Ep.2 LIFE - Betta Tank -Low Tech Aquarium - No Filter, No Ferts, No CO2 (Walstad Method)
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Ep.2 LIFE - Betta Tank -Low Tech Aquarium - No Filter, No Ferts, No CO2 (Walstad Method)
hi guys,
after a long absence i am back with a new update about the "recently" Walstad Method setup.
i've tryed my best to give you a great content.
hope you'll like it :)
for any question feel free to leave a comment!
leave a like and don't forget to subscribe if you aren't yet.
if you want to try yourself i'll leave down here the links for some of the stuff i've used:
lights: amzn.to/30xazkX
substrate: amzn.to/2UD8xw5
sand: amzn.to/30yMBWI
Marxist Arrow di Twin Musicom è un brano concesso in uso tramite licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0. creativecommon...
Artista: www.twinmusicom...
Gymnopedie No 1 di Kevin MacLeod è un brano concesso in uso tramite licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0. creativecommon...
Fonte: incompetech.com...
Artista: incompetech.com/
nice variation. Good job.
Thank you FatherFish, i am a big fan of yours! 😊
you should add some floating plant to reduce the algae growth better, floating plant is a must for lowtech aquascape
You're right they're absolutely amazing in low tech aquariums.
But I used some plants that require a bit more light, so I opted out to not use floating plants.
Anyway there is a third episode if you're curious to se how it proceeds 😊
THE FACT YOU JUST GAVE US A LIST OF THE PLANTS 😍 THANK YOU
Is there no tech at all besides a light? What is the thing in the top right at 12:42? Does all oxygen in the water come from plants?
That's just a small water pump for the water movement, to prevent accumulation of nutrients in water column. But i removed it after couple of years.
Yes oxygen comes mostly from plants and a bit from surface exchange since is not pure oxygen in the air.
Even if there is not co2 injection in the tank, plants will produce o2 anyway because they have to synthesise sugars ànd carbs from CO2
i love this it gives me an idea to plan a new walstad aquarium for my 5 gallon tank i hope it all going well
Walstad method... proceeds to put 2 grains of soil in the tank.
Yo... the Walsted method requires at least 3 cm of soil.
There are 5 videos about this tank, I'll explain I the videos why I put so little soil.... walstad is ment to have not many creatures inside, since I want the tank to have many creatures as possible, which will poop a lot as shrimps and snails, their organic waste will be brand new soil... I show the new soil created in one of the videos 😊
The snails, Malaysian trumpet snails have the peculiar habit to dig themselves in to the ground, and I choose that particular snail so in the process of digging they will drag the poop under the sand 🙃
If you have any questions just ask, I'll be happy to answer if I can 🙂
do you cycle tank? like 50 percent water change everyday in the first week, than scaling up to once a month?
I did 50% every 2 days for the first 2/3 weeks, then 2 times a week 25% for a month, and I stopped, now I do waterchange 20% twice a year just to replace the minerals in the water 😊
Nice job! I have a similar style tank, but I do not clean it or perform water changes. I leave the "mulm" for the snails and microorganisms to eat.
I do the same, but the first months i did a lots of maintenance to give it a good start and try to not have many nutrients and so algae
Well done video. Renewed my interest in aquariums. Maybe I'll get a tiny 10 or 20 liter aquarium soon for a start.
I'm glad you back in the hobby 💪
I think 20lt is the best if you're looking for something small, and if you go walstad once the tank get balanced you just have to watch it grow 😄
Why not tweak it with corner air filter? For circulation and oxygen. Coz too much plants will suck up mostly all of oxygen in the night when the lights out..
They all say 10gal is a minimum for this setup walstad planted.
Idk..
Mine works in any size tank with the right amount of substrate and plants and rhe corner filter will do the job of filtering, housing of benecial bacteria and nutrients circulation in the tank and will cutting off the photosynthesis time of plants.
Idk why this so called experts of planted tanks always make things so long and expensive and time consuming. Mindblown
walstad without soil? mhmm
If you noticed there is just a thin layer of soil.... but for a specific reason..... i planned to have many shrimps and snails, which will poop a lot, the snails are Malaysian trumpet snails, they dig in to the sand bringing down all the organic wastes, so I'll have a new brand layer of natural soil.... i show the new layer of soil in one of the video update for this tank
a beautiful and very strenuous documentary. you are a perfectionist
Thank you 😊😄
What kind of dirt?
