#bastsfishtalk

Okay, disclaimer, I’m no expert, just an aquatic hobbyist 😅

I’ve been trying to keep live aquatic plants for a few years though, and done a ton of research.

The method of having a layer of organic substrate (soil) under a layer of inert (little to no nutrients, such as sand or gravel) substrate was basically pioneered by Diana Walstad, and is thus referred to as the Walstad method. She has a book which, naturally, goes pretty in-depth!

I’ll be honest and say I don’t know a ton about the route without soil, AKA adding the nutrients into the water column via one of the many supplements brands like SeaChem have. As far as I can tell it basically requires being able to spot and identify your plant’s ailments and adding the specific requirement.

You could possibly get away with buying an all-around nutrient solution and adding that during water changes, buuuut in personal experience it wouldn’t be nearly so easy and you’d probably still wind up with dying plants. You should definitely be able to find more information on that, I think it’s generally the route that pet stores and the like take so it might work for you!

I found this article super useful for picking a substrate pair that’d suit my needs. However, as I recall fine sand isn’t recommended as it chokes roots and prevents oxygen from getting to your soil.

(From the above article)

But if axolotl don’t burrow deep and you pick a light-colored sand to cap, it’d probably be easy to spot and clean up any dark-colored soil that got above the cap. And a thin layer of sand likely wouldn’t impede your plants too much provided you had a deep enough layer of soil for them to anchor to. Or you could find a soil that’s fine enough to pass through or will break down in your axolotl’s gut and thus be safe. (Disclaimer #2, I know nothing about axolotl, I’m just guessing based on general aquarium care)

Tank update! The first picture is what I posted just ten days ago. I’m really happy to see noticeable growth!

i’d also like to rework my wiring setup and get my 10gal going so i can have some comet goldfish.

however i have a water problem. i need 30 gallons of water for both aquariums, and rn i buy local springwater for my water changes. i don’t mind dropping the money for 30 gallons, but there are 2 problems: getting it home, and supply.

i was considering starting with tap water and using springwater for water changes, but changing the water i use halfway through just seems like a bad idea, and i also don’t use the tap water for a reason. i don’t even give my cat tap water or drink it myself. so we’re back to springwater.

i might buy in as much bulk as i possibly can and employ my landlord and/or housemate to help me get it home, and do that until i’ve got ~30gal even if it takes a few weeks.

i haven’t even decided what i want to put in the 20gal. i love bettas, but honestly i’m just sick of killing them and that’s been a big factor in why i just kind of let my 20gal go for a few months. so i’m trying to decide if i want to finally try a proper community tank.

it’ll be a while before i even have to consider putting anything alive besides plants in there though.

so, anyway, plans:

- Buy some new rocks for the 20gal today and see if there are any fish at the petstore that I might want to put into a community tank, and get names to do research.

- Empty and clean 20gal, somehow. The spot outside the back door is perpetually flooded so I might have to go around the other door, which means carrying a 20gal up and down 2 flights of stairs to even get it outside. I might just put on my boots, clear up the leaves so I don’t slip, and slog through the flooded bit just to minimize the risk of dropping my aquarium.

- Rework my wire/tubing setup. I’m not doing a heater for the 10gal; I’d like to, but I just don’t have the electrical outlet real estate and I am not, under any circumstance, putting a heater on an extension cord next to 30 gallons of water in glass boxes. It doesn’t get that cold and I’m doing slim-bodied goldfish so they should be okay.

- Start working on getting the water home. Honestly no fucking clue how I’m going to do it but I’ll talk with the hands I have available and see how they feel about the manual labor.

- Set up the tanks and get them cycling. The 10gal will have some large dark pebble substrate if I can find something I like, the 20gal will have scaper’s soil, rocks, and plants. I also need to decide what plants I want.

Start with limiting natural light- Move your tank if it’s by a window, and/or try an aquarium background- A piece of cardboard or thick paper taped over back will work just fine. I also suggest limiting the amount of time your light is on- 8 hours is average, if it’s already on for 8 hours a day, try pushing it down to 6.

Clean the existing algae well with an algae scraper. I recommend specifically an algae scraper over like, an unused sponge, since it’ll work a lot better and the scrubby side of a sponge will scratch the hell out of the glass. And cheap sponges will disintegrate and leave little bits of sponge in the water, and that’s not good for your betta. If it’s grown on your gravel, you can try skimming just the gravel with algae on it and cleaning it with a water/bleach solution- Thoroughly rinsing and letting it dry completely before adding it back in. If you’re worried about bleach remnants you can rinse with a water mixed with dechlorinator/water conditioner (that you should be adding during water changes anyway)

Use a gravel siphon and clean your gravel during water changes, if you aren’t already. If you are already using a gravel siphon, do water changes/gravel cleanings more often. Especially if you don’t have live plants- Siphoning shouldn’t disturb your bed of beneficial bacterial in the substrate, so there’s no real reason not to siphon your gravel.

Algae growth comes from excess resources, either light or nutrients or both. Without live plants, there’s nothing to absorb those nutrients (aka fish poo or uneaten food) so they have to be removed manually during water changes.

If you do have live plants, it’s basically the same, just siphon the gravel carefully/a little less liberally and monitor their health between gravel cleanings. If their health starts to decline, cut back on the frequency.

You can also try getting shrimp to clean up uneaten food and anything else that might contribute to excess nutrients. Ghost shrimp or neocaridina are both suitable tankmates for betta in most conditions- Even with more aggressive bettas, I’ve never had one that actually manage to hurt the shrimp.

Ghost shrimp are usually used as feed so they don’t have the longest lifespans, but they’re also very cheap. Neocaridina are usually a lot more expensive, but come in a wide variety of colors and are easier to breed.