Help Getting Started

After reading everyone's exaltations about sand in their planted tanks, I've decided to give it a try. My problem is that the more I read about starting a new tank, the more questions I have. Please feel free to only answer the questions you can and thanks to all in advance.

Do I have to use soil under the sand?
Has anyone had a successful tank without soil?
When do I add MTS to ensure the sand/soil gets stirred?
Is it preferable to plant before or after I fill the tank?
How do I keep from stirring up the soil if I wait until it's filled with water?
In one of my tanks, I want to grow HC. Can I use excel or do I have to use CO2 (It's for a 5.5 gallon tank)?
Has anyone successfully tried the Walstad Method? It appears I can set it all up in the first day, including plants, which is very appealing to me.
Has anyone successfully tried the emergent method when planting HC? How about the submerged way (with water in the tank)?

you dont have to use soil, but if you don't, root tabs are a great help. some plants do fine without them (the easier to grow ones like pennywort, java ferns, moss, etc)

I dont use soil, but I am using root tabs as needed. I have also done a tank in which I mixed potting soil into the sand, then rinsed it a little bit to leave some organic material.

Add MTS whenever you want to.

I like to do it after, but again I dont use soil. Its hard to plant when the plant is laying on the bottom, IMO, but I think you could do either. If you use soil, I would plant before.

I don't think its an easy thing.

Dunno, but be careful when dosing excel in that small of a tank (I killed my habrosus that way)

yes. but I ended up dumping the tank due to an unfortunate snail incident. It's not hard. the only difficult part for me was keeping the sand on top and the dirt on bottom

dunno

Are you saying your tanks just have sand on the bottom? Nothing else added?

thats what I used for a long time, when I had easier plants. Guppy grass, pennywort, java ferns, anubias, java moss, and water wysteria all did quite well with nothing but sand. I now have some more temperamental stuff, and I use flourish root tabs near my red ludwigia, sword, crypts, vals, and lilies. I have excel, but don't dose it regularly. I just use it as a spot algaecide for the beard algae that pokes its head once in a blue moon. (maybe every two months).

I should clarify some things though:

1. I have collected sand from a creek, so it probably has more organic matter.
2. I have collected logs, which are soft and deteriorate.
3. I overfeed and have snails, which adds organic material
4. I don't vacuum the tanks very much at all.

If I were you, and knowing that you have pretty decent experience with tanks, I would do a walstad setup. I think you would like the results. I was very happy with mine, and I would still have it if it wasn't for accidentally crushing a dead snail and making the whole tank smell like death. The tank that I did that with, I ended up rinsing the sand, but not too thoroughly, and that is now my 5 gallon betta tank (the one that looks awesome).

You do not need soil but you will need a source of nutrients for the plants. I find it easier to plant a tank before filling all the way. I fill the tank up to the hight of the substrate then plant. I dont have any issues growing hc in eco complete substrate with high light and co2. It grows much slower in fluval flora substrate with no co2. And even slower in fluval stratum substrate. My results may be unique to me. As it seems planted aquariums have a way of sparking alot of debate.

Hobbyorobsession, you are correct about that! There is a TON of debate about every single element in a planted tank. I just wanted a step by step guide for any one method, but parts always seem to be missing. I already have 2 planted tanks with Floramax, but it was a huge pain to plant HC in the stuff. It always floated to the top, so I wanted to try something smaller. I like the look of sand, so I went out and bought sand. As I began looking around online for tips and tricks, I found there are a million opinions on the subject and most contradict the others in some way.

I'm trying to take my time (aka be patient), so the tanks are being tested for leaks right now.

co2 will help if you can keep it stable. its not the best choice in some circumstances but it works wonders for most planted tanks. the trick is establishing the plants first and then getting fish in there when u get the tricks down. on a side note i found a powder formula of potassium that worked well in addition to my substrate and then doses as needed. picked it up at GNC for like 8 bucks.

As for ecxel for a liquid co2 i hear it works but the chemical compound at work is Glutaraldehyde and if you look into that chemical its some nasty stuff.. ive used it as an algacide with mixed results but its not a chemical i want to put in to my aquarium and come in contact with on a regular basis.

just take it slow and in terms you can manage. people keep planted tanks with all sorts of setups. just be patient. algae comes and goes untill you learn your specific tanks needs.

my planted tank was my personal nightmare for over a year with hair algea, mysterious fish death and snail population explosions.

the best tips i can give are :

learn to love plants that grow well in your normal conditions.
when algae problems start ...add more plants
when you run out of space for plants ...add floating plants.
in fact floating plants are wonderfull for algae issues as they limit some light and take up excess nutrients like a sponge.
did i mention add more plants.

There is a couple posts on here with people trying walstad, or NPT tanks... I was one of them... I had the best growth I have ever seen in a tank.... Now I didnt follow the method exactly, I did a few things differently... Like having a filter, occassionally using a c02 ladder, Using lights.... I did use soil as a base, some sand and then gravel on top.... kinda three layers.... add water slowly with a hose so it doesnt all mix/stir up.

I did have some snails, got some snail eating fish to clean em up.... then I had small BN plecos for alge... they didnt seem to bug the plants any, there was enough alge in the tank to keep them satisfied. I planted most of the plants before adding water... but I did add some plants later.... it was pretty easy cause everything was kinda settled/packed.

I also did a tank with a flourite base... Some people say wash it, I actually used it with the mudd and all.. then put some dry gravel I got from they Local pet store on top.... again, FILL SLOWLY... I cant stress it enough... you dump water in a tank with that kinda substrate it will be cloudy for weeks. Anyway, Here is a couple links from previous threads, any questions you can also shoot me a PM.

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I gave up obsessing about it and decided to just dive right in. I set up my walstad inspired tank this evening and even put guppies into it. I've been keeping fish for over 15 years, but this is the first time I've ever had guppies. Here some cloudy tank pictures from the front, back, and close up of a female guppy:
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No sand, no shells? Looks like it has fertilizer in the soil you chose... Not sure how good of an idea that is??? Never read anything on it? But besides that it looks nice.

The first 2 inches are Organic Miracle Grow. The 3rd inch is black and gray sand mixed together. The difference is noticeable in person. I wish I hadn't thrown the gray in though because it just looks like kitty litter. lol. Live and learn.

I'm a little late to the party... but here's what I've learned about Walstad tanks after months of off and on research and setting up two tanks (a 2.5g and a 20g, both running without major issues... yet ).

The general direction over on the El Natural forum at Aquatic Plant Central is to use no more than an inch of soil and cap it off with an inch of gravel or about 1/2" of sand (coarser grains like pool filter sand are preferable here). The idea is that too much soil on the bottom may cause anaerobic pockets to develop and start discharging toxic gases into the aquarium. I haven't read any first hand accounts of this happening, so it's probably not a huge deal, but it's something to keep an eye out for. Depending on how fine your sand is, you might want to take a little bit of it out to encourage gas exchange with the soil. If it's very coarse sand or gravel (it looks like gravel from the photos), then you're fine.

It's probably a good idea to add more root plants. It looks to me like you have mostly stem plants in the tank - those won't take up as many nutrients from soil and therefore won't grow as well in a NPT as root plants (amazon swords, pygmy chain sword, crypts, etc.) will since the water column isn't typically fertilized in a NPT.

Looks like a great start! You're going to post periodic updates, right?

You may have already seen this, but here's an article written by Diana Walstad that discusses (among other things) growing HC in a NPT.

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A friend of mine likes to walk by and pound the bottom of his tanks.... lets the c02 bubbles out.... but he has a degree in some kind of water biology.... so I couldnt explain it the way he did. ..... wish he was still a member here.