Danielslo

Thanks a lot! Sounds like an old fashioned waiting game. At least that takes some worries away.

Dear Aquarists, I am quite new to the hobby and have some queries I would love to have answered. As a part of my thesis for university I am testing if I can build a low tech tank ecosystem that requires little mechanics and interventions. I started researching the walstad method and bought a 40 gal juwel rio and decided to do a planted cycling with organic soil, a half inch of gravel capped off with sand. When I planted it a day after filling I took off some bad leaves and kept these in the tank for them to decay and introduce ammonia. Now I am in 2 weeks with already a week of reading high ammonia (+5ppm), nitrites of 10 ppm and nitrates of about 200ppm. I added 2 shoots of pothos and some frogbit to try and reduce the non bio nutrients since yesterday. All plants are showing new leaf growth but are partially melting and it has a lot of diatoms since 1,5 week as well. Tank is equipped with a eheim compacton for surface agitation at 90 gals/hour, helialux rgb for 12 hours a day and heated at 24celsius/75 fahrenheit. Any things I need to look out for/do? Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my first lengthy post.