I used pond soil, but you can use any potting soil without fertiliser or chemicals added
Do u have a cover to ur aquarium? Isn't the water will evaporate? Or do u add more water? Pls reply
No, I don't use a cover for the top, the water will evaporate, but I fill it up every time I see the water level going down 😊
When you cut the Java fern leaves, don’t pull them out right away, let them float for a couple of weeks while they begin to release the new Java ferns from within the leaves. You can glue those again to the aquarium and propagate them with ease
Thanks for the tip my friend 😊
I tried just sticking the leaf in the roots of the java fern, it worked out and start to sprout roots and leaves, but then al the leaves became black, what do you think it could be?
I think the java fern is not happy in this tank
Great! I love the way you dealt with the problems one by one. Good job.
Many thanks my friend 😄😊
I like nice one very simple . I do the same way last for years
Block out excess light with something like floating plants will help with the algae. With fish in the tank it's likely you'll have small amount of baby shrimps. They make good snacks.
I don't want to spoil anything, there is a third update about 7 months later if you whant.
To be honest I was about to buy floating plants to block the light, but then I thought that is normal to have some algae at the beginning due to a large amount of nutrients, so basically I opted out to don't put floating plants, I just helped the plants to fight the algae by removing some algae, do some waterchanges and adding shrimps and guppies,I also had a problem with blue green algae that are basically bacteria, I saw it is pretty tough to get rid of it, but day by day I removed it and plants did the rest to fight it back. About shrimps as snacks I'm talking about it in the update number 3 😊
Anyway floating plants are great algae fighter, but I didn't whant to private plants of the ligth, I also reduced the period of light till algae was gone 😁
Algae from where? This tank has plenty of plants
It is normal at the beginning for the excess nutrients in the tank, now it is doing very good, it just have to find the balance
@@MicroWorld7what did you have lights on first then how many hours on when you dialed light back to curb algae?
I really like your video! Its very helpful to see how you tackle the algae. I was wondering (for my own future set up) how long you leave the light on for everyday?
Many thanks, I'm glad you find it helpful.
The first couple of months I used to keep the lights on about 7 hours a day gradually prolonging the light period.
At the moment lights are on 10 hours a day.
I split the 10 hours, 5 in the morning then 4 hours lights off and another 5 hours on
@@MicroWorld7 Awesome, thanks so much!
nice anyone else had tried this method? i am current trying it in my new 3ft tank but i didnt fill all with dirt just part of it, its kind of a hybrid
I like your idea, is true you'll have some nutrients in the aquarium water from the soil, but at least you can see which plants are doing better soil or non soil
@@MicroWorld7 cheers thanks friend, just got my plants today all non co2 intensive plants hope my tanks works cheers
Amazing, if you wish, I'll be happy if you want to keep me update about it 😊
Just text on my ig account 🙂
@@MicroWorld7 Cheers friend :D wow thanks
@@MicroWorld7
Question:
1) Walstad method uses what she calls a "siesta" light turned off break. Do you use that method at all?
2) people that add liquid plant fertilizers with using either organic potting soils, ecocomplete, amozinia soils all have similar nutrients in water column, why they need to use extra?
Would that just ask for trouble with algae?
thanks for sharing
Thanks 4 posting this video.
Question, so if I tried this same dirt/sand combo But I only planted 2 Amazon Swords, 2 Java Ferns, Anubis, crypts. All slow growing plants. It they basically struggle with a ton of algae for a long time or wilt & die.
What would be your approach of doing this combo with all slow growing plants instead?
1) would you greatly reduced lighting periods to 2-4 hours Max?
2) do twice a week 50% water changes for at least first 2 weeks?
I know I'm impatient & like to add fish right away & that adds nutrients with food habit phosphates & fish wastes nitrogen doesn't help either.
Any pointers would help, appreciated
I would put a small amount of dirt only in the section where i put plants.
About light and nutrients built-up.
I would take a lower wattage light and put some floating plants which will reduce light penetration and they also eat a lots of nutrients from the water column
Is this tank safe for neocardina shrimp? Some of those worms appear to be planaria. Also, I acclimate my shrimp for a minimum of two hours.
I guess is safe, since there's a big shrimps colony in the tank now
For me it is not enough dirt to be Walstad. Close to 1 inch dirt, 2x more course sand cap. But i am just the begginer, what can I know.
