Want to test a No Filter 5.5 gallon tank. How do you think my substrate should be?

[snowballs99]

I plan on starting it with an aquaclear filter for a month, then as it stabilizes I'll remove it.

Will be none co2, might put in some caridina shrimp babies as well.

I'm using ada amazonia 2 and will be adding in HCL acidified tap water, at rough p.h of 6.5.

Do you guys recommend putting a nutrient rich bottom soil layer for more organic/co2 production?
Should I use some old aquasoil I have leftover to kickstart the cycling?
I have both some worm castings, and some Ocean Forest Potting Soil available to use.

Eventual plants in the tank will be
1. Some floating mosses.
2. Lots of Bucephalandras planted into the substrate.
3. Some Crypts for mass and rootage.

 

[bradquade]

My second tank ever was a no tech vase where I grew an amazon sword, monte carlo carpet, random mosses, floaters, emersed Bacopa monnieri, and emersed Poaceae sp. "Purple Bamboo". This took zero effort to maintain and care for over the ~2 years it was setup and it never had problems with growing plants or any obnoxious algae. I also kept Neocaridina shrimp culls in there that seemed relatively happy despite the small size and no filtration. It seems like this sort of setup is similar to what you want. Looking back, I think it was extremely easy to care for and grew plants well because I used a garden soil substrate capped with white gravel. This kept the plants fed and soil decomposition probably gave an extra CO2 boost that the carpet plants really appreciated. If your plan is to plant once and let it grow without moving anything, I would recommend a similar strategy where you use a capped garden soil substrate. It's super effective and makes these no tech tanks very easy to maintain long term. 2hrAquarist talks about DIY substrates in this article and it might be worthwhile checking if that's a direction you want to explore.

I also would not start the tank with a filter and then take it away once it stabilizes. Just let it ride and suffer through cycling one time instead of risking having it cycle twice as you disturb the biofilter.

 

[snowballs99]

My second tank ever was a no tech vase where I grew an amazon sword, monte carlo carpet, random mosses, floaters, emersed Bacopa monnieri, and emersed Poaceae sp. "Purple Bamboo". This took zero effort to maintain and care for over the ~2 years it was setup and it never had problems with growing plants or any obnoxious algae. I also kept Neocaridina shrimp culls in there that seemed relatively happy despite the small size and no filtration. It seems like this sort of setup is similar to what you want. Looking back, I think it was extremely easy to care for and grew plants well because I used a garden soil substrate capped with white gravel. This kept the plants fed and soil decomposition probably gave an extra CO2 boost that the carpet plants really appreciated. If your plan is to plant once and let it grow without moving anything, I would recommend a similar strategy where you use a capped garden soil substrate. It's super effective and makes these no tech tanks very easy to maintain long term. 2hrAquarist talks about DIY substrates in this article and it might be worthwhile checking if that's a direction you want to explore.

I also would not start the tank with a filter and then take it away once it stabilizes. Just let it ride and suffer through cycling one time instead of risking having it cycle twice as you disturb the biofilter.

View attachment 13992View attachment 13993

Thanks for the input!

Fairpoint, I just figured some flow and oxygen would let it stabilize faster.

I plan on putting in mostly buces and crypts, so I have to make sure the substrates aged like whisky else everything would just melt.

You never really fertilize these types of tanks either right? Usually just grows until the soil is tapped out.

 

[bradquade]

I've setup this style of tank without fish a few times now and never really felt like flow/oxygen made a difference. The plants don't care that much and neither do shrimp. Just give it some water changes occasionally and it'll be fine.

I don't remember my fertilization strategy for this particular tank. Since I don't remember, I'm guessing there was no fertilization strategy and the tank ran off of the soil. I may have added water from my high tech tanks on occasion though. If I setup the same tank today, I probably wouldn't fertilize until the plants looked like they needed it and then it would be a dose here and there. Nothing too consistent or crazy.

 

[Kwyet]

I’ve had two 8-gallon no-tech bowls. For both, I started with a very small internal filter. After cycling and the tank had been stable for a month or 2, I removed the filter but left the filter sponge hidden in the back of the tank. There will still be some flow through it if you have some inhabitants to cause water movement. That was my reasoning anyway. Then after another month or so, I removed the sponge as well. By that time, there’s certainly enough bacteria throughout the tank that it isn’t needed.

For substrate I used aqua soil covered by Seachem fluorite black sand. The first time, I put the soil in a mesh bag, but I found it very annoying and didn’t do that the second time around. If you aren’t going to put in any stems, I don’t think it would matter either way.

I did water changes every 1-2 weeks and fairly lean ferts, meaning nitrates were around 5 ppm.

For lighting, I started with a desk lamp. I didn’t like it, and later switched to a Chihiro’s magnetic light. The plants did much better and looked better with that.

1st bowl:



2nd bowl:

 

[snowballs99]

I’ve had two 8-gallon no-tech bowls. For both, I started with a very small internal filter. After cycling and the tank had been stable for a month or 2, I removed the filter but left the filter sponge hidden in the back of the tank. There will still be some flow through it if you have some inhabitants to cause water movement. That was my reasoning anyway. Then after another month or so, I removed the sponge as well. By that time, there’s certainly enough bacteria throughout the tank that it isn’t needed.

For substrate I used aqua soil covered by Seachem fluorite black sand. The first time, I put the soil in a mesh bag, but I found it very annoying and didn’t do that the second time around. If you aren’t going to put in any stems, I don’t think it would matter either way.

I did water changes every 1-2 weeks and fairly lean ferts, meaning nitrates were around 5 ppm.

For lighting, I started with a desk lamp. I didn’t like it, and later switched to a Chihiro’s magnetic light. The plants did much better and looked better with that.

1st bowl:
View attachment 14008
View attachment 14009

2nd bowl:
View attachment 14010

Thanks for the photo examples!

I decided to just use what I had on hand, which was some worm castings, pond osmocote pellets and ada amazonia 2.

I was going to just use some old substrate but for some reason it was buffering my ph to 8.0.

 

[Kwyet]

Thanks for the photo examples!

I decided to just use what I had on hand, which was some worm castings, pond osmocote pellets and ada amazonia 2.

I was going to just use some old substrate but for some reason it was buffering my ph to 8.0.

I believe Amazonia 2 is what I was using. I’ve never used worm castings, although I’ve seen others refer to them from to time.

 

[snowballs99]

I believe Amazonia 2 is what I was using. I’ve never used worm castings, although I’ve seen others refer to them from to time.

Them "natural" youtubers go crazy over fish mulm.
Gardening people go crazy over worm poop.


Why not add it into the substrate as "worm mulm".
The little copepods and worms in your tank go pretty crazy over it.

 

[Count Krunk]

My 10g does have a canister filter (mainly so it can support a heavy bioload) but it also uses soil capped with bdbs .

A very easy sub for growing a wild variety of plants.

I dose a simple all in one easy green type fert once a week. Water change maybe 3 times a year.

 

[snowballs99]

My 10g does have a canister filter (mainly so it can support a heavy bioload) but it also uses soil capped with bdbs.

A very easy sub for growing a wild variety of plants.

I dose a simple all in one easy green type fert once a week. Water change maybe 3 times a year.
View attachment 14020

This looks like a perfect tank for a light dusting of worm castings. The little worm granules blend in perfectly with your substrate.