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Aquascaped Walstads
Hi! Somewhat new to the forum but not to the method. My passion is applying my background in engineering, photography, and design to create Walstads that both function splendidly and look aesthetically pleasing. Here are some of my tanks that are IMHO successfully meeting these objectives. I'd love to see yours.
My 4 gallon office tank:
![Plant Green Leaf Botany Grass]()
Planning out the 4 gallon by laying out the golden rectangle focal points using washi tape:
![Plant Rectangle Wood Grass Gas]()
My 16 gallon cube and 10 gallon long incorporating emersed plants:
![Plant Organism Houseplant Terrestrial plant Aquatic plant]()
My newest tank, the 20 gallon apisto community:
![Vertebrate Plant Rectangle Lighting Wood]()
My 4 gallon office tank:
Planning out the 4 gallon by laying out the golden rectangle focal points using washi tape:
My 16 gallon cube and 10 gallon long incorporating emersed plants:
My newest tank, the 20 gallon apisto community:
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Updates on a couple of my tanks:
I broke down and rescaped the 10 gallon long to include submersed plants with soil substrate. The previous setup had a soil layer encapsulated above, below, and on the sides by Seachem Flourite. While this looked great and worked great for the emersed plants, the fish simply weren’t happy with the lack of vegetative cover. So I converted it to a conventional NPT reusing the same soil and Flourite. I’m keeping the rabbit’s foot fern above the water on a terracotta pot filled with soil, and suspending the other emersed plants using a Poth-o-carry. The betta and minnows seem to enjoy swimming through the plant roots. My plan is to eventually use this as a breeding tank for my CPDs and apistos.
![Plant Flowerpot Houseplant Terrestrial plant Rectangle]()
Meanwhile, the 20 gallon apisto tank just reached its one month birthday. The plants continue to grow incredibly fast. I mixed in compost with the substrate, which I’m assuming is producing a lot of CO2 as it decomposes. Yet ammonia remains 0 and every single fish is happy and active. The larger volume of water and consequent water stability is unlike anything I’ve seen in my smaller tanks. I’m tempted to replace my nano tanks with one large 75 gallon, except a rimless glass tank that size weighs more than I can carry on my own.
![Plant Plant community Branch Vegetation Terrestrial plant]()
I broke down and rescaped the 10 gallon long to include submersed plants with soil substrate. The previous setup had a soil layer encapsulated above, below, and on the sides by Seachem Flourite. While this looked great and worked great for the emersed plants, the fish simply weren’t happy with the lack of vegetative cover. So I converted it to a conventional NPT reusing the same soil and Flourite. I’m keeping the rabbit’s foot fern above the water on a terracotta pot filled with soil, and suspending the other emersed plants using a Poth-o-carry. The betta and minnows seem to enjoy swimming through the plant roots. My plan is to eventually use this as a breeding tank for my CPDs and apistos.
Meanwhile, the 20 gallon apisto tank just reached its one month birthday. The plants continue to grow incredibly fast. I mixed in compost with the substrate, which I’m assuming is producing a lot of CO2 as it decomposes. Yet ammonia remains 0 and every single fish is happy and active. The larger volume of water and consequent water stability is unlike anything I’ve seen in my smaller tanks. I’m tempted to replace my nano tanks with one large 75 gallon, except a rimless glass tank that size weighs more than I can carry on my own.
More detail on the more established tanks: the 4 gallon has been running for over 2 years. It survived me being absent from the office for 4 months while we were on lockdown after a COVID outbreak. I came back to emersed bacopa and an even healthier shrimp colony than when I left. The shrimp population crashed a year later except for a few old timers that are still around. I have a healthy amount of ramshorns and a tiny betta, which I’ll eventually move to a bigger tank. I perform “water changes” once a week by siphoning out a small amount of mulm to water the terrestrial plants, then topping off. The rest of the nitrates are taken care of by the potted monstera whose root traveled 3 feet to find my tank.
![Plant Property Houseplant Green Flowerpot]()
The 16 gallon has been running for about 4 months. This is the first tank where I tried containing the soil in mesh bags. I stuck obstinately to the 0.5-1” rule for sand cap, and plant growth struggled immensely at a constant 2ppm ammonia. I suspect this was due to having excessive hardscape (rocks and wood) in the tank, which displaced the sand cap as they settled. Other, more experienced fish keepers finally convinced me to thicken the sand cap by another inch after WCs and dense planting failed to resolve the issue. Removing the rocks and bigger piece of driftwood took care of the ammonia issue. Plant growth struggled for the first 5 weeks. After that, growth took off. Now I can barely keep up with trimming.
![Water Plant Plant community Green Pet supply]()
The 16 gallon has been running for about 4 months. This is the first tank where I tried containing the soil in mesh bags. I stuck obstinately to the 0.5-1” rule for sand cap, and plant growth struggled immensely at a constant 2ppm ammonia. I suspect this was due to having excessive hardscape (rocks and wood) in the tank, which displaced the sand cap as they settled. Other, more experienced fish keepers finally convinced me to thicken the sand cap by another inch after WCs and dense planting failed to resolve the issue. Removing the rocks and bigger piece of driftwood took care of the ammonia issue. Plant growth struggled for the first 5 weeks. After that, growth took off. Now I can barely keep up with trimming.
I’ve been picking out hair algae daily from the 20 gallon, and ran a HOB with Purigen and a polishing filter to remove tannins and suspended particles that I think came from the daphnia flakes I’ve been feeding. Other than that, I’ve been practicing the LITFA method (Leave It The F Alone) for the past month. Progress at 3 weeks vs. 7 weeks:
March 12
![Water Plant Plant community Natural landscape Wood]()
April 9
![Plant Water Plant community Natural landscape Rectangle]()
This is the reddest I’ve ever gotten my plants to grow in an NPT. Also, I’ve tried and failed numerous times to get pearlweed to carpet. Here it’s doing so despite my intentions. And this is why LITFA is my go-to sub-method for Walstads.
March 12
April 9
This is the reddest I’ve ever gotten my plants to grow in an NPT. Also, I’ve tried and failed numerous times to get pearlweed to carpet. Here it’s doing so despite my intentions. And this is why LITFA is my go-to sub-method for Walstads.
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