Walstad Setup Aquarium.... Pros and Cons? Experience/ Opinions

I've never done it, though I have a spare 10 gallon I'm considering setting up this way, or possibly following one of the alternative "natural tank" methods... After all, potting soil is cheap enough.

It's a neat idea, but even Walstad herself has since admitted that the resulting tank is not exactly self sufficient. Initially she said no filters, no airstones, nothing. Now she's advocating at least a small filter or powerhead to get better water circulation and gas exchange.

Also remember that for these to work right you need a lot of plants relative to water volume. Stocking needs to be kept fairly low so the plants and bacteria can keep up with the bio load.

I hate water changes more than most people, but even I'm skeptical of some of the claims I've seen about Walstad (and similar) tanks. I'll be curious to see how this thread develops.

Hi
Have experimented with planted tanks for many years with many different types of media including no media at all. All were successful to some degree though i think none reached the"Work of art" level. Most gorgeous was a 150 using nautural light in a Greenhouse using a top soil substrate of various depths 2/8 inches with 1/3 inches of sand/gravel sintered glass more or less like"Pockets " over the bottom. Like all my other methods some plants did well while others did not . Lace plant was the most surprising as it grew to the surface actually flowered and set viable seed. Had killed dozens of these over the years lol I did NOT get any carpet types to grow well though a couple struggled along.
At present the only plants I have in tanks are amazon swords and anubias . First being growin a pot with boiled canadian peat with a layer of gravel The anubias are on rocks, no media at all
I think the only absolute in growing plants is light if there is enough for the particular species they will do well. Media is a long way down the list in importance IMO. gary

I have never gone with the Walstead method, so I have no experience with it. Instead I've done:

http://gwapa.org/wordpress/articles/mineralized-soil-substrate/

If your tank is smaller, you don't have to wet/dry the soil, boiling it once for 30 mins has worked for me. For a larger tank, I'd take the time to mineralize it.

Never done it, but it seems to me that the pros would be little work on your part. The cons: less fish. That's actually all I can honestly say I see with this idea. A 10gal tank with, say, some snails and a guppy or two using the Walstad setup would probably work, if there were tons and tons of plants... well, I'll be following this thread for sure.

I have done it and to be quite honest I cannot sing the praises of this type of tank enough! The plant growth is superb!

To be fair I wasn't aware that the method was pioneered by D Walstad. I had come across it while looking into ways to rid my aquarium of bba which lead me to another forum that was more focused on the planted aspect of the hobby. There they recommended this method (commonly called "dirting.") with a few adjustments. I signed up and went through thread after thread reading and taking notes because although natural very few of us start out by putting organic soil into our aquarium and so I was a little apprehensive.

I must stress that I am a fish first person and until the bba took over my plants the plants themselves (although I had quite a few) were inconsequential.

The cons: After dirting your water is a little cloudy for a week.

The pros: Plant growth is far superior. Plants/dirt use up my nitrates making my reading 0ppm consistently (previously with the same fish load they'd reach anywhere from 10-20ppm a week.) Mulm (fish poop/shrimp skins etc etc) is drawn into and decomposed quickly which also replenishes the soil. Root growth is so strong that I have a visible maze of roots just below the substrate. Organic soil is far cheaper than eco complete, takishi amano's highly overpriced counter part and everything in between. I no longer have to gravel clean. My algae was reduced by 95% by the second week after dirting. I no longer need to pour nutrients/fertz into the aquarium (major win!) The fish appreciate the plant growth. I could go on and on really...

Again, I must stress that I didn't know of the Walstad method so while incorporating organic soil as the foundation of my 50gal. 98% plants and some neon tetras for decoration has never appealed to me personally so while some aspects are the same others differ. For instance I still use my ehiem 2215 filter.

Here is a vid I made of the entire conversion process with updates on day 10 and day 27: http://youtu.be/oEktbgHEft8

The one unforeseen problem I have is that my hair grass (e parvula) is not getting enough light because although planted at the same time as my ludwigia repens the repens has grown faster and is blocking the light.

*EDIT* one thing I should add is that with the researching I did prior I kept coming across the same point repeatedly, which is that plants absorb 40-60% more through their roots than the water column.

Op

Optimus, can you link some of the threads you're referring to? As much as I like the sand in my 29G I'm tempted to swap out for soil (or more likely, cap soil with it) after reading the above. I've got very high light and am currently battling some minor BBA (which I fear will turn major with time). Best to head it off at the pass, so to speak.

Those interested in this thread may also be interested in DeeDeeK's thread on Freshwater Deep Sand Beds.

I'm still not sure about the rules in regards to naming other forums on ac? I'll pm it to you.