# Ten-gallon Walstad, Take Two!



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

After my old Walstad-style planted tank was finally dismantled after 3 years of smooth operation with NO maintenance ever being performed on it, I decided to set up a new one. This time the tank will receive regular maintenance, theoretically to result in even better performance. 
Things haven't exactly gone according to plan.

First of all, I switched lighting. I had been using the hood of an old Eclipse tank, but this time I've switched from those old T-8's to compact florescent. This is a two-bulb system, each bulb being a high-output 10watt unit for a total of 20 watts on this 10 gallon tank, which yields 2 watts per gallon. Of course, watts per gallon doesn't really mean very much on very small and very large tanks, but it does well enough for my purposes.
I also switched substrate. I had no idea how hard it would be to find some good old ordinary dirt for sale. This time I'm forced to use "Scott's Premium Topsoil" which doesn't seem to actually contain very much soil at all, premium or otherwise. In fact, it looks to be mostly composted wood chips. The bag said it was FREE of roots and chips and debris, but I think it really meant that all the roots and chips and debris were included free. GRRRRR!!!! I have to guess that I'm going to have some problems with tannins and acidity in this tank.









So, in "phase one'" of construction I washed out the tank and put down a two inch deep layer of dirt. Actually, I put 2 inches of water in the tank and then poured the dirt over it. The last tank still had many dry spots in the dirt even after three years, so I made sure that didn't happen this time. I then let the tank sit around for two weeks while I shopped for plants.

I decided to try a new online plant place that I hadn't before tried. After a lot of shopping around, I finally went with Aquariumplants.com. I was lured by their website and the illusion it gave me that they maintained huge stock tanks full of plants that they grew themselves onsite, but over half the plants I received were still in their original packing from Florida. Aquariumplants is in South Dakota. 
The plants themselves were in good shape for the most part, with no outward signs of pests or disease. The main complaint I have is one of size; they were huge for the most part, and I wound up having to spread my order around to tanks I didn't want to just to house them all. That's an odd complaint, admittedly, and one many folks would instead find to be a very good thing.
The plants were shipped in baggies wrapped in newspaper, with no insulation. Winter... South Dakota... No insulation... The plants were pretty cold when I got them, but I think they'll be okay if they survive the shock of transfer.

I ordered 19 plants, and I got exactly what I ordered, with no backorders, substitutions, or screwups whatsoever. I also got my order the day after I placed it. The service is quite good, and with careful selection, the prices are also quite good. The main service complaint I have is that I got a separate confirmation email for every single plant. Twice. That's nearly 40 emails for this order, but THEN I got another 20 confirming receipt of my payment and another batch when they shipped, bringing the grand total to nearly 80 emails from them for this one order. What the heck is up with THAT?
As for the species, I decided to keep it simple this time, going with:
Wendtii, Green (Cryptocoryne wendtii) 
Nana (Anubias barteri v. ‘Nana’)
Subulata, Dwarf (Sagittaria subulata)
Congensis (Anubias ‘Congensis’)
Ozelot Sword (Echinodorus ‘Ozelot’)
Balansae (Cryptocoryne crispatula)
Green Temple (Hygrophilia corymbosa)
Wendtii, Bronze (Cryptocoryne wendtii v. ‘Tropica’)
Sword, Red Melon (Echinodorus Barthii v. "red melon")
Ambulia (Limnophila indica)
Anacharis (Egeria najas)
Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides)
Banana Plant (Nymphoides aquatica)
Cardamine (Cardamine lyrata)
Moneywort (Bacopa Monnieri)
Pennywort, Brazilian (Hydrocotyle Leucocephala)
Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis 

The UPS guy was later than expected since the weather was bad, and running out of time and daylight I had to skip the whole process of cleansing the plants. I hurriedly planted them as best I could with no effort made at aquascaping. As I already mentioned, I got plants much bigger than expected, so they wouldn't fit. I had to spend some time deciding what to use and what to put elsewhere, and then I got it all planted. After that I put down a thin layer of washed black & purple gravel to help hold down the plants and keep the mud in place. I used sand last time and it worked wonderfully for this purpose, but it blocked the water diffusion too effectively, making a big anaerobic mess of things. I used gravel this time to prevent that problem.

















Okay, next it was time for the water. I put a big Tetra fishfood can lid on the bottom and poured the water slowly into that, and this worked fairly well for keeping the substrate undisturbed by the rushing water. Things got easier as the tank filled, and by the time it was full I could still see some plants.
The water, by the way, is ordinary tapwater that was dechlorinated with Aquasafe and allowed to sit and breathe for about five days before use.
As I expected and feared, hundreds of tiny little bits of wood floated up to the surface and made a huge mess. I skimmed them out with a net. Tomorrow I suppose I'll have to do it again. Heck, I may well have to re-do the tank completely with better dirt anyway, so I'm not too worried about it.
Finally I installed a teeny-tiny little filter to help clear the water a bit and get some circulation. It's a laughably small little unit made for tiny desktop tanks, but it should be okay for a planted tank. I may wind up putting it on a timer to run mainly at night.









I'll be using Natural Aquarium Vital and FloraPride for carbon and fertilizer additives.

