[Gooblikon]

Hello. I just set up my first Walstad type tank on Wednesday evening. I have an inch or so of dirt (Miracle Gro Nature's Choice Raised Bed Topsoil) capped by an inch or so of 2-4 mm gravel. I planted about 25 plants. It is a 29 gallon tank. My readings yesterday and today are zero ammonia and zero nitrites but marginally high nitrates (25). However, I live on a farm in farming country, and our well water right out of the tap has nitrates. My tank faces a western window but doesn't get direct sun from it. I've turned off my tank lights in the afternoons for several hours. Today I was gone all day and my lights didn't get turned on til.late afternoon. Yesterday my water had a faint green tinge. And today it is more noticeable. I have duckweed and hornwort for floating plants, though the hornwort has sunk to mid-tank. Do you have advice? Is View attachment 76662
there anything I should do about the somewhat green water? I haven't added fish yet. Thank you for your thoughts!

Can always move it away from the window or cover it when the lights are out to reduce light time and reduce algae growth. The substrate could be leeching through the gravel introducing a lot of CO2 for the algae to grow even more. If the water parameters are good you could always introduce an invertebrate or two to clean up the algae, but there are most likely bladder snails all over those aquatic plants that will pop out in a few more days!