Planted Aquarium Diana Walstad Method

Owner: Ravikiran. G, 29, from Bangalore (India), 15 years of fishkeeping.

Setup: June 2009

Tank Size: 66x24x24 inches

Build Type: Split Aquarium

Filtration: Internal Filters Boyu /Atman

Lighting: 4x36 W Philips True Light - 4 feet Slim Tubes, 8 hours per day

Heating: 300 W

CO2 System: No CO2 System

Substrate: Bottom layer of 2 inches Red potting soil and Top layer of 1 inch River gravel

Decoration: Drift wood and Natural river rocks.

Water: Temp 25°-26°C

Maintenance: 40% weekly water changes, weekly pruning. 10-15 drops of PMDD (AquaGrow) 3 times weekly and Root tablets occasionally.

Fauna: 24 Neon Tetras; 10 Pencil Fish; 8 Black Neons; 3 Ramierzi; 12 Glow light Tetras; 16 Guppies; 6 Cherry Barbs; 2 Siamese Algae Eaters; 5 Golden Algae Eaters; 3 Red Tail Sharks; 3 Black goldfish; 2 Oranda goldfish; 6 Goldfish; 2 Blue Gourami.

Flora: Hygrophilla Corymbosa; Echinodorus Indian Red Sword; Hygrophila Difformis; Echinodorus Tenellus; Vallisneria Spiralis; Myriophyllum Pinnatum; Nymphaea.Sp Rubra; Echinodorus martii (dwarf ruffled amazon sword); Echinodorus Amazonicus; Potamogeton gayii; Hemianthus Cuba.

Feeding: Frozen blood worms & frozen brine shrimp along with Hi-Red baby pellets; Weekly once feed Live Red blood worms.

Comments: Started this hobby with a humble beginning of 2 mollies in a glass jar which was presented to me by my Dad. Later as years passed on I graduated from 2 ft, 3 ft and finally to the present 5.5 ft Aquarium. Although all these years I was just keeping fishes it was very recently in 2009 I got obsessed to have my own setup of Natural fresh water planted Aquarium which was greatly inspired when I came across aquascaping setups by Takashi Amano.
I wanted to have the pleasure of a planted aquarium with tetras as well as with other fishes in a single setup. Hence I divided the aquarium in 60:40 ratio. In the front portion of the tank its plain gravel only for Goldfishes while the back tank is fully dedicated to plants & tetras.
After few trial & errors, it's all down to enjoying a natural masterpiece right at home. In my opinion, if you want to have a decent planted tank without spending a lot of money, go for Diana Walstad method but be sure you provide adequate lighting required and select low light requiring & easy to maintain hardy plants.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Planted
• Aquarium;
• Diana
• Walstad
• method;
• neon
• tetra
• tank;
• Takashi
• Amano

[ganesh364]

hello ravi,

great aquarium,

im planning to set up a low tech planted aquarium, any advise on the type of soil to use?

[ravikirang27]

@ganesh364

normal garden potting red soil with sand mix

[kannadavo]

Hi Ravi,

You aqua looks cool..

In Maintenance tips "10-15 drops of PMDD (AquaGrow) 3 times weekly and Root tablets occasionally", where you do you get these in bangalore ?

Also can you kindly tell where do you get neon-tetras in bangalore and what price

thanks

Hari

[ravikirang27]

@kannadavo Dear Hari, Sorry for the late reply. You get the needed fishes and PMDD in the location mentioned below. Matsyavatar #27, Shrungar Shopping Centre M.G. Road, Bangalore 560 001. Tel : (080) 2558 6006 Shop No. 5, Anand Chambers #27, Elephant Rock Road Jayanagar 3rd Block, Bangalore 560 011 Tel : (080) 4166 6870 Regards, Ravikiran

[w13rdguy]

looks like more work to maintain, especially for that much water change. You might get by with less frequent. Plants consume nitrates, right?

[ravikirang27]

@w13rdguy

yes, regular doseage of nutrients is needed.

[mrsandnhs]

That is cool! Please check out mine

[TheBSideDJ]

very very nicey indeed... is warm water from back-tank not making water from first tank hot as well ?

[kkdhadhich]

gre88888888888888

[TheNakerz5]

Nice tank :)

[TheNakerz5]

I just have to say it. GOLDFISH ARE COLDWATER! NOT TROPICAL! Ok, now that I have that out of my system, nice tank :)

[bluffmaster4207]

there is no search result for " PMDD AQUA GROW" .

where i get in mumbai ?

if any 1 have any idea .pm me

[rahul12345612]

hii ravi truely appreciable work...love this and wanna copy this aquarium from u :)...plz can u tell me about the all cost of ur aquarium glass filter heater lighting plants and fishes...plz so that i can get this aquarium in resonable prices here in punjab no one knows much about the fishes that u put in ur tank..thanks

[Dustinsfishtanks]

@ganesh364 I've got lots of videos on how to do the walstad method GREAT TANK RAVI! I don't see why you have the divider personally but... my goldfish only make a slight mess of my tank...

[ganesh364]

@ravikirang27

thank you...................