For my father-n-law's birthday I picked him up a 4g Finnex rimless deluxe tank kit, with the idea of him turning it into a planted tank. While doing all my research I got interested in a technique called Walstad method or low tech planted tank. The idea is you only top off the tank, never do water changes. The flora and fauna are to self support each other more or less. Fauna will come in a couple of weeks when the tank finishes cycling.

Since this is uncharted territory for me, I decided to pull all the plants from my other tanks and set up one with all my extra equipment. My only purchased was miracle grow organics choice potting soil, a clamp light and 6500k 23w fluorescent bulb.

There is roughly 2" of mud underneath all that sand! Only plants are two types of anubis, java fern and sort of floating plant.

Crappy cell phone shot:


Hopefully this plays out nicely and if so I upgrade to a much nicer tank with a better focus on layout.
Stay tune!

I've read some things on the Walstad method and would be interested in hearing about your trials, tribulations and successes.

Good Luck & Have Fun!

Looking good Mike. I will being doing a lot of reading in this section. Like Ben I pretty much kill everything green under water except algae. Lol. Please keep us updated.

Thanks guys, we will see how green my thumb is. The only plant I've been able to keep alive is that small anubis that grew onto/into the holey rock. That was roughly a year ago and probably only survived because I had it in the fry tank.

Btw this was just started last Friday.

Time for an update! Since our last installment I have add seven jumbo neon tertas to the tank ( thanks to Jen heads up on the ps special ) and two marimo moss balls. Despite saying that there will be no CO2 on the tank, there is now a homemade CO2 running via coke bottles, yeast and sugar. Actually produces a bubble every few seconds now. Found the recipe at plantedtank.net and says it’s good for roughly 3 weeks...we will see. Other than that, I have not done water changes or even cleaned the glass (on the inside).

Enjoy the photos!





And one of the CO2 line attached to the intake.

Wow that is a nice tank... I am also in with Ben & Flip. I tend to kill off the plants too. still cant figure it out. I like the Moss Balls I have been thinking about adding some to my tank, I just dont know how the Cichlids are going to do with them. Love da Pics.

This is coming along great! I love how you've 'scaped everything with the wood and the plants, and I love marimo balls. This is a very pretty tank.

You can really get some fast growing plants in there now with the CO2. The coke bottle method works great. What I used to do is keep two going on opposite schedules so when one was running out I still had one getting rolling.

Thanks gang for the compliments! It's really just tossed together with left overs!

I don't want to go tooo crazy with the CO2, but Liz, maybe you can suggest a nice ground covering plant that would handle low CO2 and light?

That's going to be tricky. However, I've had good luck with Marsilea quadrifolia, or dwarf clover. If you look at my "natural aquarium" thread its the round-leaved ground cover in the planted bowl. That tank did not have high light or CO2 and it eventually covered the whole bottom. That would be sweet in your tank!

Looks good Mike! This has been running for 2 weeks and everything looks healthy .

Quote:

Marsilea quadrifolia, or dwarf clover

Thanks I have a few more experiments up my sleeve this sounds like an awesome plant.

Thanks Liz, that's a great suggestion! Just in time for St. Patricks day too!

Well, in the submerged form it typically has only two leaves, but clover is clover, right?! Its one of the easier substrate plants to deal with, and it is easier to plant in sand than in gravel, but you'll still need forceps or something like that.

Nice pic!

Brain, let me know if your interested in some too, we could split an order if ya like.

It's about time time for an update!

Brian came by a couple of weeks back with some trimmings to add to the tank, they have taken off like wild fire and in need of trimming themselves now. On top of that I was at Pet Paradise just before then and picked up about a dozen ghost shrimp (feeder shrimp) for something to do some cleaning. Seem to do ok, but they are no pleco.

I also just replaced the CO2 yeast/sugar mix last night, the system had really slowed down in production, but it had been almost a month since I had started it up. So I feel pretty good it lasted as long as it did.

Along with all that I have just been topping the tank off with roughly a half gallon of water every week due to evap loss. Still seems pretty odd not to do water changes, but everyone seems happy in the tank.

Gorgeous! It has really started to settle in - looks great.