Fish?
I haven't decided on fish yet, since I'm not sure this tank won't need to be redone with better dirt. Once I do have a permanent established system going that I like, though, I'll get fish. I usually let my tanks dictate the fish to get instead of trying to make my tanks suitable for desired fish.It just works out better that way for all parties involved. maybe this time I'll get a dedicated Duckweed eater so I can avoid THIS this time:


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## karazy (Nov 2, 2007)

looks cool. cant wait to see how it ends..


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2008)

my P. saulosi(african cichlids) LOVE duckweed...I purposly grow it in my tanks for them...lol

not that they would outgrow your tank and eat most of your other plants...lol


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Well, things are a lot clearer, but still not clear. Annoying.

Some of the Cardamine and one of the Crypts melted into green goo, but the other plants are doing fine.

I should have dipped them in permanganate, though. My tank is swarming with live bloodworms! They're browner and skinnier than normal, but obviously bloodworms or something very similar. My camera won't be able to get a pic of them, I think. There's gotta be a couple hundred of them squirming around the place. I should hurry up and put some sort of fish in it before they start pupating, since I don't need a house full of tiny biting flies.

The pH is 8.2! I'm not completely sure how that happened, but I'll be taking some corrective steps tomorrow morning. It's certainly not what I expected in a tank full of rotting woodchips!


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Well, things haven't been going very well in this tank.

Those bloodworms pupated and hatched out onto midges, leaving me with a couple hundred little mini-me mosquitoes trapped under the hood. Several days later they in turn did something I never expected, namely breed, and then my tank was filled with _thousands_ of bloodworms. Alas, this was far too many for this tank to support, and things started fouling up fairly quickly. I also got a big bloom of various infusorians, copepods mostly, and I wound up having to make some massive water changes to clean it up a bit. I made two 50% changes with distilled water in an effort to reduce waste and get the pH down, and this worked okay. Now the pH is 7.4.
Most of the critters are gone now except for a few stragglers and a bunch of snails, which are multiplying like crazy.

The plants have shown improvment, and the melted ones are starting to regrow from the leftover roots.

The water is cloudy like you wouldn't believe, though. I put a bigger filter on it to help clean things up a bit faster, but that only made everything worse, being just a little too strong to allow the dirt to settle. Very annoying. I suppose I'll have to go back to the small filter.

The other reason I switched to a bigger filter is that I decided on a fish like likes more water current than the small ones makes. They'll be here in a couple of weeks all the way from asia, so I have to get this tank fixed, cleared, and settled before they arrive. I see a lot of filter tweaking in my immediate future.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

I'm sorry to reply to an old post, but what was the source of the original blood worms? (I don't know anything about bloodworms except that my mollies like the freeze-dried kind)


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## crazyfishlady (Nov 4, 2007)

I'm pretty sure the blood worms came from the live plants added to the tank.

BTW, Whatever happened to this tank TOS? I would really like to see an update.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

I would very much like to know, too! I'm sort of copying it step-by-step for my 29gal!


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

I have a different question TOS. What's the reasoning behind the mud on the bottom?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Good questions, all.

I am giving up on this tank, hence the post about the free duckweed. 
The water is dark brown, and no matter how much or how often I change it, it becomes superdark brown again in just a couple of days.

The bloodworms came in on the plants. They reproduced for about 7 generations in this tank before finally crashing. I added a pair of Darters to the tank, and they gobbled them up like popcorn. I also had a big surge of Hydra growth, but they too faded away over time.

The swordplants never did much of anything, but the Cardamine and the pennyworts grew like crazy, becoming the dominant plants in the tank. The Anubias surprised me greatly in that they have made it all this time despite every reason they shouldn't have, and the Crypts wax and wane a lot so I'm not sure what they're going to eventually do.

The dirt bottom is for growing the plants. It works fine. Use real dirt, though, and not this junk I have in this tank. I can safely say at this point that this stuff is useless. 

I'll post a pic soon.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Okay, here they are:








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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Don't let this happen to you. Trying to make do with lesser materials can bite you on the butt, bigtime.


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## crazyfishlady (Nov 4, 2007)

I bought a couple bags of some generic top soil and I'm going to cover that in pool sand. I wonder if the sand will do a better job of keeping the soil from leeching into the water.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The sand works fine for that, but it works TOO well for that, completely blocking off water & gas exchange. Your dirt will become a toxic sludge. The reason this tank failed is because I used this woodchip junk instead of dirt. You're looking at tannic acid, not mud-tea. Other tanks in which I used dirt all turned out just fine. Gravel works well enough to keep the dirt where it belongs; you don't need sand.


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## mesapod (Aug 18, 2007)

What is that plant that looks like little lily pad things underneat the duckweed?
I just want to know I should beware of this plant because I have some in my tank


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## darkfalz (May 7, 2006)

I think it's duckweed.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

TheOldSalt said:


> Don't let this happen to you. Trying to make do with lesser materials can bite you on the butt, bigtime.


TOS:

This has been a very interesting and learning thread for me.

To me your words imply that nature, with the tools available to her (ie. the energy from the sun, the moisture from the clouds, the potential energy from the gravitational effects of the Earth, etc.) cannot be replicated in a minimalistic micro-ecosystem.

TR


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Of course it can't, but that'll never stop us from trying, eh?

The plant is called Pennywort. It can live underwater or on dry land, and it usually grows along the shore.


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