Tank Pics

Here are some pics of my 20 Gal and 2.5 Gallon:
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The 2.5 just has a modrona branch with small java ferns and java moss attached, as well as some "italian" val, and frogbit. The 20 gallon has green crypts, italian val, water wisteria, dwarf hairgrass, anubias nana, java fern, and java moss, flourite substrate, mopani driftwood. The amazon sword in the 20 is being nursed back to health. (i got 20% off due to the brown on the leaves).

Looking good You've picked hardy and "easy" to grow species which is always a plus.

Those larger sword leaves with the spots look like emersed growth so they'll likely die and drop off anyway. It looks like you have healthy new leaves in the middle - that's what matters. Swords are really hardy - it's tough to fail with them.

easy and hardy is what im going for haha, I am really surprised about how much my crypts have taken off! I have decent lighting, I am running the odyssea 24" with 2xflora sun bulbs. I am currently experimenting with DIY CO2 (yeast), on the 2.5, so if that goes the way that I would like it to, I may try it on a larger scale with the 20 gallon.

Lookin' good, jrmakawoody! That 20 gallon of yours will look so nice when the plants grow like crazy! Hahaha Keep it up!

GROOOWWW GROOOWWWWW GROOOOOOWWWW!!! MWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Next project would be, to start up a walstad for that 20 gallon!! WOOOOOO!!!!!! JOIN THE BANDWAGON!! hahaha

Joinnnn usssssssss

Where did you get all that hair grass? Been looking around here for more but alas! None ):

The petsmart in Lacey now carries tissue-culture dwarf hairgrass. You might try looking at one near you. I've purchased multiple packages of their tissue-culture brazilian micro swords and green crypts - they've been doing very well for me so far.

The dwarf hairgrass was found at the silverdale petsmart they usually have it in stock. It's a nice looking plant once it fills in.

I might experiment with the walstad method on the smaller scale 2.5, as I don't really want to have to mess around with tearing down the 20 to put dirt in.

jrmakawoody wrote:The dwarf hairgrass was found at the silverdale petsmart they usually have it in stock. It's a nice looking plant once it fills in.

Indeed. I grew it in tiny glass shrimp container with tahitian moon sand and a ebay chinese LED bulb (5W I think) overhead. I dosed it with drops of flourish comprehensive and it did surprisingly well. My avatar photo is from that container

jrmakawoody wrote:I might experiment with the walstad method on the smaller scale 2.5, as I don't really want to have to mess around with tearing down the 20 to put dirt in.

I tried a 2.5g walstad but it's a continuing exercise in green water, unfortunately. I've scaled down to a 9W 6500K CFL over it but I'm thinking I probably need to go even lower to avoid the water greening up.

Yeah, I'm running a 13 watt light over my 2.5, I can see algae becoming an issue. However, it hasn't yet become a problem, it might be because I have it raised a little bit more off the top of the tank. After my frogbit fills in the top, it would help "filter" the light, so I might wait until that happens, to try dirt.

That's what I figured too, but I've had floating plants in mine all along (asian water moss and red root floater currently; frogbit roots get too long for a 2.5) and it doesn't seem to help with the green water.

Granted, I also have no filtration in the tank. That shouldn't make much of a difference as far as green water goes, but who knows.

Hmmmm...Interesting...maybe its just one of those things that the tank has to go through before it actually clears up.

Weird..my 20 gallon setup never went through the green water phase...

jrmakawoody wrote:Hmmmm...Interesting...maybe its just one of those things that the tank has to go through before it actually clears up.

It's been up for over a year now... might just be time to punt and start over.

PokeSephiroth wrote:Weird..my 20 gallon setup never went through the green water phase...

If I recall correctly you don't have a ton of lighting and yours hasn't been up very long. The more light the more green water, especially if there's a nutrient imbalance. Nutrient imbalances are tough to deal with in a walstad since you're not supposed to supplement them - this is one of the reasons behind the low-light approach.

pbmax wrote:

jrmakawoody wrote:Hmmmm...Interesting...maybe its just one of those things that the tank has to go through before it actually clears up.

It's been up for over a year now... might just be time to punt and start over.

PokeSephiroth wrote:Weird..my 20 gallon setup never went through the green water phase...

If I recall correctly you don't have a ton of lighting and yours hasn't been up very long. The more light the more green water, especially if there's a nutrient imbalance. Nutrient imbalances are tough to deal with in a walstad since you're not supposed to supplement them - this is one of the reasons behind the low-light approach.

Maybe try less dirt? and more of a gravel cap? That combined with less light and floating plants would surely cut down on your green water.

I don't have much dirt in there to begin with and the cap is sufficient. I think what happened is that the soil nutrients were mostly gobbled up the first 8 months I had the tank running - the green water didn't develop until later, if memory serves. The key to any walstad is the plants taking up enough nutrients to out-compete algae. If you don't have enough plants or enough soil nutrients then algae rules the day.

Another possible problem is plants that grow too big. Everything I put in that tank was too big for it...

My point is just be careful with smaller walstad setups. They can be tricky... make sure you pick plants that won't grow too big and plant very densely to start out. If I had it to do over again I'd pick things like marsilea minuta, brazilian micro swords, hairgrass, anubias nana petite, etc.

"My point is just be careful with smaller walstad setups. They can be tricky... make sure you pick plants that won't grow too big and plant very densely to start out. If I had it to do over again I'd pick things like marsilea minuta, brazilian micro swords, hairgrass, anubias nana petite, etc."

Ill keep those in mind thanks

In other words - I did a bunch of stupid stuff; learn from my dumb mistakes!

Haha, you always learn more from making mistakes

That 20 gal is really nice, very natural looking! Good work!

Thanks, Im trying to get that java moss to cover up the fakeness of that root thing on the right, and I planted that water wisteria in front of it to help hide it, the filter intake, and heater.

Oh hey! I have some more java moss to give ya if you'd like some!