# Walstad method



## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Sunlight only aquariums can certainly be done.

If it is trully full sun it is too much. Now when you say full sun do you mean to say that the room is illuminated like outside or that sunrays shine directly from the sun through your window? 

How is the room like in summer , cool-hot ? Depending on aquarium size, heat might be a problem. Because you base your tank on Walstad's method I would say it is better to receive filtered light. You will also need some way to control light duration and intensity.


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

There are a couple of threads around here touching on that.

Search the forum for windowsill. There is a user whose nick is Eutexian I believe...
There was also a thread called "what do you think will happen in a month from now". Or somethimg like this.

Check those out. I can post back if I find them.


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## jacobsears (Dec 15, 2013)

Just curious, do you have a specific reason as to why you'd rather use sunlight?


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## Mark Fisher (Dec 29, 2011)

I have a similar setup, but I find that natural sunlight from the window serves more as supplementary light, rather than a primary light source. I have T8 bulbs over my tank as the primary light.

When the window light is strongest, the plants do respond by pearling, but that's only for a couple of hours.


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Your Low Maintenance Tank*

Hello Grif...

Easily done with a sheer curtain over the window. Filtered sun will work better than direct sunlight. Emerse the rinsed off root balls of a couple of Aglaonema house plants and add a couple of air stones near the roots and you should have a nice tank that needs nothing more than water top offs to replace the water lost to evaporation.

B


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

We use aquarium lights that provide mostly light between 400-700 nm wave length, but the sun provides most of its light at longer wave lengths, infrared, and a lot of light at shorter wave lengths, ultraviolet. Also, sunlight is not easily controlled so you will have periods of too much intensity and periods of too little intensity. Don't expect to be able to take one of our typical planted tanks, set it in a sunny window, and continue to get the same results.


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## Steve001 (Feb 26, 2011)

Grifter said:


> So ive been reading alot about the walstad method ive figured most things out except that i want to use natural light . I have a spare 4ft in the garage .
> we recently purchase our first home and i have a window 4ft wide that gets full sun from 9am till sun down ( any where from 6pm to 9pm depending on season ).
> Id like any feed back as to if you think this would work ?
> Cheers


 It's practical. I rely mostly on sunlight and have for a long time stretching into years. During the winter months I do use some supplimental light. I recall Diane mentioning, too rely upon sunlight only during the shorter daylight periods may cause some plants to become dormant. The only time my take gets direct light is from later summer-spring. If you do get algae then cut the intensity, window screening works. Contrary to some thinking fluctuating light intensity has never seemed to affect plant growth in my experience. Most of the plants sold commercially are grown outdoors and subject to naturally varying light.


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## Grifter (Aug 23, 2011)

jacobsears said:


> Just curious, do you have a specific reason as to why you'd rather use sunlight?


Simply because i feel like it , i have 3 tanks from low to high light / tech but this idea has all way interested me.


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## Grifter (Aug 23, 2011)

dukydaf said:


> Sunlight only aquariums can certainly be done.
> 
> If it is trully full sun it is too much. Now when you say full sun do you mean to say that the room is illuminated like outside or that sunrays shine directly from the sun through your window?
> 
> How is the room like in summer , cool-hot ? Depending on aquarium size, heat might be a problem. Because you base your tank on Walstad's method I would say it is better to receive filtered light. You will also need some way to control light duration and intensity.


Light streams in this window between those hours and room temp normaly sits between 20-25 deg


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## Grifter (Aug 23, 2011)

Hoppy said:


> We use aquarium lights that provide mostly light between 400-700 nm wave length, but the sun provides most of its light at longer wave lengths, infrared, and a lot of light at shorter wave lengths, ultraviolet. Also, sunlight is not easily controlled so you will have periods of too much intensity and periods of too little intensity. Don't expect to be able to take one of our typical planted tanks, set it in a sunny window, and continue to get the same results.


Cheers hoppy , always interesting to read your posts . I certainly understand it wont be like my normal tanks an would be set up from day one to that fact


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## Supercracker (Jun 5, 2015)

It most definitely will work, however if you let get a lot of direct sunlight (like I'm doing) you will get an insane amount of algae. I have a 1.5g cube that sits in my window and gets a couple hours of direct sunlight a day, the plants are growing great but so is the algae. 

Here's a pic of it (it's over grown and dirty right now because I haven't cleaned or trimmed yet)


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## Aplomado (Feb 20, 2013)

Cool! What are the emersed plants?


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## Supercracker (Jun 5, 2015)

Four leaf clover and Ludwigia Peruensis.


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## Larry Whitaker (Aug 8, 2015)

The theory behind the Walstad aquarium has been around for centuries. As long as people have had hand dug wells.
Just not in the world of the aquarium hobbyist. However it has been applied in other fields longer than aquariums have existed.
How the name walstad came to be connected to an ancient practise of purifying water is beyond me.
However Walstad obviously did not have a fully working comprehension of the theory.

The Walstad setup is only the beginning of a method of having a balanced tank. Although incomplete, it is a good start. 
What walstad did not realize is that there are many different species of nitrifying bacteria. Some of them literally a million times more efficient than others. The problem with the walstad method is that it relies on a species of nitrifying bacteria called heterotrophic bacteria. Heterotrophic bacteria live in a submerged environment usually in the substrate of our tanks and also in canister type filters and convert ammonia to nitrites. 
Unfortunately there simply isnt enough surface area in an aquarium to cultivate enough heterotrophic bacteria to keep up with the ammonia unless you cultivate much more in a filter of some type.
(Of course the species of bacteria called Nitrobactor convert the nitrites into nitrates, lives everywhere and usually has no problems keeping up with the nitrites.)

Many advances has been made to the basic Walstad method over the years. One way to pull it off is to cultivate a more efficient species of nitrifying bacteria such as Nitrosomonas in a trickle filter.
Nitrosomonas lives in a wet (but not submerged) environment which is why the trickle filter was created. It provides an environment for nitrosomonas.
A single Nitrosomonas cell can convert the same amount of ammonia as approximately 1,000,000 heterotrophic bacteria.
By using the walstad method and supplementing with a small trickle filter you can achieve a natural balanced tank and it works perfectly.





Grifter said:


> So ive been reading alot about the walstad method ive figured most things out except that i want to use natural light . I have a spare 4ft in the garage .
> we recently purchase our first home and i have a window 4ft wide that gets full sun from 9am till sun down ( any where from 6pm to 9pm depending on season ).
> Id like any feed back as to if you think this would work ?
> Cheers


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Larry Whitaker said:


> The theory behind the Walstad aquarium has been around for centuries. As long as people have had hand dug wells.
> Just not in the world of the aquarium hobbyist. However it has been applied in other fields longer than aquariums have existed.
> How the name walstad came to be connected to an ancient practise of purifying water is beyond me.
> However Walstad obviously did not have a fully working comprehension of the theory.
> ...


Why don't you start a thread where you can describe in detail your method for a low light, inexpensive, low maintenance planted tank? Wouldn't that be better that just shooting at Diana Walstad?


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## fjord (Feb 1, 2011)

I agree with Hoppy. Having used the Walstad method with success, I've been very happy with the results. Even Ms. Walstad acknowledges in her book and articles that the methods are pre existing. Have you ever read her book?


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