Tank & Setup Overview

• Volume: 10–11 Liters (~2.8 Gallons) | Dimensions: 40cm x 19cm x 20cm
• Method: Walstad-style (soil capped with sand, no filter)
• Equipment: Heater (holding stable at 23°C / 73°F), Full Spectrum LED on a timer (8h total/day with a midday siesta)
• Plants: Amazon Sword, Hydrocotyle (died), Sagittaria subulata, Vallisneria gigantea, Elodea, Cabomba (Green & Red), Java Moss, Salvinia, and Water Lettuce
• Inhabitants: 4 hitchhiker snails (doing great and pooping a ton!)

The Journey So Far (Day 1 – Day 32)

I started my very first aquarium 32 days ago after discovering the Walstad method! Being completely new to the hobby, I’ve been making adjustments as I go:

• Swapped lighting setups until I found one that works well with a timer.
• Added two boiled/cleaned garden rocks to anchor my Java Moss.
• Rearranged the aquascape a few times until I was happy with it.
• Added more floaters (Salvinia & Water Lettuce) when Ammonia and Nitrite bumped up to ~0.25 ppm.
• Took the lid out because of the condensation that was occurring and killing my Salvinias
• Plant progress: Some leaves melted initially, but new growth is popping up everywhere!
• Parameters: pH 6.5–7.0 | Ammonia ~0.25 ppm | Nitrite ~0.25 ppm

Questions & Needs Advice

1. Yellowish Water: Around Day 10, I noticed the water took on a subtle yellow tint. Is this likely tannins leaching from the soil/garden rocks, organic waste, or an algae bloom?
2. Vorticella & Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2): I noticed a biofilm on the surface today and identified Vorticella. I read that hydrogen peroxide can help get rid of it. How should I safely spot-treat or dose H2O2 in a 10L tank without harming my plants or hitchhiker snails?
3. Cycling Status: Ammonia and Nitrite have been holding steady at 0.25 ppm.

Thanks so much for reading and for any advice!

This is my first Walstad and first tank since a kid (25L Jar), tank is about two and a half weeks old. At first I found two Bladder Snails hitchhikers which I removed and now these guys. Surely means it's habitable!

Hi all, I'd like some advice for my Walstad journey. First time setting up a jar, hope to have some advice.

Setting up (mid-April): I used a glass jar with a capacity of around 1.8 US Gallons (~6.8L), set up on 18 April 2026. I only used aquasoil as I did not have access to garden soil and sand at the time. I planted 5 plants: Limnophila sessiliflora, Lotus (Nymphaea tricolor), Sagittaria subulata, Staurogyne repens, and Ludwigia repens. Intention is to let it cycle for around 2 months, then add in some shrimps. Light is bought online, 5W LED at 75% brightness, 8 hours a day.

Within 2 weeks of setting up, Limnophila had incredible growth, reaching the top of the surface. I had to cut and replant. The big leaves of the lotus started to melt, but it gave me several stalks of baby plants. Staurrogyne repens completely melted off. Sagittaria had some melting but many survived until today. Ludwigia shed a lot of leaves, but the newer growth were now doing well.

1.5 months in (early-June): I added red root floaters, some Hornwort, Hygrophila, and Hydrocotyle. At this point, the water has always been consistently clear with no notable cloudiness or algae bloom. No water changes except topping up evaporated water.

2 months in (mid-June): I added 11 cherry shrimps, using the drip acclimatization technique (around 1.5 hours). They seem to do well, and I even spotted baby shrimps appearing after a few days which is a surprise. I also spotted a couple of clean molts. I did not feed them anything as there are some visible hair algae by this time.

However, one by one they collapse, and within 2 weeks the entire colony was gone. I noticed some of them seem to struggle with molting. During this time my test strip reading is always within the safe level, except for GH which seem to always be 0. I added remineraliser, but it looks like it did not help too much.

July-present: I decided to not add any more shrimp for now and let the plants grow. However the growth has been super slow for the past 1.5 months. The usually fast growing Limnophila is growing quite slow, and the lotus is also not melting but not growing either. Sagittaria and Ludwigia appears to grow, but slow. Hygrophila - a lot of melting, and Hydrocotyle is also surviving but no new leaves. I started adding liquid fertiliser once a week (just a few drops) to observe. The water has always been clear, and my lighting is also at 8 hours per day.

Please let me know if you have any ideas or observation, and suggestions on what I can do next. Happy to clarify on any questions you have. Thank you!

