Don't Make These Mistakes with Walstad Method Planted Aquariums - Dirted Tank Disasters
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 พ.ย. 2021
- The Walstad Method is a specific style of planted aquarium using dirt as a substrate, but many aquarists make huge mistakes assuming their dirted tank is following the Walstad Method or miss important parts of it's design that lead to dangerous failures.
Want to learn from Diana Walstad's wonderful book, the Ecology of the Planted Aquarium? You can get it here: amzn.to/3D5u3xA (paid link)
Father Fish's review and explanation of Diana Walstad's book: • THE WALSTAD METHOD
Blake's fantastic guide for setting up a Walstad Method tank: • How to Set Up a Walsta...
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I think one point you missed is that some people (like me) are interested in the walstad method simply because it attempts to mimic the natural world, and I find it fun trying to create a mini self-sustaining ecosystem. That being said, I'm new to the hobby so I'm speaking from limited experience.
I agree, that’s exactly me. I love the fact it goes back to nature and I love the challenge of recreating their natural habitat.
That’s why I’m getting into it
It can be done there is a guy that does saltwater tanks that type of method, no dirt but natural sand rock no filtration Even outside, and no algae
FatherFish has improved this method so it is long term sustainable.
Same here fam. Have kept fish fresh & saltwater.....asides from reptiles. Then went to heavy high tech aquascaping......
But now, this is a whole different thing than aqua soil tanks.....Yes a TRUE WALSTAD method. Indeed low tech, no co2, barely an airstaone.....not even needed depending on the fish load....it sustains itself.....it's just so fascinating to me....especially when I have multiple tanks....I will only keep one high maintenance tank & that's my African cichlids.
The science may be "dated", but it doesn't make it any less valid. Walstad's goal was to figure out how to grow aquatic plants efficiently in a tank with a method that required minimal maintenance and no advanced technology (CO2 injection, special filtration, high-end fertilizers, etc.). As it turned out, that meant mimicking nature---heavily planted, ultra nutrient-rich substrate, a minimal exposure to natural sunlight, and a moderate to low bioload. This natural approach relies on scientific knowledge (limnology, botany, aquaculture, organic chemistry) that really has been established in the scientific literature and mostly unchanged for many decades at this point.
I look at the Walstad method as one approach to a good planted tank. Other approaches using substrate nutrient supplements, CO2 injection, and powerful lighting were being used in Walstad's time in the 80s and 90s as well, and they worked. But she wanted a cheaper, more natural process that required less maintenance on her part. Hence where her method came from.
Gravity is a pretty old scientific concept. My feet still on the ground today.
@@carvedwood1953 Gravity isn't a scientific concept, it's just a name given to something that already existed. Sorry, my smart ass had to say it.
@@feralon9570 Gravity is a scientific concept. Words generally are a name given to something that exists regardless of if they are scientific concepts or not. Sorry for the same reason lol.
@@carvedwood1953, touche, my friend.
@@carvedwood1953 dude i died at this comment
It’s pretty clear that many in the comments have not actually read the book. Why do that when you can have someone on the internet tell you his thoughts about it. The science may be “old” but the 3rd edition of the book was released in 2013 so I dont understand that argument. Either way, don’t take someone else’s word for it, buy a copy for yourself, support a dedicated hobbyist and make up your own mind. The book has lots of interesting science that will make you rethink how you may be maintaining your tank, dirted or not.
But the book can't be read in 10 seconds so that's longer than most peoples' attention span nowadays
4th Edition (2023) is available now
Walstad is the absolute best method for anyone who wants a practically free, totally self contained eco system that requires nothing more than top offs and feeding. The reason people fail at Walstad is mainly due to impatience. Start off with a few snails, let the tank cycle for awhile before adding fish-and feed less rather than more.
I have failed a good amount of times but slowly getting it lol
It's ok to add fish right on the very first day. I did it because mosquitos bred in.
How long would you leave just ramshorns before slowly adding shrimp?
@@regant7064 after minimum 4 weeks. In these 4 weeks you have to test the water Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate below 20.
@@gabrielpaulino2791Sorry to read. I was successful the first time. Also have about 5l bowl with snails and shrimp I completely do absolutely no maintenance in. I've kept it in direct sun during summer on my balcony. It looked just astonishing red and green and no algae.
FatherFish has cracked the code with scientific research and 50+ years in the hobby.
actually 70+
@@otallonotechnically he’s not wrong
What has he added ?
He's kind, but I question some of his recommendations.
@@D.Uwins777-music
Some of or most of ?
He speaks in such a general way about everything that in the end it doesn't fit anything.
Every fish species are different and need very specific environment. That is exactly why most serious fish keepers are trying their best to only mix fish comming from the same lakes in the wild.
Just as an example: His answer to the question about aquarium temperature is 78°, well some fish may find this very hot (way too hot).
This is just one of the many many things he told people to do without a care in the world...
I've been a big fan of him but now I doubt everything comming out of his mouth since he made me do very bad things to my aquariums.