You're right, in the walstad there is more dirt and sand, but there is a reason because i decided to have a thin layer of dirt, i planned to have many shrimps and snails... they produce a lots of organic waste which will cumulate over the time, the snails will dig constantly in to the soil in search of food and to cover from predator bringing the waste under the sand, and that will be the new brand soil... tgere is a video about this tank where i explain this and i also show the new layer of soil that is formed
How many Hours a day i need to keep my light on @Micro World?
You should regolate light based on how the tank is doing, for example i used 6 hours of light the first month, second and third month i hive it 7 hours of light, and so on, now I give it 10 hours of light a day
Thank you ❤️
How much did this entire project cost? And isn’t that is a lot of work! I was with it until about day 70! But it’s a beautiful tank job well done.
Thank you.
Without counting the livestock it cost around 150/160.
The biggest cost are the plants.
It is a lot of work at the very first period you build it, then it gradually decrease with time the amount of maintenance it requires.
Once the ecosystem has its balance you have to do very little other than trimming plants and refill the evaporated water.
And to be honest it relax me to take care of aquariums, so is not a big deal to give them more attentions at their first period of life
what's the tank size please.
19 lt
oh.. thanks. i forgot.. what i mean is dimension
Not sure but I believe something around 25x25x35
No CO2 ? What ? I don't think so. U use CO2. Bobbles come in every plants.
I don't use it, really my friend, it is too expensive for just a 20 lt aquarium 😊
When you have "high lighting plus fast growing stem plants love to pearl. Not so much from Amazon Swords or java fern plants that are slow growing plants etc.
Walstad method is incredibly based👍
Was that a small/pump you attached to the tank? And how long do you keep your lights turned on?
That's just a tiny power head to keep up the water circulation and avoid accumulation of nutrients in the water column.
I keep the lights on 9 hours a day 🙂
@@MicroWorld7 Cool. Could you please tell me the specifications of that power head?
It is a 300L/H
I bet if you used a finer pool sand, and 'sand capped' the soil with 2 inches (Father Fish style), your Algae problems would be little to none. And, easier on shrimp... 😊🍻🎈
Oops, sorry!!
Love the plant choices and scape!!
Beautiful, will share this! 👍👍
Yeah, I follow father fish as well, I love him and his aquarium, I choose the thin layer just because of the size of the tank, otherwise it would have been half sand and soil and half water 😅
I've tried both ways.
Even with a thicker sand cap the nutirents still get into water column. Remember water has to flow through sand to nourish plant roots otherwise plant roots would rot & die. So water moves in both directions.
This of sand more like filter floss, it filter large debris but nutirents are microscopic.
A thicker sand cap does prevent brown water from dirt so that helps a lot.
You learn with a very thin layer or people used gravel they deal with brown water tint for weeks/months.water looks like yes or b
Did the hairlike-stringee algae on the drift wood get to be a problem?
No, just food for shrimps and guppies apparently
Do you remove biofilm from the surface of the water? If so, how often?
Great tank. Thank you.
Thank you my friend 😄
My situation with the biofilm is weird, is not always present in the tank, it appears very couple of months, don't know the reason but I thought shrimps are feeding on it.
By the way I remove it only if is too much, otherwise I leave it there, I do almost no maintenance on this tank
He has a pump at the top of the tank, the circulation prevents bio film from accumulating quickly
Not anymore, I removed the pump 🙂
You have a filter. The header is misleading
No. I say it in the video, is in the description as well and also in many comments, that is a pump for water movement. It is also too tiny to contain the filter materials
Great tank and video!
I have try this method using organic soil, and after 1 week most of my plants (cabomba green, corymbosa compact, pennywort, hair grass) root started to rot and its smells like a dead man.
Try to sift the soil, maybe you had to much organic in it😄
How much soil you used?
@@MicroWorld7 1cm thick and with 4cm vulcanic sand covered it. Only my bacopa grow healthy and green algae of course 😀. I only do small water change when there is biofilm on the surface.
Doesn't seems you use too much soil... I think that is a good quantity.... probably might be to much organic compounds in the soil, or maybe some dead insects or worms in the soil.
It never happened to me.