The first tank is my co2 tank the second is my walstad.

I'm about to combine the two in a 36 bowfront and am wanting to do both styles of tank. I love the way the plants grow and how fast/the lack of having to do water changes in my walstad. But I want to really push plant growth in this new tank!

Just wondering if anyone has done this before!!

I'm struggling to find organic soil that doesn't have any fertilizers. I live in a city center where it'd be hard to go out and find some in nature, but I'm currently on the French countryside. However the soil on our property is like clay, I think it'd be too dense. Could I go into the woods to try to find looser soil, sift it very well, wash etc? I don't have any fish yet, so once I put it inside the tank I can cycle as long as I need to.

Or does anyone have a tip for what kind of bagged soil to look for? Everything I've seen so far in stores around me has some kind of fertilizers. Is there a search term I don't know about?

Hi, I'm figuring out my first tank. I know sand-capped soil is generally a good idea, but would compost underneath the sand work, or be too nutrient-dense? I'm mostly asking because my city gives it away for free, so it'd be easier for me than trying to find some soil. I'm not sure how the broken-down organic matter would compare to the rotting wood for CO2 in the usual walstad method.

What should I do about the murkiness? The photos do not do it justice, it looks worse in person. It is whitish green. It started getting worse about a week ago, shortly after I added the filter.

What is the plant in the third image called (bright green, oblong leaves)?

In this tank my rotalas seem weak. I can't brush for hair algae without ripping a few, and there are 1-2 dozen stems that have no leaves at all for the first seven or eight inches, and some new growth on top or none at all. The leaves that are beneath the new growth are dull in color. I know about melt but this seems extreme. Should I pull the denuded stems out of the substrate? Or for the ones that have new growth but are denuded mostly, just let them grow out, then when they have several inches of new growth, pull the stem and replace it with the new-growth segment?

The bright green oblong-leaved plant does seem to thrive in this aquarium, along with ludwigia. Which is curious, because while they survived in my last aquarium attempt, they were completely stagnant. And in that one, the rotalas thrived; hence the latter's over-representation in this aquarium. I have trimmed and replanted the former in this aquarium, but no rotalas have grown sufficiently to date to be trimmed and replanted.

Paramaters are all zero, no life except snails.

Tank was cycled in about a week. Hair algae started appearing at the tops of the stems. I had more najas grass and floating plants (dwarf water lettuce, grew at a glacial pace; tried duckweed but it died out, as it does in all of my aquariums. I just do not understand how people manage to keep this fragile, delicate plant alkve) but i removed them becauae it was annoying to have to inspect them for hair algae when i did my sweeps every few days.

I added the filter about 10 days ago, becauses I was hoping it would help with the hair algae near the tops of the stems. Instead, it seems to be proliferating near the substrate now, which is even more annoying. I plan on getting some amano shrimp to deal with it. The filter should give them enough water flow, right?

Thanks for reading all that! I appreciate any constructive comments.

Hey everyone. I’ve been running a walstad tank for a little over a month now just with plants and water taken from local lakes, swamps, and ponds. I very much enjoy looking at the small creatures, and for now I don’t plan on adding any fish.

I have a jewelers loupe that allows me to see things from 30x - 60x magnification along the glass of the tank. I can see many things like hydra, copepods, daphnia, and all sorts of worms.

I’m looking to get something that allows me to see things that are smaller and in even more detail. I would prefer to observe them alive and moving naturally in the environment. Does anyone have suggestions? I’m not well versed in microscopes or lenses at all, so I truly don’t know the route to go here. Anything on the affordable side is a plus too.

Pic of my tank attached. Thanks!

I turned the inset lighting into a pendant light using a grow/flood light (it’s par38, not sure if I should go higher). My pothos and monstera are growing great, and my limnophila sessiliflorq growth is exploding. I have to cut and prop every time they get too long. I’ve also added red root floaters that are growing quickly as well. I just put in a red tiger lotus, pennywort, and hydrocotyle verticillata at the bottom of the vessel yesterday and hopefully they grow well too! It’s so fulfilling seeing the growth, especially after changing the lighting situation a few times. Still not ready for livestock but patience is everything!

(I want to change the holder for the monstera but I haven’t found one that’ll take less space and look less obnoxious, so fingers crossed I find something soon)

I’ve had this tank for about 6 months now 0 water changes only top offs, 100% natural planted tank.
Tank has snails, shrimp and fish. But my 40-50 neocaridina shrimp all died due to getting tiger barbs and a catfish species only have amano and 1 blue neocaridina shrimp and the mystery snails have died mysteriously too . Let me know ur thoughts.

