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How to: natural planted tank


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Hi guys,

I wanted to share this method I use to set up my tanks, its called a natural planted tank. Diana walstad came up with the idea and it is fantastic :D I have only done around 4 waterchanges on my 4 foot tank in 7 months and all but one has been because I've accidently done something to the water like poisoned it with caffine or boiled the fish ect. enjoy :D

Materials: enough soil for 2cm depth in the tank

enough gravel for 3cm, 3mm size max (I liek zeolite)

1 cup per 5 gallos zeolite (optional)

1 cup per 5 gallos shell grit

Dead MTS (optional)

2-3 wpg of light

plants

aquasoil

Step 1. Get your soil, I used garden soil through a colander to remove roots, stones and bark. I used mum so shhhh :P

step 2. Mix in zeolite and shell grit. Zeolite is from the pool store and shell grit is from the produce store

Step 3. Add dead MTS to the bottow of the tank, If you have any mulm from a filter add tha tto.

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Step 4. My soil was very sandy so I added a layer of ADA aquasoil to the bottom to add clay. I added less than 0.5cm It really isn't needed I just had a bag spare

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Step 5. Add 2 cm of soil.

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Step 6. Add root feding plants like swords and crypts and spoon your gravel cap around their bases.

Step 7. Add 3cm of your gravel. Less if you want, 3cm is the max depth.

Step 8. Fill up. Put a plate on the substrate and pour onto that to avaoid mixing the soil and gravel. (please ignore my choko)

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Step 9. Add stem plants. riccia ect.

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Step 10. Add some food and leave for a day, test the parameters. If they are fine you can begin to stock lightly and continue to check the parameters. No filter is needed but it would be a good idea to have one the first few weeks/months until an equlibrium is established.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions :D

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Hey Matt nice start

I have not had the opportunity to have read the book but have heard of the author and method

I was wondering if you have used it before and if so what are your thoughts on the method?

What sort of stocking amounts for fish are you restricted to if any, I understand the plants will use nutrients from fish waste but you can get a lot of waste if the tank heavily stocked.

A quick rundown on the concept would be nice as I am sure it is quite an in depth method and I am sure there are members who are unaware of the system

Thanks

Ray

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I have used it before in my four foot tank. It was mediumly stocked and the nitrates were always at zero which presented problems. These tanks can be stocked quite high, often higher than is recommended with filtered tanks. Basically the organic matter in the substrate decomposes to produce co2 which the plants use, they take up waste produced by the fish. The soil contains micro nutrients that are not necessarily available in the water column, the fish are fed a bit more than they can eat and the excess food decomposes to release co2 and other nutrients the plants need. Plants prefer ammonia over nitrates, I think they have different charges and the plants have to convert nitrate ions into a positive or neutral ion, not too sure though sorry. Filters will compete with the plants for the ammonia which is why they are not needed. These tanks often become deficient in potassium (K). This can be overcome by putting a layer of dynamic lifter at the bottom of the substrate or by dosing potassium nitrate (KNO3). This can also be dosed if your finding you can't supply the plants with enough nitrate, you should have at least 5ppm nitrates. In the start a lot of quick growing stems are needed and as the heavy root feeders become established the stems can be removed and replaced by heavier root feeders such as crypts, lotus and swords. You want to keep the substrate slightly alkaline, hence the shell grit, to ensure hard water nutrients are available. If the substrate becomes acidic it can lead to iron toxicity. The water will naturally become neutral because of the various biological process occurring and if your ph is rising or dropping it usually means your tank is unbalanced or an object in the tank is affecting your ph.

These tanks naturally grow large amounts of micro organisms and make great fry tanks, I'm going to be spawning in this one soon. :D

You want to soak your substrate before using it if possible, especially if it comes from a bag (potting soil) it could release ammonia on set up. I add the zeolite to avoid this as this soil had aquasoil which releases ammonia when new and I didn't soak it. Zeolite also has a high CEC which is supposed to be good for plants, I think they can access the nutrients it takes up.

Was this helpful? It is in no real order and I wrote everything down as I thought of it lol.

Here is my 4 foot tank in its prime, it is not looking to good now, I’m in the process of going high tech because some of the plants I’m growing don’t go to well with this method. It was great in its prime though and only has algae because I’ve unbalanced the lights, plants and CO2.

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Fantastic post Matt. :)

Made it's way into my very small, organised bookmarks (well done Young Grasshopper, I don't often bookmark things haha).

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Hehe, thanks Matt - that's what I like to see! Choko and all.. you are proud of them chokos aye! :lol:

Brought a smile to my face. :)

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Its actually a stupidly simple method, I'm a huge fan of these setups.

