Started my first 10 gallon Walstad last night, now confused?

[Hilde]

Originally Posted by Brian10962001

The Excel I bought before I heard about DIY Co2 setups so I've just been using it, plus I have a 20 gallon with no Co2 yet that I use it in. I have 2 pics of my 10 gallon regular tank in my sig. I'll have pics of my 20 gallon and the new tank soon as well

Umm! Sounds like you have the collectorist bug. So that is 1 20G and 2 10G tanks that you have? Dirt in the other tanks?

[1aqumfish]

My first tank with the MGOCPS I did not sift it and it eventually stopped leaching the tannins, just keep up the water changes. You can vacuum out any soil on top of the cap.

Tony

[Brian10962001]

Originally Posted by Hilde

Umm! Sounds like you have the collectorist bug. So that is 1 20G and 2 10G tanks that you have? Dirt in the other tanks?

Yes, 1 - 20, 2 - 10s, a couple 1 gallon vase tanks, etc. There's no dirt in the 20 long or the other 10 gallon. The closest I've came to doing this type of setup before was in an isolation tank I made a while back. I used Laterite and Vermiculite under gravel and planted a strand of Bacopa in it. I put a pic of it up in my tank collection.

[Brian10962001]

I typed an updated and tried sending it in last week but the forum kept booting me out. Anyways here it is a bit later than expected.

The tank has gone through 4 BIG (70% or more) water changes. I'm really glad I left the cord with the heater plugged into it on top of the stand where it's easy to access! The water I'm pulling is DARK. I fed some of this black water to the big snake plant I have in my living room and I swear it grew overnight The soil looks completely different now. It's dark black and doesn't look grainy. When I vac the gravel and plant things I'm no longer getting pieces of soil sucked up. One thing that does concern me is that every time I plant I get quite a lot of gas bubbles. They don't smell like sulphur or sewage so I'm hoping it's Co2 being released. I picked up some trumpet snails to hopefully fix this issue.

I've pulled all of the anacharis out of one section and replaced it with some wild looking Wisteria (grown very much out of the water). A lot of the other anacharis is turning brown in sections, but it's shooting out deep green new growth like mad. The Crypts look excellent with great color and seem to be doing well. The Dwarf Sag is bi polar! One plant has exploded and shot across the top of it's section, the other two have melted I'm not sure what to make of that, but I will replace it if it doesn't come back soon. I'm not a big fan of it anyways considering how massive it grew in the foreground. The Anubias and Java Fern seem to be settled in and have good color, but no noticeable growth yet.

Filter is still running with carbon in place, I put a baby betta and a full grown betta in the tank but the full grown one died of parasites he had when I purchased him, and the baby betta decided it would rather live outside of the tank! I've left fish out of it after this. The only live occupant aside from the plants is a lonely pond snail I see cruising the bottom. I'll have some more pics soon. The tank looks really neat with the third section planted different than the other two, I think I might work with that a bit more.

[1aqumfish]

Just keep doing the water changes and let it run in. The gas bubbles will stop after a while. If they smell like dirt not like rotten eggs it will be fine. Just monitor for ammonia before you put in any more fish.

[Brian10962001]

It honestly has no odor. Even the dirt I put in didn't smell very earthy, next time I will mix the MGO with some basic "100% potting soil" which is just a dark, thick earth with lots of grey clay in it. That and I will take the time to mineralize it. I have some Laterite and Vermiculite mixed in with this MGO. I started rooting all of my plant cuttings in just Laterite and Vermiculite and WOW! The root systems that I'm getting are super healthy. I doubt I'll ever root my cuttings in peat moss/sand again

The tank now has occupants! I picked up six ghost shrimp and placed them in the far left chamber. That chamber has a bunch of browning anacharis in it, so it should be getting a nice infusoria culture going. They've been in there for 48 hours and seem happy as can be. It gave me a nice excuse to keep the anacharis in that chamber and with the tanks temp somewhat low at 75 it seems like it fell into place pretty well. I'm holding off putting my dragon scale plakat betta in there until I'm certain everything is leveled off. The tannins are leaching way slower now, it still has that "blackwater" look, but I kind of doubt I'll ever get it to look quite as clear as a low tech tank. I'm good with that, a bit of tannins adds depth to the tank. I also have a 2 gallon NO tech tank right now that has java fern, and anubias tied to a nice hunk of drift wood with a single female betta in there. That tank looks like it's stopped leaching as bad too. I'll post up some pics of it soon.

[lauraleellbp]

I still get bubbles in my MG tanks a year in.

[Jaguar]

See, and I haven't seen a single bubble from my MG tanks! Lots of tannins in the one I didn't sift, though. I sifted the crap out of my 10g's dirt, so it was really only dirt and very fine organic materials, and that one hasn't had tannins or bubbles or any problems for that matter. I compare the dirt to plant steroids