I know what you mean shadow, I can never get my tanks to look that good either. I have always had better luck when I individually pot each plant in soil and gravel. I have found that I have better luck growing them when I dont "try". But I must say Betty you have some very nice tanks. Do you add any type of fertilizer or do you just let the breakdown of the soil supply the nutrients?

In the local club that I am attending there are two REALLY GOOOD plant people who bring in 15-20 plants per month; all luxurious, big, nice. One keeps rainbowfishes and other keeps nothing but plants. I'm envious when I see their 'Aquarium Beautiful' setups at show, as they have amazing setups. But being more interested in cichlids and breeding and NOT having enough time, my poor looking tanks just have to do, unfortunately. Sigh.

It's very low maintenence. no water ferts and no CO2. I pull plants monthly for the club auction and top it off. that's about it except for 3-4 water changes a year. Fish food, mulm and micronutrients from the soil feed the plants. Fish and bacteria produce carbon dioxide for the plants and the plants help produce oxygen for the fish. a little ecosystem. It's MUCH less hassle than my big normally filtered goldie tanks which take weekly maintenence.

It's a perfect setup for livebearers with all the plant cover for the young and all the little critters, etc for them to eat. and in this context with the snails and corys, there's no worry with the extra feedings the young would get in a grow out situation. Given how fast Endlers reproduce, I put the angels in as population control. and I feed the surplus of snails and hair algae from the sunny side of the tank to my goldies.

I have a couple of articles up on how to do it
Setting up a Walstad Natural Planted Tank.
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadTank.html

Step by Step: Setting up a Walstad-Type Natural Planted Tank
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadTankDemo.html

Diana runs the ENatural forum on APC, so she's readily available for questions there.

Well Betty you have inspired me to create a walstad natural planted tank. Beatufil and easy, how can I not.

exactly!!

You may want to run a bottle test on your soil to make sure it's not going to get all pissy about being submerged.

I've used two different topsoils so far. With one, the tank was instantly cycled. The other (in the 125) took months to settle down. leeching tannins, bubbling up gasses. It was a PITA.

What were the soils you used?

The well behaved topsoil for me was earthgrow from home depot. However, a friend of mine in NM tried it and it turned into a nasty mess (too much organics in it). So I don't think you can count on the same brand being the same soil in different areas of the country. The topsoil that took a long time to settle down for me was the cheapest topsoil from lowes. a search of the ENatural forum on APC should turn up some other soils people have used. you want soil with low organic content and no extra ferts or vermiculite added.

Tell me how to make a tank look like that!



PLEASE?

It's really not that hard.

Setting up a Walstad Natural Planted Tank.
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadTank.html

Step by Step: Setting up a Walstad-Type Natural Planted Tank
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadTankDemo.html

e tenellus is a good foreground plant. Hairgrass may work, but it likes more light. I'm having a little bit of luck with 4 leaf clover, however, I think it too would be happier with more light.

crypts are great for NPTs because they don't require high light and have good root systems, plus you can get some reds without having to have high light. Same with most of the sword plants. kleiner bar swords are nice because they don't get as large as amazon swords and the new leaves are nice and red.

The sagittaria subulata I have grows like a weed. doesn't stay short tho.

Jungle vals do well.

Any number of stem plants will do fine and are good in the beginning.

Also need fast growing floating plants at first like najas grass, hornwort, duckweed, water lettuce, frogbit, etc.

some pics of the 125 I took today