The Father fish version is the best. I have my tank for 10 years in a 120gallon and no water changes. It works
Dirted tanks are great! And they are great for aquascaping too!! My latest one was cycling from day 1!! After 2 weeks it was completely balanced!! No algae problems, no ammonia spikes no nothing just lush plant growth!! The capping part is not true! You just need a thick enough layer /usually 1 inch!!/ to keep the dirt down! I have 2 inches dirt, 1 inch capping! No leaking at all!! When (re)planting, as with every aquarium soil (yes, even with the "fancy" ones!!) you'll have a bit of cloud for like 15 mins, that's all!! I'd highly recommended dirted tanks to everyone!!
I have multiple waldstad style tanks the thickness of the cap is dependent on what you use as a cap. Sand a inch or so is fine. But if you use rocks 2in is best.
I used Caribb sea sunset gold cap in my dirted 10 gal and pool filter sand cap in my dirted 33 long. 2-3 inch sand cap. Working perfectly. I will never set up an aquarium without dirt ever again.
mine has been cycling for 3 months. I'm going to give up on the tank
@@adaml5473 huh 3 months what do you mean
@@adaml5473 to boost the cycle please use beneficial bacteria
My 75 gal. planted tank is about 10 years old. I can see how aquascaping would be almost impossible. These tanks are more like wild jungle gardens. I started out with a Walstad tank, but added a small filter because of fish load and a bar light(low natural light in home). Really enjoy the low maintenance. Plants grow really fast! Lush and healthy plants. Various Cryptocoryne have mostly taken over.
FYI, you can scape such tanks. Takes for labor to do so. Often means a few water changes are done. More labor if often not a goal and few using this method want more labor, so they let the tanks go and be a wild jungle. Same can be said for bonsai, if you let a tree grow out and do not trim it, it's a bush. Not really a bonsai at that point, but you do not have to do as much labor with a bush.
At approximately 1 minute and 17 seconds into the video, it became evident that the content was diverging from the educational intent I had anticipated. My objective is to engage in learning experiences that build upon the collective knowledge within the field of aquaristics, rather than to witness discussions that may detract from the professional achievements and contributions of individuals, regardless of when their studies were conducted.
Given the nature of the discourse observed, I find it necessary to seek information and learning opportunities elsewhere. I value environments that foster respectful and constructive dialogue, aimed at advancing our understanding and appreciation of aquatic life.
My class of three year olds and I set up a Walstad tank in our classroom in October of 2022. We did a lot of trial and error with different plant species until we found a combination that have worked the best. The tank isn't a perfect Walstad method, and we're planning on breaking it down and redoing it at the end of the school year. The mistake we made was not having enough floating plants in the beginning. The red root floaters were taking too long to populate, oddly enough, so I put in dwarf water lettuce to compensate for that. The tank took off like a rocket after that, and we haven't had to change any water since a week after I added the water lettuce.
That is an awesome class project
@@BentleyPascoe Thanks! The children seem to really enjoy it. I love the fact that as a class project, it never ends!
@@AlexIsModded I would have loved to have done this at school 😊
@@zeb33369 same
Dirted tanks are easy with the right mindset. For instance, Algae blooms are only really a problem if you say it is.
Blackwater dirted tanks for life. Nothing better! Father Fish is right! Create a food web inside your tank! It works! In nature those pretty fancy co2 setups don't occur.
In nature a vast majority of our aquarium plants grow emersed, so they're exposed to atmospheric CO2 which is vastly higher than we can safely maintain in an aquarium. That would be the more accurate way to look at it.
I have seen many aquatic pants totally immersed too. They do absolutely fine without CO2 setups
BOOM!
I'll never go back after finding my dirted tank method. I've tweaked it a tad and update it as I go. 👌 Most of the new high tech ways of fishkeeping are simply "for profit" methods. They convince you that you meed all these things when there are in fact and always was perfectly good alternatives.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it! When you find what works for you, no reason to pivot away from it. Cheers!
THANK YOU FOR STATING FACTS. ACTUAL OLD AQUARIUM WATER IS HEALTHY WATER.....IT IS ONLY WHEN WE TRY TO MIMIC THE BIOTOPE USING ALL THESE CHEMICAL ADDITIVES, INCLUDING AQUASOILS. ONCE YOU GO DIRT, YOU NEVER GO BACK :)
I use floating plants. They still complete the nitrogen cycle. Dirt tanks I think are only really advantageous if you need to plant the plants in substrate. I'm too new to dirt tanks and didn't like the idea of using garden soil (recommended by Father Fish) or pond water (again recommended by Father Fish and warned against by different scientific papers). I haven't read Diana's latest book yet.
Worth mentioning that Diana Walstad released a new edition of her book very recently (within the past year or two). I wonder if this latest edition is all caught up with the latest science now. (I haven't personally read it--yet!)
It's a good thing I discovered this video before doing a new tank. I've been wanting to do a dirted aquascape, but not very sure how to fit in all the walstad methods and practices into an injected co2 tank. Now it's clear to me that while I could do a dirted scape, I have to take approaches that deviates a lot from walstad's methods. I'm still gonna try it out for funsies lol. The MJ Aquascape channel had shown that it's actually very possible to do a dirted scape, but he pretty much approached that tank with the same techniques and methods as he did in his other scapes save for the dirted substrate.
