4.8g (18.17L) Cube | Welstad Method | Day 2

Day 2

The Welstad Method is a process where a tank is set up using non-additive soil, something to cap the soil, and plants. These are used to make a natural filter to hold the nitrogen cycle, instead of using a mechnical filter (e.g. HOBs, canisters, sumps, etc.) since the soil will give room for bacteria to break down debris and continue giving nutrients for the aquatic plants. This process was made popular by Diana Welstad, author of 'ECOLOGY of the PLANTED AQUARIUM - A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist'.

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Plants

Today I added plenty of plants: anubias species, jungle val, java moss, lucky bamboo, pothos, java fern windelov, crypt species, duckweed, and I plan on adding more; these are just what I had from another one tank for now. Although, I bought another type of aquatic fern that I thought died off, but it's pot still had living rhimzones, so I took those out and placed them in spots I could keep an eye on them in this tank. Additionally, I have a lava rock and pot on the java moss to help pin it down so it didn't float, and I removed them a few moments ago. I think the moss should adhere to the rock on it's own now. If not, I'll just weigh it down again. I think I might move plants around in the future, but I would also like to see how long it takes for the val to grow in since it grew quite small. You can't see if from the front of tank.

Light

I misplaced my light that I originally bought for this, so I have a lower quality one in place for now until I find the other. to be fair, all the plants I have are low maintenance, so I may just keep using this light-- although I would prefer not to as it is not meant for aquatic use, so it's 'waterproofness' probably isn't that great. Regardless, I have the timer set up for it, and I am going to start with 6 hours since it is such a small tank.

Waterline

I don't have this tank as full as it should be, and that's primarily for the semi-aquatic plants. I have some pothos cuttings that need to grow out a bit more so it would be fully submerged.

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Final Thoughts

I didn't really plan the outline for this tank. I'm trying to be relaxed about it, so if it doesn't look good in the future, I'll just rearrange. That's the nice thing about having a small planted tank like this with nothing living in it, I don't have to worry about disturbing anything and it's a fun side project to see it's progress overtime.