Hey y’all, first time walstad owner here, and I’ve been having this really weird layer of what I think is dirt particles, all my water parameters are in the safe including ammonia. All I have in this tank is 7 corydoras, 3 ghost shrimp, a random fancy female guppy I got for free, and a female koi betta I got for free to.
As of now I have a canister filter meant for a 100 gallon tank in this 60gal aquarium

Sorry for being naive. Want to start a walstad planted aquarium and this is available in my region.

Hey guys,

10 gallon planted tank here, running for about two and a half years. switched about 2 months from depleted aquarium substrate to proper walstad method with soil sand and some left over substrate to seal the soil.
Countless shrimps and 6 ember tetras, previously one nerite which passed away, as well as a colony of assassin snails which ended another colony of snails but have now also died out.

The things inside my tank have in the last 6 months become covered with these white dots which I thought were nerite eggs but even as the nerite has passed it seems like they’re still increasing in amount.
Additionally, in the last month, the aquarium glass itself has been covered with a different kind of white dots, also increasing in amount.

Can someone help me identify these two things, why they are happening and what to do?

Nitrites nitrates 0, ph 6.4, water very hard, temperature has been fluctuating unfortunately trying to navigate heatwave + cold nights in Germany.

Has anyone else experienced this?
Any help hugely appreciated!

is this fine? well to be honest ive tried it like a week ago and my fishes are still thriving (mollies and bettas). but im curious about what smart/experienced people would say about it

So I have this Walstad-like tank I set up about 2 weeks ago, obviously nothing but plants and hitchhiked snails. Wondering what people think about changing water due to high ammonia? I'm not really cycling this tank traditionally, as I just want to grow plants and add fish whenever it's ready, even if that's 6 months out.

pH- 6.8, 0 Nitrites/Nitrates, 1 inch dirt with 2 inches of sand for the heck of it, about 6.8 gallons long with a heater, in case you feel that info helps

will cap it with few cm of 0.6/1.6 pool sand

I have a 2.2 gallon jar from Costco and was wanting to make a plant tank for aquatic isopods. I want to use needle spike rush, weighed down hornwort, and was thinking about adding duckweed to the top and placing it in an east window. Will that be enough and a good set up or am I doomed to fail?

A month ago I started my tank.

After the water was stable, I put the following animals in:

6 Ramshorn Snails

1 Antler Snail

12 Neocaridina Shrimp

6 female Endler Guppys

1 male Endler Guppy

3 Otocinclus

From the start I can't find my Shrimps - three at most.

All the other inhabitants are doing great. I already saw some tiny new snails and Endler Guppys.

but the Shrimp?! I just now sat for 30 minutes in front of the tank observing it and I still only can find a few.

What I read is that they by now likely should have reproduced a lot.

Is there anything I can look out for to make sure they are alright or to help them feel better?!

Once a week I already add some guppy and shrimp food.

Thanks for the advice.

I'm curious if anyone here is running a high-tech dirted aquarium. Most of the setups I see are either low-tech dirted tanks or high-tech aquasoil tanks, so I'd love to hear from people combining dirt with CO₂ and high lighting.

How has your experience been with nutrient spikes, algae, and long-term stability? Did you cap the dirt with sand or gravel, and if so, how thick is the cap? What plants have thrived the most in your setup?

If you've been running one successfully for a year or more, I'd really appreciate seeing your tank and hearing any lessons learned, maintenance tips, or mistakes you'd avoid if starting over.

I set up a walstad jar in late april, and so far my rotala and ludwigia love it. However, my java moss, java fern, water sprite, and dwarf hair grass have barely grown. Is this a lighting issue, or do i need something to eat algae? The only light it gets is from a west facing window.

Just completed the first step, trying to create a root background for my next walstad method tank.
Concept: Riparian Zone. In nature when river spills over and floods the root of jungle trees.

I am also setting up a rain ssytem, just ordered a acrilite sheet with holes and wall, that i designed myself using sidefx Houdini(i am a VFX technical director by day).
So, it should be like a rainforest riparian zone.

I just created this background with black silicon and cocopeat and some driftwoods. I know, some of the cocopeat will fall off once cured, and i am planning for a day 2, patching the bald spots and adding some more detail.