Anyway try to amplify your waterchanges..... at the beginning in this tank I was doing 50/60% waterchange every 2/3days for the first month
Soil have so many nutrients released in the water at the beginning of a tank
@@MicroWorld7 thanks for the suggestion, I think I'll start over from scratch.
can't wait for your next content 👍
Many thanks 😊 almost have the 0.8 gallon jar update ready 😋
Restarting again the setup can only good for aesthetic.... you can just do better than previous time 🙂
Do you feed the fish or do they just eat the algea? Im going to start my own tank inspired by you and i want to make sure i have everything 100% correct
I'm so glad to hear that ☺
By the way, at that stage I had many algae, since guppies feed on algae I've never given them any food.
Don't know if you've watched the update 3,4,5.... I kept guppies just to get rid of algae, at the end I changed fish 😄
If you have any other questions just ask, I'll be happy to answer if I can.
@@MicroWorld7 i got to episode 4 🥰 five had to wait for me to wake up 😅 the whole purpose of my tank is for shrimp and guppies 🥰 i want to start it then when its cycled add in some pretty babies. I was just curious if you feed them when there is that much algea or if their only food is the algea? I mean if there is not enough to properly feed them of course give them alternate food but with the decent growth you had did you have to feed them?
I got it, depends also on how many guppies you have in the tank, if they start breeding I guess algae will be not enough anymore.... is your tank still young?
@@MicroWorld7 i haven't started it yet. I want all the research done on these types of tanks before i start mine.
Very good, I like that 🙃
It's gonna save you lots of time in various problems 😄
Anytime my friend 💚
Shrimps wont breed as easily when therr are other fishes in the tank. Hense they hide more often now too
You're right my friend, also depends on the size of fish, I was keeping cherry and dwarf puffer, they were breeding fine, and were too fast for the puffer.
Depends on many factors, how many hide places they have, how many they are in the colony or if it is heavy planted or not, same for some fishes that are not compatible each other but some people in the hobby manage to keep em together 😁
What pump are you using to agitate the surface?
this is the exact same pump i use: amzn.to/2LGHoqM
it's a 150 L/H
i keep it at the minimum flow
@@MicroWorld7 thank you! Great tank. About to try a 5gal Walstad too
Thanks....
Great 🥳
What's your plants list?
Prepare to struggle with algae the first 2/3 months, before it finds its balance,
For what is my experience just wait before to put any fish or shrimp and do LOADS of waterchanges... the first month I used to do 5 to 10 liters waterchange every 2/3 days.
The suggestion I can give to you put your hands in the water as less as you can, and if you do it wash properly with just water, in a small tank like those of 5 gallon, just the sweat of your hands can mess up the water parameters, especially the ph😁
did you do water changes in the first few weeks?
Yes, a lots of waterchanges... once every 2 days for the first month just to be sure to have no accumulation of nutrients in the water column
thumbs up if you liked this video?
Only if you like it 😄
Your light was high
At the beginning I used a light cycle of 6 hours, now I have lights on for 10 hours
Do you test your water? If so, how often and for what, specifically?
I never test the water, I stopped testing water after the first year, during the first year of its life I used to test the water once a month 😊
Do you just use local tap water or do you try 50/50 distilled water with tap or RODI?
Is your tape water hard or soft water?
Where did you get the dirt?
From amazon, i got some organic pond soil
Is the pump always working?
Yes, 24/7
Only while it's Pumping
So natural!
But where is the Betta? It was a disgusting clickbait... :D
😂 no buddy, it's not a clickbait.
I just waited a long time before to insert the betta, at the moment is a total of 5 videos, you'll see him, hi is wonderful 😊
@@MicroWorld7 Wow... You didn't kidding with cycling the tank.... XD
I take it pretty seriously 😂
I had an algae invasion and I decided to put 3 male guppies which helped a lot with algae, once the problem has gone I removed em and replaced with the betta once the shrimps colony was well populated 😊
Brother, how many hours you're keeping your lights on?
The first year about 8 hours a dat.... now I keep the lights on 10/12 hours a day
Wow! I'm gonna try this soon! Thanks brother
@@casseycastro1985 try to do the siesta, I means from 8 to 12 lights on, then you turn them off from 12 to 4pm, the on again from 4pm to 8pm... like this you have 4 hours of dark in the evening, so you'll have some co2 back in the tank
Is any kind of dirt okay to put in the tank?
Just avoid the ones with fertilizers or some sorts of chemicals 🙂
After that you can pick up whichever you want 💪
What type of moss is that? Looks exactly like terrestrial badge moss
That's Christmas moss
@@MicroWorld7 Ohhh! Maybe cuz of your super close ups haha. noice
😂
Great video. Very interesting my wife loves it
I'm glad you liked it 😊
Many thanks 😁
Hi! I'm really interested in starting a walstad tank. Where do you get all your plants? They're so beautiful. I saw the list from the previous video
Do you live in the uk?