Very helpful. I'm just about to start my first Walstad tank. I've read a good part of the book and low tech, low maintenance sounds great to me.
Simple video and gets the message across. amazing job
Great insights. Thank you for sharing. Cheers
I'm a Beginner who used Potting Soil because it pretty much made sense lol, the base i used is an undergravel filter, cap is Fluval Stratum (that was my slight screwup but it ended up working out). I pretty much knew i was going to pack it with Fish so i added an additional Sponge Filter and i use Iron and Fertilizer, my tank is overrun with Algae lol but the Plants are flourshing and the fish are thriving because of an abundance of nutrients in the tank. It's a shallow 12 Gallon Long with about 15 fish and so far im scheduled to do water changes every 2 weeks and i feed twice a day with only 2 day fasting in between a week. I would never change dirt it's the best bro. The best part is the fact that i got alot of pest snails due to buying plants from local aquarium stores, they feed my Pea Puffer and keep him active.
I’ve read this book cover to cover and I think it’s important to mention that Walstad isn’t presenting this book or method as the end all be all of planted tanks. This isn’t a clinical trial with highly technical research. This book was written from her own experiments and an expansive understanding of aquatic ecosystems.
My point is it seems like you’re mad at Walstad when you’re actually annoyed with people who didn’t read the book and have a misconception about what is in it. The Walstad method is valid but it isn’t everything, and obviously technology has advanced, but the point of a Walstad tank is to be low tech.
Not mad at Walstad at all, there's just a lot of mistakes people often make. That was more of the goal here.
Nothing beats real sunlight. Even in direct light a tank goes through a stage where algae goes nuts but then the higher order plants synthesize phytotoxins to keep those buggers down. I’ve done a few experiments where I left a rather small tank to its own fate on a windowsill and things balanced out perfectly in the end.
A few months later and the bowls look amazing, I only had to clean the glass on the inside once.
Do you let the Sun light hit the sides or just the water surface?
@@globalist1990 pretty much exposed to the Sun in the south facing windowsills. In the summer trees do somewhat reduce the exposure.
Same here, i have several bowls, vases, aquariums and tubs outdoors here in South Fl. It takes a few months or a few weeks sometimes but they always balance out. Once i stock them with some guppies or Angelfish n tetras in the bigger tanks n tubs i do not overfeed cus that would start an algae bloom. I feed flakes, pellets and frozen foods 3 or 4 times a week, sometimes less but i do culture Scuds, seedshrimp(ostracods) and regularly introduce batches in ever vase, tank or tub. I go with 1 inch or 2 of organic dirt, depends on tank size, sometimes ill use a homemade sifter to filter out some of the big chunks of organic matter like bark, i add some finely ground eggshells and crush some coral rock(common here in florida) and mix it thoroughly into the organic dirt. Then cap it with pool filter sand, sand from our local ponds n lakes(i rinse it out with tap) or a very fine grain pea gravel. The plants i grow and sell, Jungle Valisneria, Dwarf Saggitaria, Pearlweed, Monte Carlo, Hornwort, Amazon Swords, common Hygrophilla, Rotalla and Ludwigia varieties, easy epiphitic types like Java fern n moss, and Anubias, some bulb types like Aponogeton Ulvaceous and then all kinds of floaters, Water lettuce, Salvinia Cucullata, Red root floaters, Amazon Frogbit, giant and regular Duckweed, Azolla, and Water sprite which i mostly let float and grows best for me. Outdoors i dont run any devices except now in winter a heater in my big 100gal stock tank where i keep 2 Angelfish pairs and a school of Red eye tetras. We do get dips of 40-50° here during this time and these tropical fish might not take it but thats it. Most of my tubs and vases have guppy n guppy fry that tolerate the dips. This doesnt have to be super complicated unless you want to do dutch style types of aquascaping other than striving for that(and id venture to say theres someone somewhere thats making this breakthrough with low-notech) you can have beautiful natural planted tanks. Its an ongoing experiment for alot of us but if you enjoy it its not a burden.
Love the video. Thanks for the work.
Im here because Father Fish...
Thank you so much. I appreciate your transparency. Just bought her book.
I’m definitely doing this type of tank to make an ecosystem. I appreciate the tips in this video.
If you take your time and do it right, they can be amazing
Thanks, well ilustrated, thus we can manage our expectations.
Yea. I’m new to this. Got my first tank last week and it’s been cycling for a few days. My 20 gallon tank has soil, a few plants in the soil, river rocks. I’m not sure if I need this filter or purpose of it. My wife keeps calling my tank dirty. But, I think it’s clearing up the chlorine. I’m using tap water. The tank is reading high on GH and low on KH. PH is high. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. But, I did buy one of those algae scrappers yesterday. I don’t know what type of fish will be able to go in or what will survive. May try the betta that you mentioned. I really don’t want to use the fertilizers. Because, I plan to use the tank water to water my plants inside and outside.
