizer. I don't know what I was thinking. It is actually a plastic ball with some stuff to remove nitrite and junk (I didn't read the package at all), covered in this stuff to make it look like a real Marimo moss ball. I dropped it in the twenty gallon.
 
I'm still getting ammonia readings, but I'm going to continue to do daily water changes and see what happens. With the tank as planted as it is now (it looks spectacular!), I should be getting some of the ammonia knocked out. I'll keep testing daily of course.
 
TTA has been helping me a bit with the cycling business, which I appreciate. I'm just hoping my filter gets up to speed soon!
 
Side note, picked up a spare heater for ten dollars at PetSmart today. It's an adjustable 50 watt. My other spare heater is really terrible, so I'm glad to have this extra one on hand just in case.

 

[attibones]

The more I'm looking at this tank, the more I'm realizing it would be perfect for a betta. If the LFS can't get me any of the chilli rasbora, then I'm going to get a new betta and some cherry shrimp for this tank. It's looking really beautiful now, I think. Hmmm... Maybe I'll get a betta for this tank, trade the livebearers for the rasboras, and put the rasboras in the twenty gallon. Oh so many decisions. Uploading pictures now.


The tank really has come a long way in such a short time. I'm very proud of this little tank, though! I just hope everything pays off in the end.

 

[attibones]

No ammonia tonight!! Woohoo!

I've still got nitrite though, so we shall see how quickly that takes to sort out. I'm really leaning towards getting another betta now, though. Hmm, I nice, handsome male with some shrimp and snails. Or should I hold off and see if I can get some chili rasboras? What to do, what to do...

 

[Mamashack]

Have only just found this thread, atti! Have never heard of the Walstad method. Must look it up.
Interesting journey you are having! Tank is looking good!
Making decisons about stocking is mind-blowing isn't it? I've recently had to change everything round in my 3 tanks. So none are how I'd originally planned them to be at the moment! lol

 

[attibones]

Oh I know how that feels too. It's just difficult to decide what I want. I've had plenty of bettas in my life, and I think I would like a small community (and by that I mean a schooling fish and inverts), but I also love watching a beautiful betta explore. Plus they are funny creatures and seem to really appreciate attention from owners.

Aaah!! I don't know what to do! I do know that I don't want to spend 100 on fish (which I've been known to do), so I'm not going to be doing any online ordering (except I did find a good deal on six celestial pearl danios with free shipping~). See it's so hard to figure out what I want!

 

[attibones]

Okay, the tank is cycled! I'm going to get a betta for this tank on Monday after a water change and potentially a final plant or two. I would like to get some more broad leaf plants to attach to the driftwood before I get him.

 

[Mamashack]

Have you seen one you like yet?

 

[attibones]

I saw a gorgeous over Halfmoon mustard a few weeks ago and I really wanted him, but I didn't have the tank set up yet. This was at a store a few hours away, and I'm sure he has already been sold, but I kind of keep hoping to find him. Today I'm going to check the boys out and inspect a few contenders.

 

[Mamashack]

Ooooh pictures when you can even if you haven't bought one yet! lol