UPDATED+Plant Layout PokeSephiroth's 20 Gallon Walstad Tank

[pbmax]

Yes - that's the right stuff; Diana Walstad selected it for appropriate NPK content.

Look at it this way: if you were a plant and you were pulled out of the substrate, water, and lighting that made you happy and plopped down in some unknown tank somewhere, would you be 100% happy with life? That plant lived in a 10g with 36W of 6500K light over it and a 2.5" bed of turface on the bottom. These are very different conditions it's in now; you'll have to give it some time to acclimate. It will grow new leaves given time.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

Had to set up a ghetto lookin' light fixture that has the following lights:

2 - 24" 17watt 6,500K Daylight fluorescent tubes
1 - 18" 15watt "grow light" tube
1 - 18" 15watt ????K fluorescent tube

Bringing that to a total of 64watts of lightage. Yep, just screwed on the light fixtures onto some thin wood board, and called it a day. I had actually placed "industrial strength" velcro, but after a day, it wasn't holding as well as I thought it would, so I had to bust out the hardware, and screwed them onto the wood board. Yeah. Those things won't budge anymore.

 

[BillHN]

Industrial strength VELCRO? O_O

Lol, screws work hahahaha.

Your tank looks awesome good sir!
I'll get there in a week or so, btw, I just did a 20L Dirted tank today
With 9 panda cories and 5 black molly fry, and a bunch of rcs [:

 

[pbmax]

Actually, I mispoke - that sword only had 26W of light over the 10g it was in. However, it was 26W in 2 round reflectors with the bulbs a couple of inches from the glass cover and about a half inch between the glass and the rims of the reflectors.

You have all that light mounted about a foot above the tank. From the looks of it I had more light in the water with 26W than you do with 64W. Light falls off very quickly with distance; it looks to me like a lot of that light is being wasted. I tried a similar hard-mounted light setup over my garage 20g with disappointing results - the light just fell off too quickly and my reflector was garbage.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

pbmax, thankfully, the lights are hanging by string (which I need to change, eventually... I'd prefer rope, that's for sure) that can be adjusted by height. I don't normally keep it that high haha, I keep it just about 2 inches away from the water's surface, to ensure that the plants get maximum exposure to the light source. I only had it strung up high enough so I could get a shot of the lights But yes, I do plan on making a better looking light enclosure. LOL. I definitely need to find a way to get the light reflected downwards, rather than having it blasting light into places that don't need it... I'll have to MacGyver it up, one way or another. I have two paper clips, a half bent staple, horse hair, and one grain of sand. LOL

BillHN, well... you know what they say, if they don't find you attractive (implying that to myself, btw. hahaha!), they'll at least find you handy. LOL!! =P Yeah industrial strength velcro can be found in various home improvement stores (Home Depot, Lowes, etc) . . . btw, have you had those fish in there since you added soil to your tank? I'm still scared of putting any fish in mine, because of slightly high nitrate levels from my soil. I've been doing 50% water changes every other day, and my nitrates still hover around 10-30ppm =\ I don't think I want to put any fish in mine just yet. I do, however have some red ramshorn snails in there, and they seem to be doing fine, heck...there are some baby snails in there!

 

[PokeSephiroth]

Update!
Picture time!!!

20 Gallon Long - Walstad tank is looking pretty jungly! Water Wisteria is taking off pretty well. Definitely really bushy. Got a whole bunch from CrazedAce, thanks!! Might have to trim em up at some point, they're almost covering up my poor Crypt hahaha.



Amazon Sword and Sunset Hygro are growing pretty well! Can't wait to see those thriving Amazon Sword, courtesy of pbmax, and Sunset Hygro from lars on, who originally received em from Lamental Jester. Thanks!



Rotala Indica is growing in pretty well. Got it from Petco, and it finally started growing submerged leaves, woohoo!!



Baby Tears, that I got from pbmax waaaaaay back when I made my first purchase of Red Cherry Shrimp from him. it started out as just one little stem that made its way into one of the baggies, and I didn't know what it was at the time, but figured I'd let it float around in the 10 gallon tank... and then it started to grow...and grow...and grow... and now, I've transferred it into the 20 gallon walstad tank, hoping that it will fill in nicely!



