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Walstad Tank Progress (aussie.zone)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/aquariums

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Had a great deal of fun with my Walstad

Earlier photo

Current look, some plants moved over to the left, some of the “bamboo” removed since it just lost all leaves and turned into sticks with a crown of leaves sticking out of the water (Bamboo? whatever the heck it was, just called Bamboo by the store, I have issues buying plants since we are a bit remote)

Definitely wouldn’t get the Swordtails for the next tank, I just wanted something orange to offset nicely against the green, but they pop out babies every few minutes it seems. I only started with 4 or 5

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[–] allofzero 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Looking good. Interesting to see a before-and-after with lighter plant load in the after, but it looks super clean and healthy. What do you have growing on the wood? It looks GREAT. If it's moss, it's SUPER fluffy and compact. If it's algae, it looks amazingly well managed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks!

The green fluffy stuff... I have no idea....! Just sort of turned up one day

But it looks good, and after a lot of trial and error with the lights I think I have it balanced nicely.

Lights are on 5, off 4 then on 5 but I was getting some bad alge blooms. Switched from an old florescent tube to a new led and left set to lower light and everything seems happy.

I do need some more plants I think, walstad likes lots of them, but hard to find any out my way

[–] BeMoreCareful 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I always have to order plants. I've rarely come across anything local that was worth purchasing.

I like those swords, but happy live-bearers will livebear lol.

I always like to see it. It means that everyone is happy and doing fish stuff. I do feel like they have more personality too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

My wife just sympathises with the female Swords being permanently pregnant :/

I did grab a bunch of plants from a local online source once, highly recommended by locals (https://www.aquarzon.com) - all plants except one died fairly soon afterward and I had a massive outbreak of Black Beard Algae (!twice!)

(I mean their vallisneria died, how the HECK does val die? Stuff grows in the compost heap after I pull it out by the hand full usually)

I kinda like seeing the plants before buying them but at this rate I may have to make a quarantine tank running CO2 or something if I buy online again