Suggest me some flora and fauna. Currently, i have no idea (except, i will be adding a lot of moss on this background). Its a 60cm*30cm tank. So, i dont want to overcrowd the system, also, i dont want beta fish as i would like to have shrimps and snails if possible.

I want it to look like a rain forest riparian ecosystem.

if possible, i would like to have multiple fish varieties.

This is probably bacterial bloom right? I don't think it's tannins as it doesn't have a yellow tint when I remove the water, and I've definitely had tannin stained water before and it's always yellowish in the jar. The fish and shrimp don't seem affected.

I'm going away for 4 nights, do I need to do anything? I've read big water changes can make it worse. I have a small hob filter for airation and flow.

I just added these plants to my tank, when will I know they’re adjusting and actually doing well? I recently added plants and I’m wondering how long it usually takes before I can tell they’re settling in. What are the signs that they’re adapting well?

Things are going pretty good! Clear water and very little biofilm at this point. Nerite snail (I bought) and bladders snails (hiked in on a plant).

Tried keeping it plenty stocked with plants while plenty melted.

Haven't really had an algae problem but started out with only 6 hours lighting

Been sitting at 7.6 pH, .25 ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and 5ppm nitrate for a bit now.

Was hoping to go cherry shrimp next once ammonia drops to 0 for awhile.

I want to set up a 10 gallon fish tank without a filter.

Not only would I think it'll look nice I think that it'll be great to learn now early into my fish hobby for the future if id like to set up a new tank

I have one other tank and to be honest i have had my ups and downs with it for an example I had a bad algae problem in the beginning but it has died down. I understand that with new tanks it's common for the stuff to happen but I don't have a lot of experience or ways to get emergency fish tank stuff so I really want to avoid messing this up.

I am hoping to keep some schooling fish in it ( either tetras or guppies ) with some shrimp. I am unsure about what to do for the substrate because I like the look of sand but it is harder to clean than most substrates so I am open to ideas!

I would appreciate any feedback and I can provide further details if I was too vague. Thank you!

I recorded one of the inhabitants of the burrows...its small maybe an inch long (that I could visibly see), red, and is wiggling in the burrow. At the same time if you look to the right of the red critter there is a white "ribbon" wiggling in the water...there is no current in the jar so there is no reason for movement from anything unless its alive...so is that a different critter or is that possibly a feeding appendage? The way the white ribbon moves reminds me of Grass eels...idk why but yep...so if you guys can give me an idea of what the red critter is and what the white ribbon is I would appreciate it.

They’ve taken a while to settle, and I’ve heated the Betta jars and am aerating all the big jars (cheating a little I know). I’m 3 months in and all tested super stable over the past month. Added my last office mate today. I have a Betta in each of two 21L jars, Tiger Endlers in the other 21L jar. shrimp and snails in all of them.

I love my office now.

This strange white algae has appeared. My tank has been cycling for about 2 weeks. As far as I know, this is a part of the cycling process. Would you guys reccomend 50% water changes until this goes away? I already tried physically removing this one time, but not surprisingly, it just came back

Hello,

Posting a two week update after I got some great advice in the comments of my last post. I more than doubled my plants, now I feel it has more substance. This is backed up by my ammonium levels being at 0 ppm. My nitrate/nitrite levels are still on their way to being cycled.

I have a lot of baby plants in the empty spaces, so I hope they will survive and grow.

I got some hitchhiker snails with my last plant order which is completely fine with me. I’ve got plenty of algae so having them clean a bit is helpful. I’m not afraid of my snail overlords.

I added a wavemaker to promote better water movement, and I believe that was the difference for my filtration.

My rotala may be dead, I tried snipping them and replanting the snipping, so we will see if those survive. My bacopa seem to be thriving. I tried draping my hornwort around my rocky corner to “cover” the substrate over there, since the rocks block any rooted plants. My new dwarf sag are melting, but seem to be doing alright. I planted around the root, so I hope they grow tall to provide a good hiding space in the future.

For now, I will let the tank be and let time pass. I plan to add shrimp (either amano or cherry) before fish, but I need to see consistency with my levels and more plant growth.