Hi Bentley. Firstly, thanks for this video and for all videos your doing. Great job in educating people and promoting aquarium hobby. However, with this video I have a small issue. I have impression that this video, unlike your other videos, is not based on your personal deep experience. May I ask how many dirted tanks and Walsted tanks have you had in your aquarium career?
I have an experimental 6 gallon dirted tank.
From the bottom,
- 1 inch of dirt
- Half inch of sand
- 1 inch of aquasoil + crushed clay pot + sand
- Half inch of sand
Running for over 3 months with heavy plant load and some shrimps. So far it's been fine without water change and the shrimps are breeding in it.
Now, this is the stuff I'm really looking for. The science behind Aquascapings.
Thank you for sharing this. Lots of valuable tips here. I’ll definitely be sharing your video with others who are considering setting up a “dirted” tank.
There is a recent video on the KG tropicals channel with Diana Walstad. I would highly suggest giving that video a watch if you're considering a dirted tank. Thanks for watching and I really appreciate your comment!
I have a 5.5 gallon dirted tank and i messed up by not wetting the dirt enough and not having a thick enough cap. It was kinda gassy in the dirt and would release bubbles of methane up shoot dirt all over. Its sense stopped doing that for a few monthes now and is growing plants really well. No ferts. Just an airstone for “filter” some algae here and there but an amano shrimp and a bunch if bladder snails keep it clean besides the cyanobacteria which i just pull out when i see a clump. The tds is super high though (215) but everyone seems happy
The most successful tank I ran was a 10g with Flourite black. The second most successful tank I ran was a dirted tank with that same Flourite black as cap. _However_ I agree with all your caveats; it's not always self-sustaining, depends on the plants. The most important lesson I learned was - sift all the wood fibers out of the soil, much less crying and swearing.
Great tip, thanks
Amazing explanation finally someone laying it down clearly and honestly.
Its brilliant to listen to different views..
I think its really important..that we see both sides of the coin...in anything in life..
I love your tank behind you...
great commentary. I have a dirted tank that has been very successful but I've never actually read the book so I learned something here.
... Not sure how long it has been out but her book is on it's 4th edition, with updates... Walsted's start was with bowls and has said that the method varies for larger tanks...
Some pretty valid points, I've been watching some pretty sad videos of Walstad method gone wrong. I like to look at it from all angles, I want to know what it looks like done right but I also want to see what can go wrong. I'm thinking maybe trying a dirted tank vs Walstad tank.
What can go wrong is mostly due to a bad choice over plants. We have to be very strategic while choosing them and planting them in the right spot.
Plants do fight each other for light but also under the dirth with chemicals that can slow down or choke other plants.
So if you have a big plant that grows quickly and likes light a lot, then around it you want to choose plants that do not need so much light and can thrive in the shadows.
It's all about finding a balance.
Just watched Blake!! Right on!!
Love it bro !
Thanks for this video. Thinking of getting back into the hobby in a very restricted way where I only do 2 tanks to enjoy, I don’t want to overdo it like I did as a kid and got burnt out.
Thanks for a nice overview of how things can be done and why there’s good reasons for looking at things differently. I was getting overwhelmed between Father fish type guys and aquarium co-op, Prime Aquatics type stuff. I mostly want to keep a slice of nature inside that looks nice, mostly plants and a Betta.
One thing I will really know is that it's very easy to over complicate things. The biggest thing I would suggest is really look at the plants that you want to use. If they need substrate plants like crypts, swords, and other heavy root feeders, then a dirted tank or aqua soil can work very well. But if you're looking at epiphyte plants like Java Fern and Anubias, you can do any substrate, even just simple gravel.
Well considering those bigger channels you mentioned suggest using bacterial in a bottle products that have been proven to be useless in every single study, I don't trust them any more than the companies that sell them. There's very little left to rely on.
I've heard Walstad revised her book a few times with more recent knowledge coming to light.
6:25 spot on with the issues. I love dirted tanks but they require you to follow the rules if you want to play.
Can I use an inch of Tropica soil with 2 inches of 2.5mm grain size sand? I just cleared the previous walstad setup 3days ago. Mistake made, added more dirt and I didn't wet it enough. There was recurrent staghorn and BBA algae issues.
But there is one thing you mentioned in the video. This type setup with soil and sand cap is not suitable for adding plants frequently which I do. I used to trim the stem plants and kept propagating them all over the empty space I could find in the tank. If I use the tropica soil instead of dirt, will it cause the same algae problem? The tank is still empty. Haven't made anything final yet. Otherwise I will only Tropica aquasoil as the substrate.
The excess silicates from the sand can cause algae, which may be happening, but this should be ok.
Amazing video
Hi Bently. Thanks for the video. Maybe you could give me some advice. I started a 40 gal L just over two months ago. About 2 1/2 -3 inches of your lasagna recipe lol. I have mostly bottom fish ( cory's, pleco etc) at this point. The stem plants that have anchored finally are doing well, but so many just won't stay down and to be honest, I really dislike the look of this substrate. I also seem to be getting a lot of brown algae on my glass and cloudy looking water ( I have a good light). Is it possible to cap this stuff? If so what and how much would you recommend? Must I unplant and remove all decor? Would this harm my fish? ( I have 2 hob filters) water parameters are good. Thanks for any advise!!