Have had a couple running up until six months ago, the water quality was simply perfect. Although bio filtration was not neccessary, I did find some mechanical filtration was still handy for the collections of detritus along the bottom.

Going to try a few more very shortly.

Pritch - Like Matt says, you 'can' vastly overstock NPT's in terms of still maintaining water quality, but you still have to consider the space and type of environment required by your fish. In setups lacking filtration the water will be very still, and not all fish enjoy this. I think Ms. Walstad has even been quoted more recently as recommending some kind of active filtration for NPT's as the water circulation is a good thing for plants and wildlife both.

Few questions for you Matt -

Your zeolite component, isnt that stuff supposed to absorb ammonia from the water colummn, or am I imagining reading that? Have any issues with it messing with the NPT theory?

Any comments on which plants did well and which not so well in the NPT environment?

I'm planning on trying my new ones with a mixture of the propogating sand DIY mix from AQL and probably some aquasoil too since I have some lying around thats just turning to dust. I might even try some peat to try and counteract my godawfully hard tapwater. Bit of a substrate mystery mix (Where is Di when you need her?)

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In tanks larger than 40 litres I would add a power head, it will evenly distribute co2 and other nutrients as well as disperse heat.

I find it helps in the start up period, in the soil it stops amonia leaching out and if you have a low plant density it is good as a cap while swords and other permanent plants grow in. It quickly exhausts it's self.

Everything I try grows well, vals, swords, lotuses, blyxa, mosses, glosso, pogo helferi, crypts and much more :D surprisingly the only plant that dies is duckweed, don't mind loosing that one lol.

I wouldn't add peat to a npt, it won't really do anything to the water, water doesn't circulate through the substrate. Have you read Ecology of the planted aquarium? Diana says in it that when she uses peat it leads to iron toxicity. It makes the substrate acidic which makes some nutrients unavailable, plants do better with a neatral to slightly alkeling ph (7.5) you could put peat in your filter though.

Di's subtrates work well but she doses liquid ferts co2 and also has algae problems suggesting her tank is unbalanced.

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I was thinking of re-doing my 3ft using this method, buuut....as the tank is currently occupied and I have nowhere to re-home the guys it's just not going to work at the moment, although as I type this I am getting the germ of an idea... :blink: hmmm....will be back to you on this one....

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I had fish in the bathtub once while I juggled tanks around. Good times XD

Thanks for the input Matt. Might try that with the peat then. My water verges on 7.5-8 out of the tap right now and is extremely hard. Ridiculously nasty for my poor loaches even after some treatment, though my goldies love it.

Can't believe you managed to kill duckweed LOL.

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I don't have easy access to rainwater at the moment unless I put out buckets.. but with the amount we're getting just now thats actually not a bad idea :D

I used to get so much duckweed out of my NPT's.. that I could feed 12 hungry goldfish every day if I wanted.

Used to have to scrub the green crust off the inside edge of the tank!

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  • 1 month later...

Oh, I'm also happy to say I can add 6 new species to the list of plants I can grow in this style of tank. Aponageton crispus, monoselenium tenerum (pelia), glourious fissidens, limnophilo aromatica, Japanese hair grass and hygrophila balsmica. I am currently trialling lindernia sp. Varigated and will soon try HC.

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Here you go, the water level s low as I had a pair of bettas in there and haven't completly filled it up yet.

FTS

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Limnophila aromatica, I have another one with more leaves per whirl, its a new one though so still adjusting, it loses its purple colour in this style of tank but it's still nice.

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Baby Aponageton crispus, I grew it from a itty bitty piece of rhizome and its just taken root :D

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Japanese hair grass, I plan on a tank like this with this as the foreground :drool:

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Gosh, my first worshipper, you get a hug :bighug::D Thats the best excuse, oh its just quarentine, why is it still there, they have an unuasual disease that can't be seen and never cured so they can't leave this tank *lol*

The lindernia has a heap of new shoots :D does anyone have any suggestions for species I could trial?

Edited by Matt_95
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  • 2 months later...

Thought this may interest you guys, did the first water change today, after months with no water changes and around 30 endlers the nitrates are only at 7.5, no stunted fry, they are breeding like rabbits :D I've removed all the fish, teh cherries are going crazy, so many half grown ones now, I'm gettong 10 A grade CRS to add to the tank today. Update pictures later.

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Excuse the bad pictures please, its hard to get good ones during the day here... Its a bit cloudy too because everything was a bit overgrown, I pulled out 6 or 7 crypts, I think 17 vesuvius swords and the staurogyne groundcover, the aquasoil has broken down a bit and mixed with the sand so teh sand looks gross, I plan to grow a groundcover of glosso in teh front now, I might need some dino spit for that though. The shrimp are aclimatising, piccies of them later. Thanks For the Shrimp Shianne!

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