"Natural" tanks - no filter

Impressive can you do it on a larger scale?

 

He said before and yes you can

 

What substrate are you using?

 

looks like flourite to me (back on pg 1 first photo)

 

That's what it looks like to me too.

 

two words:
Diana Walstad

 

Very nice, I am building a 15g NPT right now, well researching and material gathering right now, need to build a double or triple tank stand first.

 

Walstead uses more of a mineralized top soil. but can be modified to suit your needs. When I did my 75 gal I had a thin layer of peat, then topped with topsoil, then capped with sand. The larger the tank the longer you can go without water changes also in an NPT tank. I did mine every 6 to 8 months and changed about 60%. For a npt tank you need a mixture of fast growing and slow growing tanks to help take up excess nutrients and need to plant at least 60 to 70 % of the tank.

 

She uses miracle grow potting soil mix.

 

Just plain miracle grow potting soil she doesn't do any of the fancy mineralizing in the sun for MONTHS?

 

miracle grow potting soil MIX thats the exact name of the stuff and no I beleive it goes from bag to tank, rinsing it will remove stuff from it that basically help make up the NPT theory

 

But with the miracle grow mix you have to make sure there isn't any urea in the mix. If it does it will take months for that to leach out before you put fish in the tank.

 

yeah this stuff doesnt have that , fish are in the next day with her set up

 

okay, but won't potting soil (miracle grow mix) make the tank miserably dirty/cloudy?

I know eco-complete doesn't (because I use that)...but I thought potting soil did/does?

 

No, if its done right there is ZERO cloud. most soil based tanks have a gravel or crushed coral cap to prevent the soil from becoming waterbourne.

gotta use a plate to fill it and all that, kinda like sand tanks.

 

Okay, I understand about the plate to fill and topping it with something heavier to hold it in place...but what about when it comes to partials and needing to "disturb" the substrate to prevent anerobic/"dead" spot?

This is quite interesting to me

 

With potting soil you don't stir it up and you don't really want fish in there that will disturb the substrate. You basically want to use plants that have good root systems to fill in the soil to where there won't be any anerobic spots.

I know several people that use the walstead method, but you can't put fish in right away as the soil has to settle and most don't add fish for a couple of months. The way she had most of us do it is to put the soil in the tank then just enough water to cover, let set a couple of days then cap it add about 8 inches of water and plant the tank, let it settle for a few days as planting will cause it to cloud. After that settles add more water slowly to fill the tank. You can't add fish till the soil quits sending out bubbles.

 

oh, okay...thanks for clarifying. I might have to try that some day!
once it's settled I take it your good to go as long as when you siphon you don't get near the substrate?

 

Im letting mine settle, better safe then sorry and I restocked on test drops.

"It says that some top soils leach ammonia and cycle in a month and other soils cycle nearly immediately. (ME)

Both are true. So that I can add fish immediately and cut down on algae problems, I use dirt or a potting soil with no added fertilizers and a low NPK readings. The NPK for MGOC 'Potting Mix', which I particularly like, is: 0.10, 0.05, and 0.05. " (DWalstad)

thats from a thread of mine on APC