My first question is maybe which substrate are you using? You mentioned the lasagna method, but we're talking about dirt in this so I want to make sure I'm addressing the problem correctly. If you have a chance, shoot me an email at bentley.pascoe@gmail.com and give me a picture of your tank and we can work back and forth to try to fix the problems you're running into
hi bentley , hope you keeping well my friend . bentley i got a question , i did a father fish style dirted tank with many stem plants . The plant growth is phenominal but the amount of malm is equally phenominal , in fact it was so much that when i cleaned the walls of my tank im convinced it led to a massive bacterial outbreak in my tank . that sort of cleared it self about 10 days later when the tank walls algae/slime grew back . Since then i added a HOB filter and a small canister filter that i shift around the tank to remove the malm . I also added more sand to cover that initial mass of malm . Obviously with filtration my tank is no longer a father fish tank as the filtration is taking care of the malm . I was actually quite annoyed at father fish and his system because he does not point this floor out in his system and once i experienced this issue i watched some of his videos and you will notice his tanks aren't 1" soil and 2" cap but in many videos half the tank is substrate which firstly i dont want as it literally turns a 29 gallon into a 15 gallon tank and secondly it indicates to me that he has the exact same problem but instead of filtrating he just keeps throwing sand over the malm . Don't get me wrong i am loving the dirted substance but without filtration its a nightmare ( besides the 3 tank sides I have no algae at all ) . My question is , why is my water permanently slightly cloudy . In this 29 gallon , which in reality is probably 20 gallons now , i have 5 long term female bettas ( was 12 but they sorted that out amongst themselves and has been 5 now for several months ) i have one siamese algae eater , 6 regular corries and 3 pygmy corries which i moved there from another tank but they to have been part of the tank for months . My tank seems to be nicely balanced , althogh i keep cutting and replanting plants in it , and I leave 3 of the walls covered in that slime/algae and only keep the one front glass cleaned for viewing purposes . This tank , in winter here also gets a very little real sunlight on the one edge where I have a small colony of cyano bacteria in the substrate , but this is not a problem i feel . I have many plants in the tank , even 2 amazon swords whose leaves are breaking the water surface . Since filtration was put on i really love this tank and it is infact almost maintenance free now with the exceptions of filter media cleaning and although i dont have to , I do a 20% weekly water change . I primarily do the water change as my plants really seem to like it . Why is my water cloudy ? P.S i also have an airstone in the tank that i only run from time to time and i also only run my filtration a few hours day to control the malm
The only problem with this explanation is you mentioning a true Walstad isn't supposed to have external filtration. Diana Walstad herself says she uses small hang-on-back filters for smaller tanks, and canister filters for larger tanks. She does, however, recommend taking out some or all of the biological filter media so that the plants do most of the conversion of nutrients, but never to just completely remove water movement/ mechanical filtration. From page 112 of 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: "My point is not to advocate dispensing with filters altogether, but I would urge readers to believe in their plants more than trickle filters."
Yeah, so it doesn't end up like a dead water
extremely infomative and helpfull. thank you for the honesty. Can i use normal sand from the beach to cover up the 1inch soil layer? Thank you
Yes you can
The "theory" of gravity is old too. Doesn't make it less valid.
I started the walstad method 15 years ago , that tank is still going strong and by far my cleanest tank that requires the least amount of maintenance.
That’s why she has 4 editions of the book. She has tweaked it over the year
Glad I found your video! I just ordered her book and after watching your video I am a little confused, but I think I get what you’re saying. What do you think of the CaribSea eco substrate planted? I’m going to use the black and I’ll get the coarse black sand too as I wasn’t aware of it needing a cap.
Eco complete is great for less demanding plants or to mix with other substrate. You only need the sand cap with dirt, it's not required if you use eco complete as your base.
@@BentleyPascoe Good to know, thanks! ❤️
This might sound strange to you but your aquatic environment has memory...Its because within natural aquatic environments there is a direct corelation between seasonal biomass i.e the nutrients it produces and the population of organisms that are able to populate in accordance the amount of those available nutrients.. for example if a tree sheds its leaves into a pond by season two the population is able to increase in accordance to the quantity of those nutrients,, although a tree will produce more nutrients seasonally its increase is able to be sequestered by the expanding population..... if your fish tank has issues its because the increase within that season is too larger to be sequestered by that population of organisms.... So the key to a long term successful fish tank is to maintain small fluctuations that can be sequestered by the end of each season which will maintain a stable population of organisms in the water and substrate! SCIENCE!
I made one aqua scaping with Diana walsted method but it is not that much complicated as you are saying... Plants are not really growing faster but they're growing slowly which will reduce out maintenance,,, also the algae issues are less... I have added more fishes even though I haven't faced any issues
I screwed up and used too fine a sand and it is choking out the more delicate plants. Sad panda. I might have to do epiphites for the foreground plants.
