Figgy’s Playland

[The Big Figfetti]

Hey guys,

Here is the journey of my Walstad tank. It’s changed a lot in the last 3 weeks. Still learning how to care for freshwater plants and learning what will work with my water parameters.
Thank you for everyone who has commented on my posts along the way. I appreciate all the guidance!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and can see the changes. I’m super excited. I did a ‘makeover’ on some of the aquascaping yesterday, and I found lots of growth that I hadn’t noticed previously. Very fun to watch the emersed plants turn into the submersed forms.

Inhabitants:
Male koi betta - Figfetti (Figgy)
2 otocinclus
2 nerite snails

10 gallon
Hygger HG-957 LED light
Heater
Base = gravel, aquasoil, root tabs, sand cap
Driftwood
Black Gravel (added day 24)
Dragon stone (added day 24)

Plants in tank as of 2/11
Floaters - Frogbit, red root floaters, some duckweed and 1 stem of pennywort
Ludwigia palustris
Amazon sword (Echinodorus Bleheri)
Dwarf sagittaria
Java Fern
Anubias nana
Vallisneria
Mermaid weed (only 1 stem)
Anacharis
Some sort of moss
Marble queen radical sword
Ozelot sword
Hygrophila “Kompakt” (added 2/11)
Water Sprite (added 2/11)
Bronze Wendtii (added 2/11)

3 other plants in the tank, I do not know what they are. I’ll post another reply after this, with those 3 plants, to see if anyone could name them for me.

Plants that have been removed:
Monte Carlo (melted/died) - will find a better carpet plant, without needing CO2
Lobelia cardinalis (melted/died) - really sad about this one
Hornwort (did not enjoy the look)

Tank currently has a small HOB filter, only a sponge and some media to build beneficial bacteria. It will be removed once the tank is stable enough. The media will be used to help start up a larger tank later this year.

Thanks again and enjoy!

 

[The Big Figfetti]

These are the 3 plants that I’m not sure what they are called. First plant, between the 3 stones. Second and third plants each have 2 photos.

 

[The Big Figfetti]

Finally did the first trim! Super exciting to see such growth. For my first planted tank, I am pretty happy with the growth and look.
I plugged in the stem plant trimmings to fill in areas in the back. And I put some on the side because I planned to use those in the new 30gal. But now I kinda like them there
Here’s a before and after.

 

[Fray]

That is really lovely!
Beautiful betta, and he is in betta heaven!

 

[The Big Figfetti]

That is really lovely!
Beautiful betta, and he is in betta heaven!

Thank you! He seems really happy. We love watching him wiggle his way through the plants.

 

[The Big Figfetti]

It’s been 2 months since my last update, so I thought I would post some pics. The tank has had 1 water change in that time, about 25%, while doing some plant trimmings. No ferts added. Filter is only bio rings, and it’s flowing at a drip speed. I think I want to take it off, but I want to use it to cycle another tank, so I may leave it on until that time.

I’ve added 3 CPD’s. And 3 amano shrimp.
Figgy loves his tank. He comes to us when we stare into the tank. My 8 year old feeds just him, once a day, about 4 pellets. We sometimes skip a day here or there. The bioload is quite low. But I’m constantly removing frogbit and red root floaters.

Here are some pictures of the tank. I do feel like it’s a bit overgrown, but I think they all like it this way. Everyone seems happy. And here are some pictures of how large the frogbit get. I don’t know why they get this large. They are 4 times the size of my frogbit in my 30 gal.