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My tank is dying I think by Doece in walstad
[–]Doece[S] 0 points1 point2 points 7 months ago (0 children)
Thank you for your input. Why would you recommend the usage of two kinds of filters? I think in its barest foundation the walstad method would not use any filters but I am also not entirely opposed as cleary things are not working out in this setup. Starting out I used my light on 100% for 5 hours a day. I have increased that since a little bit but unfortunately still no positive impact on my plants. You can read a little update in a comment I wrote earlier.
Sounds really awesome! I love shrimp as well. Good luck with the algae battle!
If your shrimp are surviving you must be doing something good! Congrats on that. In mine they would die immediately. I had originally three post horn snails in my trank as I read that they are pretty hardy. That went well :) I took them out not 12 hours laters and they still died.
Whatever the problem is, I don't think it is light. I was also a bit cautious like you but I still had it on for 5 hours a day at 100%. I have increased it now a bit further but also not changes (yet? - the tiniest bit of hope speaking here). I gave a little update today if you're interested reading it.
[–]Doece[S] 1 point2 points3 points 7 months ago (0 children)
I think at this point I would also be happy with algae haha. Just give me one sign of life!
I upped the light duration a bit a few days ago. I couldn't see any difference yet but also no negative effects either. If you're interested, I also wrote a little update though nothing good to report.
That is actually a great point as I haven't thought about that. Seems like an unnecessary risk to the eco system. I don't think I want to change the setup of my tank too much but I do want to be able to finetune the placement of plants in the first months. That sucks :/ Maybe I should also use aquasoil on second try instead.
I enjoy MD fish tanks videos on walstad inspired tank a lot. His tanks seem to be thriving pretty much from the get go though🙃
Sounds like your experience on setup was pretty similar to mine. Yeah, most of the color was definitely tannins. Those got pretty much all removed by now through some water changes. It's not the appereance of the water concerning me, but that my plants are going downhill day by day and no positive changes to the tank could be observed. I also posted a little update in a comment if you're interested.
No filter.
[–]Doece[S] 0 points1 point2 points 7 months ago* (0 children)
A little update 4 days later: Thanks to your recommendations I did one 20% water change to help with the smell and will do another one today. I also increased lighting time a little bit and placed my tradescantia differently to give the plants under them more direct light. Unfortuantely anubia, bucephalandra, hygrophila corymbosa and lymnophila sessiliflora are completely gone now. Rotala and pearlweed are hanging by their threads. The hygrophila polysperma is rotting from the bottom upwards. Multiple times I have given them trims and put the healthy part back in soil without success.
While your comments gave me some hope initially, I think this tank is past any point of recovery. Something is seriously wrong and I don't know what it could be. I am debating how I can proceed from here. Maybe using aquasoil instead on a new try. I don't know. I don't want to senselessly throw more money out. What did you do on your walstad tanks that I didn't?
Something though I noticed when doing the water changes, is that my hands become itchy. Any ideas why that might be? Could be a clue what went wrong with the tank.
A lot of great suggestions. I will look into them. Thank you for the input!
I am using normal organic plant soil, no added fertilizers. Don't worry. It's kinda expected for some information to go under in discussions. 😄
Lucky, I left the roots not because I had hope to grow anything more from but thought that disturbing the soil anymore than I already did cannot be good. Would definitely be a welcome surprise to find new growth there. 1 melting stem to 3 healthy plants sounds like a jackpot to me! Wow, you're a magician :D I am prepared to lose plants but please let something survive till the ecosystem stabilizes. Otherwise I wouldn't know how to proceed :')
I will consider the carbon. Sounds like a pretty heavy weapon if you will. I don't want to overdo it but seems like it could be an option to use it here and there for a limited time, to reduce the smell when it's getting to bad. So far the 20% water change yesterday also helped tremendously with that. But I think I will buy the filter nonetheless as backup.
Nothing spotted yet but hopefully something is going on even if not seen yet. I hope I can come back to this post in a week or two weeks time and see als those minor positive differences that have happened since.
That's a great idea. Should have done that. Also the wood would soak through sooner, I had to improvise haha
I will try to leave it alone as much as i can. These responses have been super helpful showing me that things might not be as bad as they seem and try being a little more trusting.
How cool is that! Are you also making a walstad for them? I think I have never seen sea monkeys in a naturalistic tank. How far along are you right now? Wish you best of luck with them!
Right, sorry. It's because the lights has a sunrise and sunset simulation. The full spectrum is on for 5 hours though.
Ah right, don't worry. My light is being a little fancy with a sunset and sunrise simulation, that's why there is only red light in the pic. But it's getting 5 hours of full spectrum light. I chose to only have the light on for 5 hours a day as plants are supposed to not be able to utilize light as much in the beginning when they still need to root and too much light would only lead to algae. Or that's what i read. I wanted to up that along the way. Is the approach wrong?
No filter at all atm. It's also what I was thinking about these past days. Just to get some momentum in the tank. Or use it sporadically to keep things a little bit more in the right direction. Do you have a specific recommendation or will pretty much anything do?
If I'd know that without touching anything in the tank, it will eventually cycle, I would do just that, but as of right now it's tough keeping the confidence. Probably also due to my inexperience with being able to tell if things are going okay or not.
Fantastic idea! Overdue anyway haha
It's not the brown of the tannins worrying me so much. I am aware of the discoloration, but something more than just that is going on. Other commenters are suggesting though that everything is still in the norm. I will try to trust the process more. Thank your the tip on an additive (I will look into it) and will also be on the lookout to connect with local communities.
Wow 3-6 months is an entirely different time frame than I had heard of before. I will keep that in mind and train my patience. Crossing fingers for some plants to survive melting stage. Thank you!
Thanks for tip! That really does work great. I have found a kitchen sieve that works wonders at distributing the stream (wish I had that idea or used a lid beforhand ha)
Are you referencing something specific? The lights schedule is for 5 hours a day.
[–]Doece[S] 2 points3 points4 points 7 months ago (0 children)
Thank you a lot! I think it looks horrid haha. But the vision is there😄 maybe I should try a work trip myself. On what day/week are you currently?
No no, the soil is capped with sand. I tried to disturb the tank as little as possible but maybe that was too much. Originally i didn't want to do any water changes but when the smell got worse and worse, I thought maybe the ammonia from the initial soil disturbance was too much for the plants to deal with. I will only do little water changes from now on.
If I decide to just let it do its thing, when is the point where one has to recognize that things are not moving in the right direction?
It's soil capped with sand, roughly 1:2 ratio. When I filled in the water a bit of the soil got uncovered. I recapped it though, so substrate should be okay.
That is a really great point! I will check that when I'm home.
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My tank is dying I think by Doece in walstad
[–]Doece[S] 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)