Walstad with geophagus. Match made in heaven. 😆
🤣
I like this video, though I am a fan of Father Fish. As others have said, there are basic scientific principles underlying the Walstad method and so it's still relevant today, especially if you are wanting low maintenance, planted tanks. I do personally prefer some of the more modern methods of creating planted tanks that involve more technology, though. It may look less "natural," but I think it's a mix of nature and human artistry and innovation working together.
I've been doing low tech dirted tanks for 3 yrs now and out of all the tanks i setup i have not experienced algae blooms because i only have the light on for 8 hrs and it's a very cheap lights, also i mostly overstock the tanks but not overfeed. I'm now setting up a true walstad tank thats why I'm watching this again it is setup in a window sill and I'm letting sun all day put fast growing plants and let guppies breed in it.
I chose to go dirtless and use floating plants with healthy roots. I read a few papers warning against some of the things Father Fish was recommending, bless his heart. Floating plants still complete the nitrogen cycle. Also, if I ever do want or need to vacuum anything I still have that option. You can't vacuum a Walstad tank I think. Dirt would be everywhere. I think soil tanks are only really adventageous if you're actually planting the plants in the substrate.
I don't do a full dirted tank. I section the planted bits with large rocks.
I squash clay into discs and that's my " dirt". Then I cap it with gravel. After 112 months, some plants escape the sections and it makes it more natural. Good tanks take time.
Thanks Bentley
What a great video
is it possible have carpet plants in walstad tank? i like hairgrass(eleocharis parvula) just wondering if it's possible in walstad tank , i heard carpet plant cant do well if planted together with echinodorus and cryptocoryne plants is it true?
it is possible with easier plants like some hair grass or something like pygmy chain sword.
@@BentleyPascoe does hairgrass can grow well if planted with amazon sword and some cryptocoryne in walstad tank? i planning to get bunch of plants include some amazon sword and some cryptocoryne which for the carpet im planning to buy hairgrass im afraid the hairgrass cant compete the CO2 with amazon sword and cryptocoryne plants
Very interesting topic.
I agree there is outdated info in the book, as you said it has its time.
But i think the idea she had was to avoid all the technology, that It could be posible and viable in time.
In order to understand better the natural processes.
Just saying 😉
Thanks for your work!
I am trying to setup a father fish style aquarium in an old 2nd hand bathtub. I put in a layer of soil, a layer of sand, some plants (not enough). The water also gets pumped through a gravel bog filter, and that has plants growing at the top to help suck up nutrients (very early days, plants are still small, so their root system isn't having much impact yet). Yes i know thats neither walstad or a father fish method, but i built the bog filter and frame for mounting the tub before i had considered doing the dirted tank.
Let it sit for a month before adding fish
I added fish a few days ago (7 guppies), and 2 died overnight. I bought a water test kit, and the ammonia, nitrates, nitrite were all way too high. I think i didn't do a thick enough layer of sand and nutrients are leaching into the water. I am going to strip out everything this afternoon and start over, with the remaining fish in a small spare tank for the time being. I am very, very nervous now of trying this method again. Hate being responsible for an animals demise. I am thinking maybe i just go straight sand, doing the research now to see what i should do.
You mentioned plants that want "higher nutrients" and like really use up the soil's nutrients. Could you make some suggestions? Or do you know of a good, comprehensive, walstad method plant list?
Most are your lower light plants, crypts, swords, Java Ferns, some of the easier stems like ludwigia and Pogostemon octopus.
Had excellent results with the Walstad method
I am struggling super hard with this dirted tank method. I have a really large bowl that I want to grow only plants (no livestock). I used the basics of Walstad (soil topped with coarse sand) and planted the bowl. It looks good for a few days then gets a nasty film on top and the days following the water is full of white (what I assume to be diatoms) gunk. I’d love some input on how to move past this stage and have a large filled bowl I can finally enjoy.
Usually that film is a protein film that will occur because there's not enough water movement. It looks kind of oily usually. If that's what you're seeing. It's a matter of limited water movement and having food waste or something like that in there that creates this kind of protein film at the top. If you're having it for a different reason again, it's probably due to water movement more so than necessarily the substrate method.
Knowledge is knowledge. Just because it's 20 years old doesn't mean a damn thing.
I was literally just thinking about doing a dirted tank today. I like to scape my tanks not fully aquascape completely. but wood, stone, plants. just not competition level. because I like my tanks to get a bit over grown I looks more natural. and the fish like it better imo. however I always try to match the strength of my soil to the strength of my lightning. and I have high lightning. so I thought pond soil would be the best. but you've got me thinking it's not. I use fast growing stems and heavy root feeders. am I thinking about this all wrong. also if I use my cycled filter that's on the tank now but it's not dirted. then dirt the tank. Will it crash the filter. or affect it in any way. lol sorry for the book I just wrote 😅
I had a tank running for years. My plants stopped growing. I wanted to use root tabs but it turned out my substrate was overgrown with roots: I couldn't push the toot tabs down, it was so densely overgrown by the roots. So I decided to place an upper layer of dirt on top of my old substrate with a cap! The tank kept on cycling as before, the filter was doing fine as before and the plant growth exploded!!!
