# Starting a Walstad, need advice



## jm0 (Nov 18, 2017)

It's definitely possible to have a sucessful walstad aquarium in a 5 gallon tank. But i would say that it's too little water dillution, you want as big of a tank that you can get your hands on. But if that's what you got, then roll with that. Are you planning to have fish in it? if so, keep it lightly stocked. You risk that your water parameters can change from hour to hour, making it a pain to maintain. You will need hardy fish such as zebra danios, platies or mollies. These fish will more likely adapt to the sudden swings in water quality. I'm not saying it's impossible, but go ahead and see if you can maintain somewhat stable water parameters, and wait until the tank has been through the nitrogen cycle. Oh you plan on keeping a filter, so you should be fine then. You can add red clay with high iron content to the soil if you want. But your high tech soil should have plenty of iron added. I don't live in america or canada but i've seen others use the brand 'Miracle gro - organic', should be rather inexpensive.

As far as soil, get an organic mix. You don't want added nutrients, but you can def try it out. Limestone will alter you water chemistry and harden the water slightly, but nothing to worry too much about. Spaughnum will also affect the water chemistry, by making it more acidic/softer. You don't have to boil the soil.

Try it out and see if you can pull it off. Cool little project


----------



## mysiak (May 23, 2017)

Those soil ingredients don't sound good at all. As far as I recall, moss humus is not recommended. Perlite will float. 9 months fertilizer will release too much ammonia and/or nitrate and can create nitrate breathing issue for weeks or months. Definitely find some cheap "organic soil".

5.5g is fine, I was able to run extremely stable 2.5g bowl for several months (replaced by 4g tank). Look for nano fish based on your water parameters. Platies/mollies are not suitable for such a small tank. Endlers and similar small fish would be fine.

Also never heard of boiling a soil for Walstad tank - why would you do that? The main principle of NPT is to utilize living creatures and bacteria contained naturally in soil.


----------



## aydemir (Sep 20, 2012)

mysiak said:


> Also never heard of boiling a soil for Walstad tank - why would you do that? The main principle of NPT is to utilize living creatures and bacteria contained naturally in soil.



From a post made by Mr. Barr on another forum: "Boiling oxidizes the Organic N and NH4/NO2 to NO3.......but takes a few minutes vs the abcterial cycle which takes 3-6 weeks or so.
Both end in the same way.

And if you boil first, then add plants etc, the roots already have live bacteria specific to plant /soil relationships, plain old soil sitting without any roots is not the same thing.
There's no need to wait in other words for the soil to mineralize."


I trust Mr. Barr knows what he is doing so since I have a small amount of soil and am looking for a faster start than DSM, I plan on boiling the soil. As for the soil, I guess I'll go pick up some cheap topsoil from home depot or something. I'm in Canada and don't know where I can find Safe T sorb or turface...is there a substitute I can use? All I've seen at my local hardware stores has been non-clay based absorbents.


----------



## mysiak (May 23, 2017)

The last sentence sums it up - there is no need to mineralize the soil (either by soaking/drying cycles or baking at very high temperatures). Most plants prefer ammonia/nitrite over nitrate and anaerobic bacteria in soil will strip down oxygen from nitrates anyway, converting them back to nitrite. So there is not much advantage in doing it. Just put abundance of fast growers and floaters in the tank and they will take care of excess nutrients quickly. You can remove them once tank stabilizes (usually just in few weeks).

Book covers this topic in details with explanations, but of course it's up to you which way you'll choose.

Edit: boiling does not mineralize the soil, it oxidises ammonia to nitrate (and even this is only anecdotal information, I couldn't find any study confirming it, or explanation why it should work), but leaves organics untouched. Also it sterilizes the soil, which is absolutely unnecessary in Walstad tank. If you want to really mineralize the soil, your only feasible option is to do wet/dry cycle. Diana is advocate of using fresh soil and my experience confirms this. Just don't stock your tank the first day and monitor water parameters during first few weeks.


----------