@@MicroWorld7 unfortunately no. I'm in the US
@@haileybond3412 unfortunately?😂
By the way I don't know any us website to buy plants for aquarium... I'm sure there are loads of good websites that sell good aquatic plants, I heard that aquarium co-OP is selling good stuff on the web if I'm not wrong 😊
Maybe I missed it, but how did you manage to get so many (micro)organisms in your tank?
I haven't done anything 😄
They just appeared by themselves 🤷♂️
I also was doing frequently the waterchanges for the first month and I used bottled water
@@MicroWorld7 Thanks for your explanation, much appreciated!
Any time my friend 😊
It is much caused by amonia from fish food or any dead stuff. The bacteria will come from nowhere , convert amonia to nitrite and nitrate
What type of bottled water?
Why not use your tap water?
Did you need to add Mineralize water 💦
I enjoyed this I need updates, it’s like a soap opera 😂
😂😂😂
Which plant is forming carpet here?
I don't have small carpets plants, I used sagittaria subulata to cover the front
@@MicroWorld7 is this a low tech plant, and can grow without CO2 and fertilizer? Thanks for reply 😘
Yep, sagittaria subulata is an easy growing plant, I noticed with lots of light it tends to stay short, if low light it will get a bit taller, it is a very low tech aquarium... no co2, no filter, no frets and I also stopped with waterchanges 3 months after I build it. It just have a small power head for the water movement, which is very important
Hmm nice one bro 😍add a simple filter to rotate the water 😋
Thanks bro 😄
I had a tiny pump just for water circulation till 6 months ago... but I removed and things seems to go pretty well 🙂
@@MicroWorld7 yeah good and keep post videos weekly basis 😋 because UA-cam suggest active members it's a try to do something then only u have lot of subscribers
Thanks bro, I try but it is not easy to keep posting on a weekly basis when you work full time, but I will try my best to publish more often
Can i use garden soil as first level ?
Then i cap it with sand
yes sure, just make sure the soil is natural and have no fertilizers in it.... and sive the soil to remove all the wood and other bits inside it
What is that white transperent pipe on left side at back is it CO2 ?
Which minute?
Cause the only thing I have is a tiny power head for the water movement 😅
nice aquascaping
Thanks bro 🙂
Tank size, and the background plants?
The tank is 21lt the plants on the background are rotala rotundifolia and ludwigia mini super red
@@MicroWorld7 What is your light specifications and photoperiod?
Light is a 14w led, I keep it on 10 hours a day
Good water flow is a great way to prevent algae. Water flow allows plants to suck up any excess nutrients from the water column. I notice the plants that have a gentle water flow have better growth.
Exactly, it takes me time but I noticed that 😄
And seems also to don't have any algae
What is good water flow man? please explain in detail!!
@@neet6374 Water movement helps prevent gunk from settling on top of your plants and reduce algae growth on them. You learn these little things the longer you keep aquatic plants. Hope this helps.
@larrycung9131 exactly that's another reason i had water flow, now it is more than a year i don't have anymore water flow but things seems good, probably cause there is a very high population of shrimps?!
What are those little worm type things?
nematodes, planaria, detritus worms, they're harmless creatures, at the beginning there will be a lots of em, slowly decreasing in population with the time till they'll reach a balance in number, they are in all aquariums 😊
How did they just appear
@@sydneylee6622probably via Uber?
Subscribing
Oh, I just notice that I already did this before
💪😁
Wow ! Amazing tank !
May i ask how often and how much you need to cycle the water ?
Many thanks buddy 😊
I used to change the water 50% every couple of days first month, the second month I reduced waterchange to 2 per week, third month 1 waterchange every 2 weeks, from the fourth month I stopped waterchanges, I just refill the evaporated water.
@@MicroWorld7 thanks. seems like a lot of work. I have my tank for three weeks now and i got impatient and still can't decide where I'm going to or what kind of setup i want to. But many of your videos give me a lot of inspiration and knowledge.
Maybe I'll try to imitate this one and restart it all over. Cheers !
I think is relaxing to take care of an aquarium 🙂 so it doesn't seems lots of work to me 😄
I'm glad you find inspiration from my video 😊
I believe the best setup for an aquarium is a natural setup 🙂