@@MakiGirl2010 thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I am still going to do a dirted tank. I will only be using a cm on the bottom of my tank. its not that much really
just ran across this video good content. for all Aquarium's the goal for me is to bring a small piese of nature into your home. as long as you have the fundamentals covered you dont have to worry to much about it. my 125 gal has been going strong for around 2 years when i got it and was setting up i remeberd reading a book about dirted tanks and the benifits for live plants. so i opted to try it out i legitimately spent 0$ on my substrate. i had a few old 10gal canvas grow bags i had been useing for a few years to grow tomatos in with old potting soil pulled the old plant matter out and dumped them in the tank got a 5gal bucket and started shoveling some old sand from the kids old sand box and some crushed gravel leftover from the back walkway into it and mixing it up poured that ontop and smothed it over took i think 4 or 5 of the 5gal buckets to get it where i wanted it filled with water hooked up my fluval canister filter and let it run for about a month as i slowly bought and added live plants. after a month i started adding some fish my brother had a fresh batch of baby guppies so around 30 guppie fry was the first addition to let everything start to cycle and become stable 2 years latter and do around 1/4 water change every other month somtimes still get a gas / air pocket come up out of the soil every once and a wile as well as some small red worms no ide how they are still living but the green cory's LOVE them when they find them
You always bring some of the best interesting topics. I loved it all your cuts and that crazy planted tank behind you! ❤️❤️❤️
I was just watching a video with Walstead and another hobbiest. Teaching how to do her method. In the video she says that her method was designed basically for 1 gallon tanks. She said she uses it with some 10 or 20 shallow tanks. Only about a foot tall. But said that she would definitely use a filter on a taller or deeper tank 18 inches. Or more. I only point this out because you said that Her method is designed to not use filters which in a manner of speaking. Is true but not entirely. Still appreciate you pointing out some of the drawbacks or common problems.
Can i use water wisteria, s repens and java moss on a dirtied tank with cherry shrimps? How long does it take to stabilize a walstad tank?
Because a newly setup tank should have 80-90% fast growing plants such as valisneria, cabomba, elodea etc to deal with nutrients and to not get that algae explosion.. after some time other plants that have a slower metabolism can be put in to replace allot of the fast growers. I use sponge filtration or an external one with just lava gravel in, where i swap out half of it once year, twice perhaps with a tank holding bigger fish.. works fine and the tanks just go on year after year, hassle free. If you want a nice planted tank and plan on using a filter w a motor it should not diffuse bubbles and it should ideally pump the volume of the tank x1 or at most x2.. no bubbles, let the water gently rotate the surface.
there are many takes on this. this is part of how my low maintenance planted aquariums are set up. I have been in the hobby since around the age of seven, i am now fiftysix.
I just made it again, adding a mixture of soil from livestock pens, peat that was damaged by caterpillars, and compost. It will be a dense forest.
What’s the best kind of plants for a walstad or dirtied tank?
Hey thanks mate for the shout out 🙏 bit slow on the uptake but certainly appreciate it.
I used Miracle gro organics on a tank lasy week and tjr the ammonia is off the API chart! I've done 2 50 % water changes and it's still off the charts.
Early on they can produce a lot of ammonia and take many water changes to get in line.
The father fish method fixes the walstad issues
Can we use anoxic filter with dirted tank to reduce maintance and increase stability
To my knowledge no,that's a better question for Dr. Novak
THANK YOU FOR THE ENRICHING THE UNDERSTANDING :)
THANK YOU FOR SHARING :)
THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)
Thinking about adding a layer of dirt on my high tech so I can make a custom substrate.
Everybody has bad experiences in the aquarium trade because this is how we learn how to have better tanks but for anyone that gives up without simply getting more plants to absorb those nutrients & like you said not have too much dirt with 2/3 of a cap with someone that should not be in the aquarium trade at all because you will always have problems with everything not just dirted tanks.
Wouldn't mind buying the book. But I no longer use Amazon due to a larger purchase I made from greenergia(trash company) and how Amazon has since handled the issue(no one knows how to do their job). I would gladly use any other link to purchase the book.
Totally understand, no worries. If you find it at another place that is a reasonable shipper let me know, I'd be happy to link to it!
Yeah, grudges make sense!
Can you do a review of Kevin Novak’s plenum style tanks?
I'd have to out one together to properly test it
@@BentleyPascoe I understand. Well I have my notifications set if you ever decide to do one. 👍🏾
does the 1 inch soil 2 inch cap apply to every kind of tank? i just bought a 10 gallon rimless and i dont know what to do. i was buying fish food for baby fishes i will catch and release at the beach this weekend and i saw the tanks were half off and i just bought it for no reason
Yes, it applies to any tank. If you want less substrate, do 1/4" of soil and 1.5inch of cap.
@@BentleyPascoe thank you for your help🙏
I just want to have a heavily planted tank 😫 so much conflicting information everywhere. What are the best aqua soils to grow plants? I’m trying to avoid adding nutrients.
So you'll have to add some level of nutrients if you use water column feeders, which is any stem or epiphyte plant. Now if you're using purely heavy root feeders like crypts or swords or aponogetons, then you can get by for a little bit with an aqua soil.
