Walstad Aquarium - 3 Months Later.

Its a major milestone for my tank but here I will restrict myself to the usual update. My learnings in the last 3-months will be published in some other blog.


Highlights:
- Major water change(40%) was performed after pruning. Cutting were propagated.
- No Pruning was performed on Pygmy Grass.
- To add in some Iron, small dried balls of Red garden Soil were insert in substrate at various places. 
- Addition of Potassium Sulphate has facilitated new growth in slow growing plants. Growth of Brown Algae was relatively less.
- Over the period of 3 months, a large portion of white sand had turned brown due to accumulation of brown algae. Some more white sand was added to make the substrate look whiter rather than brown.

Walstad Setup Before Pruning - Full View.

Walstad Setup After Pruning - Full View.

Walstad Setup Before Pruning - Center View.

Walstad Setup After Pruning - Center View.

Baby Swordtail - 7 Weeks Later.

Walstad Setup - Lawn View.

Walstad Aquarium - 10 Weeks Later.

Highlights:
- No water change was performed for last 3-weeks. 20% water change was performed after pruning.
- Major pruning performed and cutting were propagated. 
- New leaves sprouted on Pygmy Grass. But no new offshoots in Pygmy Grass after pruning.

- New slow growing plants do not show much improvement.

- Brown Algae had increased a lot.

- After water change, the Aquarium was dosed with Potassium Sulphate.

Walstad Setup Before Pruning - Full View.

Walstad Setup After Pruning - Full View.

Walstad Setup Before Pruning - Center View.

Walstad Setup After Pruning - Center View.

Walstad Setup - Lawn.

Lush Green Lawn - Another 2 months Away - Part 1.

My Aquarium was in a terrible state with outburst of Brown Algae (Diatoms). I am quite sure this was due to chemical fertilizer I was using during the frequent water changes last month. Diatoms had covered up all my plants.

I was able to clean up the diatoms on the Amazon Sword and Vallis with some cotton wool. Cobamba were the most affected. I need to uproot them for a quick clean under running water. I cannot use a cotton wool here. :)

The Aquatic Grass also was also in a bad shape.

So I finally decided to tear down and rebuilt the whole Walstad Aquarium setup.

Here are a few points that were kept in mind:

1. Last time, Aquatic grass lawn was not in scope. Also since it was my first time(for Walstad Setup), I had kept a the gardening area small for the aquatic plants.
This time I wanted to create are large space for the aquatic garden.

2. After going through some aquascaping articles, I came across some tips for making aquascaping, a bit more beautiful.

• Use the 'Golden Ration'/'Rule of Thirds':
To get a smooth aquascape you need to set one or at maximum two focal points. This is usually something that pleases your eye. This is where the golden ratio comes in. Do not place your best plant (your focal point) in the middle. Place it at 1:1.618 ratio.
• Create Apparent Depth via plant ordering: To create depth you need to arrange the plants in ascending order of their height. Place the shortest plant at the front and the tallest at the back.
• Create Depth via with gravel levelling: Another way of creating depth is to level the gravel in a slope. The gravel at the back should be at a higher level and the gravel at the front should be at a lower level. Keeping the gravel flat decreases the apparent depth. Levelling the gravel in a slop from the backside to the front enhances the apparent depth.

Here is the new layout of my Walstad Aquarium.

There are two gardening Areas. The Right Upper corner one is for Vallis (Tall Grass). Its a bit more deeper since Vallis roots go a bit deeper in the dirt/soil. The front one is for the Lawn and the other plants. The Right Lower corner has been kept empty.

I have placed a marble stone aligned with the front glass. This was done for two reasons:

1. If the dirt/soil (under water) is exposed to sunlight it tends to ooze out more iron into the water which will leads to algae outburst.
2. This will make sure that the grass does not spread, touching the front glass. This will provide me space to clean up the front glass without disturbing any plant.

I missed the similar setup on the right upper corner area.

Cycling:
For cycling my aquarium, I kept some dirt water from the filter sponge. Other ornamental objects (Stones, shells, etc) were not cleaned thoroughly so that the useful bacteria do not die.  All these objects very kept submerged in the same dirty water. While moving them to the new setup, they were just rinsed in running de-chlorinated tap water. This way the tank cycling takes 2-3 days.

During the tear down, I was surprised to see the new runners coming out of Microsword grass. Almost 50% of the Microsword had started growing new runners. It seems that  Microsword grass takes around 3-4 weeks of stabilizing/assimilating time and then it starts to sprout new runners. So I am quite sure that in next 2 months I should be having my Lush Green Aquatic Lawn. :)

Cobra grass didnt seem to show any signs of growth. :( 

Old Setup.

New Setup

New Setup without the House.

The above setup without the house seems to provide more depth to the aquarium because the red stone provides a sloping level from the back to the front.  

Some live Shrimps, Siamese Algae eaters are on the way from  www.MakeMyhobby.com. They should arrive in another 2-3 weeks. I hope they stay alive before I get hold of them.

Aquarium Fertilizer - Something to try out.

For fertilizer heat 3 cups of water to boiling in a large jar or measuring cup. Add the following and stir until dissolved:

1. 1/4 cup of potassium sulphate
2. 1/4 cup of epsom salt (magnesium sulphate)
3. 1/8 cup of potassium nitrate (salt peter)

Put this into a 750ml bottle and keep in a cool place. Sometimes crystals may form if its in the fridge so I add a half tsp of muriatic acid and store it on my shelf.

• Add 1 tsp of this for each 5 gallons of aquarium water on startup.
• Each time you change water, add 1 tsp of this for each 5 gallons of water you replace.
• On startup, add 2 tsps of calcium carbonate for each 10 gallons of aquarium water. SKIP this if your tap water is over 4 GH general hardness.
• Each time your change water, add 1 tsp of calcium carbonate for each 10 gallons of aquarium water you replace. SKIP this if your tap water is over 4 GH general hardness. See notes on GH.
• Note that the fertilizer contains no trace nutrient additions. These are provided primarily by your soil.

HINT: mix the calcium carbonate with a jar of water and add this at night around lights off time. It will stay cloudy for several hours. A light layer will also be deposited on the plant leaves but this dissolves slowly by the action of dissolved CO₂ in your water.


Courtesy: http://home.infinet.net/teban/how-to.html