30 Gallon Bow Front: Walstad Natural Planted Tank
Here's the 30 Gallon Bow Front set up on 1/11/05. I used about 1.5 inches of topsoil with about an inch of gravel on top. Forgot to amend the soil with oyster shell, so I added about 2 cups and mixed it in with the gravel. Let it sit overnight, then changed out most of the water. It has a Penguin powerhead pushing 170 gallons per hour through a foam prefilter. Water parameters after the water change, pH=8.2, KH=6dh, ammonia=.5, nitrIte < .25, nitrAte=5ppm, temp 78F. Added ramshorn snails, pond snails and MTS. Plants added are:
1/13/05 1pm. Removed almost all the water. Removed the peace lilly and added water sprite in its place. Refilled tank. Dechlor with Prime.
1/13/05 6pm. pH=7.6, KH=6dh, ammonia=2ppm, nitrIte = .25ppm, nitrAte=5ppm, temp 78F, GH=8dh.
The plants:
1/14/05 10am. ammonia=0ppm, nitrIte=0ppm, nitrAte=0ppm!! Time to move the Endlers!!
The tank with Ender's Livebearers
Left Side
Middle
Right Side
The Endlers
2/22/05 Here's what the tank looks like now. The bronze wendetti on the right died. Everything else appears to be happy. I've had to prune the sunset hygro and najas grass a couple of times already.
3/20/05 Here's what the tank looks like now. It's a jungle... Need to prune it. These guys reproduce like there's no tomorrow.
9/0/05 Here's what the tank looks like now. I added more light (it's up to 40 watts compact fluorescent light) and removed almost all the stem plants because it was too difficult getting the hair algae out. The swordtails are dropping fry and there are a few endlers left that I couldn't get out. I don't see any endler fry tho, so I'd bet the swords are eating them. There are several ghost shrimp and a clown pleco.
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