20 Gallon Dirted / No Filter Tank

[Isaac M]

@H.K.Luterman those look like sprouts for the leaves so I would leave it the way it is. The roots are usually more of a white color. 

And normally the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite become established first so it is likely that all the ammonia is being consumed and converted to nitrite, hence the 0 ammonia reading. The bacteria converting nitrite to nitrate take longer since there has to be enough nitrite in the water for them to consume. Thats why the nitrite level is high. 

The lilly is going to look great in that tank though! Cannot wait to see it! 

[H.K.Luterman]

 

[H.K.Luterman]

Just wanted to do a little update before I head out of town for two weeks - I want to compare how much stuff has grown when I get back. The val is starting to take off; I'm seeing little shoots everywhere. I did go in about a week ago and trim off all the dying leaves, and so they look a ton better. The lily bulb has even more little leaf doodads. I moved a moss ball out of my betta's tank and into this one, and it's now growing hair algae. And we got some kind of hairy, staghorn algae going on in general. Also, little baby ramshorns and bladder snails have appeared. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[H.K.Luterman]

Goodness gracious. I was gone for 2 weeks and the dwarf aquarium lily went nuts! 

Here's a very crooked pic I took right before I left:

 

And here we are now:

 

I had put in a little piece of hornwort and lessened the light duration to try to combat the staghorn/hair algae, aaaaand I think all that happened was some duckweed die off (after growing into a thick mat). There's shed duckweed roots everywhere, it's a mess.

 

My first instinct is "WATER CHANGE, SUCK ALL THOSE SHED ROOTS OUT" but nonono, this is a no WC tank, gotta stay on target. 

 

The lily seems happy though.

Despite the mess, the tank is cycled, and I'm starting to think about adding some inhabitants. There's a little stripy yellow Mystery Snail in the 29 I think I'm going to put in there, and I think next time I get paid I'll be ordering some Bloody Mary neos from somewhere. 

[H.K.Luterman]

I need to stop looking at this tank, the duck weed roots are driving me nuts, lol! But I decided to add some driftwood, since the crushed coral did a great job at raising my Kh, and so the Ph shouldn't dive down from the tannins (in theory). Plus the wood will grow some tasty numnums for the snails and future shrimp. 

But first I had to get approval from the boss on my wood choices.

 

And here's the tank now:

 

I trimmed off some of the val that had the hair algae, and added a few more rocks to keep the wood in place, as well as just to add visual interest. 

 

My marimo is getting crazy. Think I need to give it a good roll.

I also added a little Mystery Snail. My hubby named it Tori. I love when he participates. 😄 

 

 

I'm going to try to do my best to be zen about the floating duck weed roots. They'll eventually disintegrate and be mulm, right? 

[H.K.Luterman]

WELL! This tank has been going all summer and it's been doing well, I think. I recently had to trim off all the lily pads because they were blocking out the light. I should have taken a "before" pic but it didn't occur to me. 

Oh! I added Susswassertang a month or so ago - you can see the green blob of it.

It's still a mess of duck weed roots, probably from the water flow. I'm just used to it being messy now, lol.

The tank is a snaily wonderland, the inhabitants seem very happy. 

 

I added a couple more Mystery snails from the 29, and they have gotten HUGE in there. This is an old pic though, since it seems to be nap time and I can't find them all atm.

 

The weather's been cooler lately, so I went ahead and ordered some bloody mary neos. I haven't gotten the shipping notification yet (I suspect they will be sent out on Monday), but I will definitely take some pics when they arrive!

[CalmedByFish]

I love how natural it's looking. Like a little piece of river.

[H.K.Luterman]

My bloody Mary neos are here! I drip acclimated them for more than an hour, and they're settling in to their tank. However, I noticed one of the bigger ones had scutariella; I had never personally seen it before, but I have seen images of it on Youtube and was able to know right away what it was. I went for a treatment with Prazi Pro, and was surprised by how instant it worked. 

Here's some images of the parasites on the shrimps's face.

 

And this is within minutes of dosing the Prazi.

 

Super cool! 

[H.K.Luterman]

Checked in on the tank before giving the 2nd dose of Prazipro (to kill any baby scutellaria  that might have hatched between doses). All three mystery snails were being cute. 

This one was napping with a shrimp buddy.

 

 

This one was waking up from a nap with a shrimp buddy.

 

 

And this one was cleaning off something tasty from their shell.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by H.K.Luterman
spelling mistake

[Griznatch]

Very cool! Thanks for the update,following this thread for sure. I'm guessing that between the shrimp and the snails you soon will have very little algae.

[H.K.Luterman]

On 10/5/2021 at 1:30 PM, Griznatch said:

Very cool! Thanks for the update,following this thread for sure. I'm guessing that between the shrimp and the snails you soon will have very little algae.

It's likely! I'm starting to get some staghorn algae in the back, and I'd love for the shrimp to nibble it away!

[Griznatch]

hmm, not sure they'll eat the staghorn.  However, without predators and with the competition from the snails they just might not be so picky after a while...

[Patrick_G]

It’s looking very nice. Great pics of the snails. I’ve slowly realized that they really don’t thrive in acidic water. We’re experimenting with crushed coral so we have at least one tank with neutral water to keep mystery snails in. 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/5/2021 at 1:32 PM, H.K.Luterman said:

It's likely! I'm starting to get some staghorn algae in the back, and I'd love for the shrimp to nibble it away!