Bacopa Caroliniana (Lemon Bacopa), got it from lars on, during our fishy adventure when we drove up to Everett and Edmonds. Really neat plant that smells like Lemons/Limes when you pinch the leaves! Seems to be growing pretty well, if I do say so myself



Dwarf Chain Swords/Micro Swords, got from petco, which is RARE to find, especially in the Bremerton Petco! Had to get it! Split the bunch into four groups, and placed two in here, and the other two in the 10 gallon tank. They seem to be growing, but I haven't noticed any new growth or runners yet...we'll see.




Dwarf Sag, these little dudes seem to be growing pretty well. Haven't noticed any melting on them (probably because I don't dose any liquid ferts... *knock on wood*) Got these from pbmax.



Got this little nifty lookin' UV sterilizer from lars on, we both didn't know what it was exactly for, but I placed it in my 20 gallon tank, and have it connected to my eheim 2232 canister filter, and it seems to be doing......something. Maybe killing algae things? I don't know. LOL. Had to make a little plastic doohicky that pushes the water out, rather than pushing the water downwards. Figured that, it would help with water flow if the water was flowing horizontally, rather than just flowing downwards. haha...



Welps, that's about it for now, for my 20 gallon tank. I might trim some of the plants next weekend, I'd like to give the plants as much time to grow, before I do any trimming...IF I do any trimming. Heh. Till next time!

 

[pbmax]

pbmax, thankfully, the lights are hanging by string (which I need to change, eventually... I'd prefer rope, that's for sure) that can be adjusted by height.

Ah; that was the bit of information I was missing - good!

Update!
Picture time!!!

Got this little nifty lookin' UV sterilizer from lars on, we both didn't know what it was exactly for, but I placed it in my 20 gallon tank, and have it connected to my eheim 2232 canister filter, and it seems to be doing......something. Maybe killing algae things? I don't know.

Great photos, but you need to add more ROOT PLANTS! The cornerstone of a walstad tank is a high density of root plants as opposed to stem plants. You have a ton of stem plants (Hygro, Rotala, Wisteria, Baby Tears, Bacopa) and relatively few root plants (swords, micro swords, sagittaria). Stem plants will grow fine in this setup, but the root feeders complete D. Walstad's micro ecosystem by processing waste out of the substrate and utilizing the dirt. Stem plants feed a lot from the water column as opposed to from their base roots.

UV sterilizers in a freshwater tank are typically used to combat green water (unicellular algae). I have one in my hot tub, interestingly enough. I'm not sure what good it does in there, but whatever.

And no worries - sagittaria doesn't melt, no matter what you're supplementing. It's so bad4ss it ignores liquid CO2 - don't confuse it with vallisneria. It'll take over your whole tank with time if you let it... so keep an eye on it.

 

[BillHN]

pbmax, thankfully, the lights are hanging by string (which I need to change, eventually... I'd prefer rope, that's for sure) that can be adjusted by height. I don't normally keep it that high haha, I keep it just about 2 inches away from the water's surface, to ensure that the plants get maximum exposure to the light source. I only had it strung up high enough so I could get a shot of the lights But yes, I do plan on making a better looking light enclosure. LOL. I definitely need to find a way to get the light reflected downwards, rather than having it blasting light into places that don't need it... I'll have to MacGyver it up, one way or another. I have two paper clips, a half bent staple, horse hair, and one grain of sand. LOL

BillHN, well... you know what they say, if they don't find you attractive (implying that to myself, btw. hahaha!), they'll at least find you handy. LOL!! =P Yeah industrial strength velcro can be found in various home improvement stores (Home Depot, Lowes, etc) . . . btw, have you had those fish in there since you added soil to your tank? I'm still scared of putting any fish in mine, because of slightly high nitrate levels from my soil. I've been doing 50% water changes every other day, and my nitrates still hover around 10-30ppm =\ I don't think I want to put any fish in mine just yet. I do, however have some red ramshorn snails in there, and they seem to be doing fine, heck...there are some baby snails in there!