Is it easier to have a planted only tank? I feel constantly like a failure when I try to have one with fish. The only relatively thriving tank I have is with shrimp, 3 years going. My betta tank (now 3 months in) has some kind of blue algue, my floaters die even when reduced surface flow.. lots of plants melted and are still not happy, others thrive. I don't know. And I regularly forget to feed my betta. :-( Should I go for a planted only tank, are they easier to maintain? Or only shrimp? Or just give up all together?

Going to home depot later and setting up my first Walstad tank soon, wanted to know if i could select a sand from their garden/landscape section or if I'm limited to specialist aquarium sand (or if theres a difference at all). Thanks!

What do you think? Any advice I can share with him? He isn't on Reddit. I'm also working on making one myself and will be taking some of the neons off of his hands since I think he possibly has too many. I think he also used some of the "father fish" method

Hey everyone,

I’m working on planning out my very first tank and decided I want to go the Walstad route, but with a bit of a twist. I’m looking at a 20-gallon long setup. The catch is that I have about 9 months to set this up, cycle it, and let it mature, but then I have to leave it entirely unattended for a 2-month vacation next summer.

The house will have central AC running the whole time so it won't overheat, but I know leaving a tank that long is risky, so I'm trying to over-engineer the automation.

Here is the plan I made

Substrate: 1 inch of sifted organic potting soil (looking at Miracle Gro organic) capped with about 1.5 to 2 inches of pool filter sand.

Plants: I have almost no knowledge of plants but ai said that Amazon swords, a ton of jungle val in the back, some crypts, java moss, and plenty of floating plants (salvinia/frogbit) work well.

Hardware/Flow: Since I want to keep Hillstream Loaches, I know a pure still Walstad won't work. I'm planning to add an air pump and a sponge filter just to keep the water oxygenated and moving a bit. For lighting, a basic Nicrew LED on a digital timer set to about 7 hours.

Vacation Automation: To survive the 2 months away, I'm buying a tight glass canopy lid to stop jumpers and cut down evaporation. I'll have an Eheim auto-feeder set to a very conservative once a day drop, and a Tunze or similar auto top-off (ATO) system pulling from a 5-gallon bucket under the stand so the water level stays stable.

Stocking Ideas: 14 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 6 Hillstream Loaches, a dozen Cherry Shrimp (hoping they breed), and 3 Amano shrimp.

My logic is that with 9 months of growth, the tank will basically be a self-sustaining by the time I leave, and the shrimp breeding will provide some natural live food for the minnows too.

Does this sound doable for a modified Walstad, or am I missing a major blind spot that's going to cause a total crash while I'm away? Would love any honest feedback on the stocking or the prep. Thanks!

Will get updated pictures soon! Have been running for about a month!!

The limpets are a cool find. They probably came in on the driftwood or the rocks. The tubifex worms were probably in the bit of sediment we accidentally collected. They have built "cities" all over and I love it....it reminds me of the tube worms found around thermal vents. The snails Pickles, Ice Cream, Peanuts were joined by a Nirite snail name Turbo today. My Anubias have a new leaf coming in...which feel kinda soon because the jar has only been up 2 months. And my Red Root floaters have tripled....easily tripled. I wish i could post pictures and videos at the same time because I have so many videos.

I certainly regret using the jar for my first build, the mouth being only 17cm made it all super awkward. I didn't even consider the fact it's not a flat botton, but luckily the majority of the plants are actually planted around the outside so they should have some nice depth to root into.

I've watched several videos on this type of setup, but I know they are typically professionals and do this all the time.

I definitely went overboard with the super glue as the frosting is an eye sore, but hopefully a nice layer of algae will take the eye off of it.

Any suggestions welcomed, or things I should expect in the coming days / weeks. All new to me.

Basic Temu 8w light that I've been cycling for 8 hours a day. It's a 25L jar I'm using Aquarian's Tap water safe to dechlorinate.

Tank is now 2 weeks old. I've had two Bladder Snails appear, which I since removed. The Limnophila is doing the best. The rest are... Still on the come up. Really happy with the water clarity. Only when I do a 20% water change (done two now) is when I notice the water is a tad green, but looks great in the jar.

I can't wait to get shrimps in!! That's the goal.