125 gallon Walstad Natural Planted Tank

Here's the 125 gallon tank set up on 2/27/05. I used about an inch of topsoil with about an inch of gravel on top and amended the soil with 8 cups of oyster shell. Added a gravel overlayer. Let it sit overnight, then changed out most of the water. It has two Penguin powerheads each pushing 170 gallons per hour through a foam prefilter. 375 watts of 6500K compact fluorescent light inside reflectors from the clamp on worklights... mounted on pvc and hung from the ceiling with chain and it's sitting in front of south windows.

No fish yet, cuz I have to get some more gravel to try and make sure the goldies don't get down to the topsoil and I want to give the plants a change to get rooted. I'm not sure how well the small swords are going to work with goldies. Anyhow... here it is. :)

Left Side. In the back, sunset hygro, radican sword, and an unknown sword (anyone know what it is?). In front there's mondo grass, bronze wendetti, and micro swords (Lilaeopsis novaezelandiae).

Middle: that unknown sword, giant hairgrass, and ludwigia I think. In front of the hair grass are some medium sized dwarf sag and in front of that more micro swords.

Right side: in back some unknown plant, amazon sword, wysteria.In front: micro swords, Cryptocoryne lutea and a bronze wendetti.

3/5/05 Drained the tank and added two more amazon swords, another of the oval leaved swords, more sunset hygro, more wysteria, and water sprite. Added the rest of the gravel and Added a bunch of floating plants: parrot's feather, salvenia, frogbit, duckweed. ammonia at 2ppm at midnite.

Left Side. In the back, sunset hygro, radican sword, an amazon sword, and an unknown sword (anyone know what it is?). In front there's an amazon sword, green crypt wendetti, bronze crypt wendetti, and micro swords (Lilaeopsis novaezelandiae).

Middle: that unknown sword, giant hairgrass, unknown plant, ludwigia (I think), and another oval leaved sword. In front of the hair grass are some medium sized dwarf sag and in front of that more micro swords.

Right side: in back a new oval leaved sword, water sprite, amazon sword, wysteria. In front: micro swords, Cryptocoryne lutea and a bronze wendetti.

3/6/05 ammonia at 1ppm at 9am. Added a bunch of najas grass. My daughter rescued the bird dog in the pic last week. He was one big bag of bones, but is starting to recover.

3/12/05 Replaced the unknown plant in the middle of the tank with sunset hygro. Planted some najas grass behind the oval-leaved sword on the left side. Added some hornwort. Drained and refilled.

Emergent. parrot's feather, salvenia, duckweed, frogbit and not pictured water hyacinth.

Left Side. In the back, sunset hygro, radican sword, an amazon sword, and an Echinodorus cordifolius "ovalis", behind the oval sword is some najas planted. In front there's an amazon sword, green crypt wendetti, bronze crypt wendetti, and micro swords (Lilaeopsis novaezelandiae). The floaters include najas grass, hornwort, and parrot's feather.

Middle: Echinodorus cordifolius "ovalis", giant hairgrass, Hygrophila corymbosa "angustifolia" (I think) Sunset Hygro, and another Echinodorus cordifolius "ovalis". In front of the hair grass are some medium sized dwarf sag and in front of that more micro swords.

Here's a pic that shows the microsword and dwarf sag better.

Right side: in back the Echinodorus cordifolius "ovalis", water sprite, amazon sword, wysteria. In front: micro swords, Cryptocoryne lutea and a bronze wendetti.

3/13/05 ammonia is at .25ppm and nitrIte is at 2ppm at 9am.

3/20/05 Added java fern and Echinodorus tenellus. Ammonia and nitrIte has been at 0ppm for a couple of days. Acclimated and added the two new goldies, but they were stirring up bubbles from the substrate when they foraged in the gravel. After pressing down on the substrate to release bubbles, and smelling hydrogen sulfide, I removed the goldies back to the 20 long. I tried to press down on all areas of the substrate to release as much H2S as possible. That resulted in the water yellowing up, so I did a large partial water change. I hear that patience is a virtue. Anyhow, the plants are growing up a storm. I'll be glad when the topsoil gets used to being submerged.

Left side: The new sword and the bronze wendetti have several new leaves. The oval leafed sword has a stalk with two plantlets on it and has put out another stalk.

The plantlets

And it looks like it's not an ovalis. Maybe an Ozelot.

Middle: The sunset hygro has taken off, but the Hygrophila corymbosa "angustifolia" doesn't appear to be doing much.

Right side: The water sprite is taking off.

4/5/05 The ozelot sword bloomed.

4/6/05 The plants are growing up a storm. I'll be glad when the topsoil gets used to being submerged.

Left side: The ozelot sword has a stalk with several plantlets on it.

Middle: I think I like the chain swords better than the hairgrass. I've already had to prune the sunset hygro.

Right side: The Wysteria is finally filling up the corner.

6/8/05 It's been around 5 months since the tank was set up. The Endlers have been doing fine in it and breeding like there's no tomorrow. The plants are doing great. NitrAtes are only 20ppm, pH is 7.6 and ammonia was 0ppm... Still bubbling a bit from the substrate and the bubbles still smell like H2S. So I fished out like three quarters of the Endlers and moved the goldies in. Here are some pics.

The full tank

Left side

Middle

Right side

The first day, they're having a ball... scrounging everywhere for food. Feasting on snails, etc. But... in the process they do piledrivers with their faces into the substrate. No problems at all with then getting to the soil, but the pressure on the substrate releases gas bubbles which go into their mouths. They appear to be spitting the bubbles out their mouths... and don't show any signs of stress. I test ammonia before I go to bed and it's up to .5ppm. ok that's not too bad given the pH. The next morning I get up and ammonia is still at .5ppm. I leave them there for several more hours till I see that everyone is breathing more rapidly than normal and seem lethargic... The big chocolate oranda (Coco) is just hovering a couple of inches below the surface breathing rapidly, so I put them back in their original tank. Today they're still acting a bit lethargic, especially Coco. I'm just not sure the natural planted tank thing is going to work for goldies. :(

7/30/05 a jungle. the dwarf sag isn't dwarf. Both the original ozelot and now the amazon sword are sending off runners with plantlets on them as is the unknown plant in the left foreground.

Left side

Right side

11/20/05 It's still a jungle even tho I've been pulling out maybe 200 sag subulata plants a month. All three large sword plants have runner with plantlets on them.

Full tank

Left side

Middle

Right side

1/15/06 Decided to put the angelfish in the 125 and it's pretty clear he needed more swimming room, so I pulled up about a 4" strip of sag subulata across the entire front of the tank and planted some echinodorus tenellus which will helpfully stay short.

Full tank

Left side

Middle

Right side