Angelo, the fishies are doing great, and I put them in after clearing out the dirt at least 15 times man.
LOL
And I had the dirt sit for 2 weeks in a bucket, and I sifted through it once a day with full water changes.
When I did my checks, it read 7.2 PH / 0 on nitrate and nitrite, KH (medium ppm, idk the specific, but it was looking good), GH same.
0 On Ammonia.

The panda cories (all 9 of them) and the 5 molly fry are happy, along with my rcs :]
Did I mention I'm ramshorn free?
I only have a couple of Mystery snail babies in there.

And I'm shoving more DH Grass in there tonight [:

 

[PokeSephiroth]

pbmax, I'm planning on getting more crypts, and well... I don't know what else would make nice root feeding plants. Hmm... thanks for the info!

And yes, the UV sterilizer doesn't seem to be doing anything, I've never had to deal with green water *knock on wood* . . . but I guess it's good to just have it there, to prevent any algal blooms, maybe?

I just might have to order plants online, that's the one thing I've been trying to avoid for the longest time now, alas... it seems as though I have no choice. =P

BillHN, oh wow, yeah that seems like your fishies are doing well! Awesome! Pictures, must. see. pictures!

 

[pbmax]

The petsmart tissue culture root plants (crypts, hair grass, micro swords), while spendy, definitely guarantee no hitchhikers. The only nasty hitchhiker I didn't want that I obtained via online plant buys was hydra. That was easy enough to fix.

Technically UV sterilizers damage the DNA of micro-organisms that pass through them and thus prevent them from reproducing. I may try one at some point before I try snazzier shrimp.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

pbmax, I'd definitely buy them... if they were healthy. Although, a lot of their plants are ridden with Black Hair Algae, or have lots of holes in them. I don't mind the snails so much, heck...I'd ask for more snails from them, if I could (but it's illegal now these days) . . . .

I saw a couple crypts that I've been eyeing at, maybe I'll get those... maybe.

 

[pbmax]

Well, you don't buy the brown ones. I've never seen algae on Petsmart's TC top fin brand plants (carboard container, plastic bag with plant + gel goo on the bottom). For a while they weren't getting new stuff in very often (and had some very sad looking packages that had obviously been on the shelves for weeks), but they've looked fantastic the last 3 times I've been to Petsmart in Lacey.

I've purchased 3 or 4 packages of brazilian micro swords from them and 3 packages of green crypt wendtii. All are thriving The crypts didn't even melt much after I planted them - that's a big plus. My DSM thread tank is all Petsmart TC plants.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

Yeah, the petco and petsmart over here in Kitsap aren't....very..... good at keeping live plants. You could even ask Lars On. LOL I bet the stores over on that side of the Sound are better stocked the one ones over here.

 

[Betty]

You should try to make it out to the GSAS general auction. If it's at all like last year's, there will be tons of plants of all types, along with all of the other items. You do not have to be a member to attend the auction. Admission is free.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

Betty, oh yes, I definitely plan on going to the auction!

 

[jrmakawoody]

is this the one that i gave you and i was afraid wouldnt hold water?

 

[PokeSephiroth]

jrmakawoody, nope. I got this from a trade from a friend in Olympia. He basically gave me a 20 gallon long tank, for some of my plants. He also threw in a lot of extras

But yeah, the one you gave me, I gave to lars on, and I think she's going to use it as a grow out tank for plants. I only filled it up to about half way and felt kind iffy about filling it with more water. Hehehe

 

[jrmakawoody]

yeah, that thing is VERY iffy haha. It might be okay if she reseals the crap out of it!

 

[PokeSephiroth]

It's... I dunno. The glass seems a lot thinner than an aquarium tank...almost felt like the glass was bowing even when I only filled it half way with water... hehe

 

[jrmakawoody]

well, i suppose she could have a "10 gallon long" by doing that haha. Your plants are looking good in that "walstad" setup. the Sunset Hygro is preeetttyyyy