I never really liked the walstad method much but I only like doing dirted tanks and I don't change water and just try to put as much nature in them as possible I guess lol. I will eventually do vids on how I do my tanks but I make them specifically so that I do not really need to do maintenance (unless I am overfeeding like crazy). Also I don't just use dirt and cap it, that's not very intelligent I think. And I feel a lot of times that creates more problems like buildup of excess nutrients. On my next tank I am going to do one without a cap with dirt mixed with sand, fluorite and tiny pebbles with tons of lilies and tons of live-bearers. Sorry for the very long comment lol
That books older than I am! I do think she made a new version, but it might be old still 😅
There are revisions of the book that have some updated information.
All of my tanks are now dirted (potting compost + additives with sand cap). Mine have all done great long term. However, they have all got filters on them. Whether it be sponges on the smaller tanks up to my 207 on the 40 gallon, anyone who tells you that you have too much filtration and water movement should be ignored.
Completely true about the need for fast growing stems in this set up. Expect nitrates to be on the high side and you will want those fast growers to take care of a lot of that. Just setting up with anubias, java fern and other slow growers will likely lead to algae.
I think that my anbubias and java ferns added to the fast growing plants did as well or a little better then usual though. I use filter too! Why not right?
@@deneng0259 Absolutely my friend. It can only be a good thing. More room for beneficial bacteria if nothing else.
no scape, i just want to do a normal dutch style with plants only, can i follow this method? 😭 ima student so aqua soil is really expensive for me ;-;
Yes, just make sure you have a sufficient cap and test regularly until the levels balance out
Can use play sand that I rinsed as a cap? Do I need a layer of crushed lava rocks under the soil?
Yes you can use play sand just rinse it a LOT. No need for lava rock
Thank you
I'm a noob here
My walstad tank have been running for 3 weeks now. even I put JAVA FERN in it on day ONE. I use 10 watt LED RGB.
and guess what?
It's still going strong with just a little bit of hair algae. I've trimmed rotala green three times and put emersed H'ra a week ago.
So, basically it's good for aquascaping.
Appreciate your experience!
I have absolutely no intrest in a dirted or Walstad tank. With todays technology I'd liken a dirted/Walstad tank to using a Commodore 64 to browse the internet with. I can most likely do it, and it would be a fun little project to try. But is it really worth it to use the setup long term? Seams like too much work for me!
Hmmmmm I would argue the opposite. Father Fish has dirted tanks which have been set up for 20 years.
I have 3 dirted tanks which have been set up for over 2 years now. Once set up and running they are no more work than any other tank. The only 'problem' I have with them is trying to keep up with the plant trimming, the plant growth is phenomenal.
See, extra growth and more trimming. Additional work 🤣
Don't knock it until you try it. Follow the rules and it will be the easiest tank you have ever had.
@@joesmith9103 No, it's not additional work in my case, it's actually a reduction. Yes I have to trim my plants back frequently but the upside is that I rarely have to change water, The plants change nitrite into plant material, this gets exported when I trim the plants back. In my particular circumstances this is a whole lot easier than doing water changes,
What about moving plants? Do you uproot a big dirt ball, or do you simply cut plant as close to the substrate as possible?
can you use an under the gravel filter with a dirted tank?
No. Under gravel filters use gravel.
After this video I now want to try it. I just happen to have an empty 10 gal kicking around. (Yes, my quarantine tank)
Bentley does a good job laying out the foundation of what a dirted tank is. If you want a master course on dirted tanks I suggest looking at Father Fish channel. He been doing dirted tanks for 30 plus years.
Walstad just released a 4th edition of her book too fyi, like just a couple of months ago. It is also the only scientifically researched method.
Just a thought, how does the changing of technology have an affect on a next to no technology tank?
Plants still need light. Rarely is just ambient light enough. Our lighting changes rather rapidly with options, so do other parts of the hobby and understanding of what we can do to create bio systems
@@BentleyPascoe that’s why I said next to no low tech, the light would almost be the only technology, in a matter of soeaking
Good information, but the presentation is lacking here. All of the eye rolling and smirking is really off putting and it could turn away aquarists who are tired of the high-tech expenses and maintenance routines and are looking for something different.
With the couple simple modifications you mention here the method works wonderfully for creating a diverse, natural, cheap, healthy aquarium that requires almost zero maintenance. It can support a surprising number of fish as long as you don't overfeed. The tanks produce and recycle a good amount of food all by themselves. I am all in on natural dirted tanks. Love them!
I wanna know how the places in like Florida look like a crazy aquascape with very very dense plant growth and sustains them lol especially when there's so many fish too.
Think about water volume in those cases. We're not talking a 10-20 gallon tank, we're talking thousands of gallons in just some of those smaller side of the road water systems. Also the fish out there aren't eating quite as much as most aquarium fish do. Then account for the massive volume of plants and that system being in place for a long time to create a very robust bacterial balance.
@@BentleyPascoe that makes sense
Father fish has great video check him out for dirt tanks 👍👍