# 15 gallon Walstad



## Mikaila31

Thought I would share my 15 gallon planted tank that runs similar to the walstad or el natural method. IMO the most overlooked method to keeping fish. It was setup about 8 months ago and has had some form of stock since the first day it ways filled. Its performed beyond what I expected. It does get 50% water changes every week or two to replace nitrates. It was setup on budget.

Substrate: Soil, clay, and sand all dug up from the woods by my house. Then washed. This took DAYS. I also layered leaves between the dirt and sand cap. I had lots of little things come out and drown when I first filled it. Thus cherry shrimp and ramshorns were thrown in before plants even were to eat all the dying bugs and little worms. 

Lighting: Two standard striplights sit on top of this tank. One is retrofitted with two 13 watt spiral compacts on the back, the other is normal with a 15 watt T8. Giving the tank close to 3 WPG. Light is on a lot 12 hours a day normally. More lately since the 'on' peg for my timer ran away. 

Filter: none. A rena powerhead circulates water on this tank. Its on 24/7 ATM. For most of the tanks life it was only on when lights were on and the tank sat stagnant at night. Tank was kinda hazy for a while due to no form of mechanical filtration. So I added the most natural mechanical filtration I could think of. His name is Fluval and he is a bamboo shrimp(and yes he does make a difference).

Heater: off right now since its summer. Temp cycles day to night.

Fish: Tank first held fish 3 days after filling and was fine from the start. People seem to think filterless tanks need light stocking, which is not true if they are properly done. This tank holds around 30 small fish along with more cherry shrimp, snails, and the one bamboo shrimp(largest inhabitant). Permanent fish are 12x Vietnamese white clouds, 4 sparkling gouramis, 3 sparrow rasbora, 4-6 ember tetras, and 2 gertrudae rainbows. Temporary or grow out fish are 1 male endler I can't catch, 2 lima vittata fry, 1 micro boesemani rainbow fry(whos currently protected by a breeder box since the last one I moved from the big tank lasted all of 10 seconds). 

Pics, Its a little over grown ATM. Need to do some trimming in the next few days. Its kinda chaotic with over a dozen species of plants.


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## snyderguy

Very nice! Looks awesome!


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## funlad3

Wow... You should talk to TOS; he too went Walstad. I'm sure he has a few methods of making it run better despite its obvious balance. Keep up the good work!


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## TheOldSalt

I don't know about that; this tank looks just about perfect to me. Awesome job!
Now, there will be some crazy changes over the first several months, but then things will stabilize again and the awesomeness will return and mature.
You at least managed to avoid the most common mistake of using too few plants! That will help considerably.
Yep..very nice


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## lohachata

the walstad tank can be a royal pain to get going sometimes..but they can be really beautiful....i think you have nailed it mikaila..your tank is quite beautiful...


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## Mikaila31

Apart from laying the substrate this tank started up without a problem. I'm not new to planted tanks though so I did foresee problems and did my best to avoid them. Oak leaves were layered between the sand and soil to avoid the initial massive nutrient leakage while the plants were establishing. I'm not sure if they contributed to the soil going anaerobic or not. I was expecting it to happen either way, its never been something that I have found to be problem though. 

Its 8 months old now so it is fully mature IMO. I move in two weeks though, tanks will be moved in about a month. So we will see how well it handles that. I only have like 4 other tanks to move too In the 8 months this tank has never had to be cleaned for algae since it was setup. I like the system much more then the conventional one. Water quality becomes better then my tap water over the week. Something that not even my high tech planted tanks do. Disrupting the substrate also does not have much of an effect on the tank. Exposing the dirt layer just attracts all the cherry shrimp. 

Every last one of my tanks is 100% planted;-). Its not overgrown as much as it was last time I pruned it 2 weeks ago. The stems where growing out of the water then. There no such thing as too many plants, except too little water


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## Mikaila31

Some updated pictures since it has been trimmed back. I had to move it to the floor in another room since all my furniture is gone now lol.


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## TheOldSalt

That's just lovely, truly. I'm glad to see that someone made it work well for them.


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## Chaos553

This looks truly phenomenal. I just started my planted about a month ago and I'm just waiting for all my pruned branches and whatnot to start growing since I had an overgrowth of my Ludwigia Broadleaf. I love the substrate and I kind of wish I was able to use natural resources like you did, however, I'm not that lucky to have them around ;P. 

I was just curious to what plants you had growing in there. I think I saw a Ludwigia Broadleaf in the back and possibly some type of Vallisneria on the right. I plan on making a second thread for my pictures and updates for my planted in a bit, so please feel free to look at it as well, I'd highly appreciate it . Again, awesome job!


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