Soil / test tank

[Jnad]

Hello!

I am going to start a low tech Walstad tank with dimensions 35,5x35,5x18 inches.

Beacuse i am going to use soil i decided to test the soil setup in a smaller tank first, a 12x12x14 inches small cube.

The tank has been running since 31-january with 1 inch of soil and 1 inch of sand 0,2-1,0 mm grain. There is 10 Mosquito rasboras and 5 cherry shrimps in the tank and a lot of plants.

I did some water tests today:
Ammonium: 0,0
GH: 4

It looks like the soil is ok to use and the plants is taking care of the Ammonium but the GH seems to be a little low.

When starting the larger tank should i mix in something in the soil to rase the GH?

Jnad

[wkndracer]

My feeling is that 3-5dGH and 2dKH is ample mineral content for my fish and plants.

[Jnad]

Hello!

Today there was a happening in the tank. A big bubble of air or gas realesed from the bottom, it was of a size so it splashed water on the light over the tank when it reatched the surface. It also brought some sand in to the water column, i can see sand on some plant leaves. But fortunately there was no cloudyness in the tank water after this.

Is this normal in the start of a soil tank or is it beacuse the sand cap is not letting the soil breathing?

Jnad

[wkndracer]

gassing is normal and if mounding appears to be happening a manual release using tongs etc. to poke through the cap allowing build up to release is recommended.