There’s a good chance of that if you nuke the algae with a bit of peroxide first.

[H.K.Luterman]

On 10/5/2021 at 1:46 PM, Patrick_G said:

It’s looking very nice. Great pics of the snails. I’ve slowly realized that they really don’t thrive in acidic water. We’re experimenting with crushed coral so we have at least one tank with neutral water to keep mystery snails in. 

I really wanted a tank best suited for some so I put a whole layer of crushed coral into the substrate of this tank, and I think that coupled with minimal water changes (so far, because of meds), is keeping the KH and Ph up. Definitely not putting any hornwort in this one; there's some in my 29 gal and the snails shells definitely aren't as nice, as I think the hornwort is sucking up so much calcium. I love hornwort but keeping that tank's water hard enough has been a challenge.

Edited October 5, 2021 by H.K.Luterman
I can't talk I'm tired

[Patrick_G]

On 10/5/2021 at 12:06 PM, H.K.Luterman said:

really wanted a tank best suited for some so I put a whole layer of crushed coral into the substrate of this tank, and I think that coupled with minimal water changes (so far, because of meds), is keeping the KH and Ph up. 
 

we added abou two pounds of coral to our seven gallon and it seems to be helping. Next time I set up a tank it’ll have a layer in the substrate like yours. 

[H.K.Luterman]

I've been gone for a week, visiting my hubby's family, and we came back to find Mystery snail eggs! These guys are my fav colors of the ones I have, so I'm eager to have more. This aquarium top has never fit right for some reason, so I had to tape some plastic wrap on the edge to keep humidity and any baby snails in.

 

The aquarium lily is getting crazy again. Also, I decreased water flow a ton to stop all the duckweed roots from getting caught on everything.

 

And just some snail pics, because they're cute.

 

Must be some tasty stuff on the Marimo today.

[Ema5002]

How is the Vampire shrimp doing with the filterless tank? I wanted to get one but I don't want a filter on my tank and I don't know how the shrimp would do without one.

[H.K.Luterman]

On 12/24/2021 at 1:07 AM, Ema5002 said:

How is the Vampire shrimp doing with the filterless tank? I wanted to get one but I don't want a filter on my tank and I don't know how the shrimp would do without one.

I don't have a vampire shrimp yet. I'm letting the bloodmarys take off, and with how much the mystery snails are breeding, I'm not sure if I'll even add one at this point. 

[H.K.Luterman]

Update! The 20 long's been doing well. I try to keep the Mystery snail eggs in check, but I did allow one or two clutches to hatch, and now there's little babies everywhere. The three adults have gotten huge.

(U.S. quarter for scale)

 

The val grows like crazy, and I have to pull out some just to create a feeding area for the mysteries. I also have to scoop duckweed and trim the lily, or else the light gets blocked out. There's some cladophora algae growing in a few spots but I don't mind it. 

 

Only two bloody mary shrimp seem to have survived. But the good news is they're a male and a female, and the female is currently carrying eggs. 

 

I will probably order some more in the spring to help with genetic diversity if the babies do well. 

[Patrick_G]

It’s looking nice. 
How’s that catfish of yours doing? I think it’s been a while since we seen a video of her! 

Edited January 10, 2022 by Patrick_G

[H.K.Luterman]

On 1/9/2022 at 6:17 PM, Patrick_G said:

It’s looking nice. 
How’s that catfish of yours doing? I think it’s been a while since we seen a video of her! 

I'll be taking pics of all the tanks tonight probably and post an update. But Pooka's doing great. She's a big spoiled baby. 

[H.K.Luterman]

There was a green tribble growing on the stem of one of the lily pads. I don't mind the fuzzy algae, I think its cute, but I want to keep it just on the wood. So I removed the affected stem.

Before:

 

After:

 

Also, the eyes of the baby shrimp are now visible. Can't be too much longer now.

[Jennifer V]

Loved reading this! Thank you so much for sharing your journey. Looking forward to reading more! 

[H.K.Luterman]

I've had to stick a little spare heater in the tank over the winter, since its located in a not very insulated outer room, and many nights I've also tossed a blanket on it to keep it in the low-mid 70s range. 

I've had some extra money trickle in though, and so today I ordered an Inkbird thermostat, and on my next Petco run I'll get a proper sized heater. 

Today I pulled a bunch of plants out, as the tank was getting stuffed full, though I didn't take any pics - the glare is pretty bad atm. I did a water test out of curiosity, and the stats are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate; I guess that's to be expected since I doubt the snails produce much bioload. The Ph was hard to read on the test strip, but it looked a bit higher than 7... I should do a liquid test just to see better. Hardness is very hard, though the Kh isn't very high. 

I think I need to add a cuttle bone, because even though I feed crab cuisine, it looks like the ramshorns are munching on the mystery snail shells.  I'm sure I have one somewhere. 

I haven't seen ANY shrimp, not the mama or the papa or any babies, and I'm feeling a bit disheartened. I had really bad luck with this batch, and I usually don't have any problem getting a neocaridina colony started. 

I'm starting to get the itch to add nano fish; I've been eyeballing endlers. This tank may soon include vertebrates!