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first try at El Natural

4K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  Mikaila31 
#1 ·
My 1st real attempt at the El Natural method. 15 gallon tank about 4 months old. Still working on it, but the plants have filled in for the most part. Still not finished stocking though. I need to swap one of the light bulbs too cuz its too green/hates my camera. Its still slightly cloudy from me tearing it up a few days ago(one of the downsides of this method I guess). Currently has 17ish fish, untold number of snails/ shrimp, 11 species of plants. I'm pretty sure it follows all the El Natural rules, except wcs might be too frequent.





 
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#5 ·
The foreground plant is stargrass.

Lighting consists of what I had laying around. Two fixtures on this tank. A striplight over the back half retrofited with 2 X 14 watt spiral compacts. Then the same fixture on the front with the normal 15 watt T8. The tank runs pretty much 3wpg. It started with 2wpg for the first month I think before increasing it. No algae.... so far lol.
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#7 ·
Very lovely indeed. A good symmetry, nice contrast in shapes. Beautiful. Well done.:welldone:

Byron.
 
#8 ·
yeah wc's are 30-50% a week. This tank decimates the 20ppm of nitrate in my tap water, way more either of my high techs. I can't deal with low nitrate so I do wcs lol. Final stocking is going to be around a GBR pair, would like more nano fish but they are not too common around here. Current stocking is 3 sparrow rasboras, 7 ember tetras, 4 P. gertrudae, 3 male endlers, cherry shrimp, then various hitchhiker snails.

Setting up the substrate too a long time. I didn't mineralize it or anything. Just dug everything out of a wooded gully by my house. Clay, dirt, and then sand. I'm kinda use to the cloudiness by now, but the only powerhead in this tank is slightly too strong. No filter either, so it tends to just blow stuff round and round.
 
#11 ·
It was. I'm surprised you caught that actually:lol:.

Below is a pic from the final stages of laying substrate(which took me two days) right before the sand was added. The substrate was the hardest part, most of the rest was just waiting. Then finding sticks I liked in the middle of winter.


I want to try the soil with one of my high tech tanks this summer and see how it goes. But I've put all my tanks on hold ATM. I'm looking to get an apartment in a few months and whats going to happen to all my tanks is yet to be determined. Pasted up a really nice deal on GBRs earlier this week:-(.

This tank chills in my closet BTW;-)
 
#10 ·
this tank is 15 gallons
 
#15 ·
well either way, the original point of contention was that an aquascape wasnt possible w/o high tech equipment which i think mikaila has proven to be untrue. Although i dont know if redknee still even remembers the challenge.

Why were dried leaves used in the setup? Was it to lower the PH?
 
#16 ·
I had a very high organic soil/mud underneath the leaves, that came from a deciduous forest gully that floods almost every year. I rinsed all the different soils I used. Initial tank fill though I still had a lot of little drowning worms/bugs everywhere:lol:. I used the leaves because I figured they would a) reduce amount of organics leaking out of the soil on initial setup, then degrade within a month by which time the plants would be established(good). Or B) inhibit O2 in substrate making it go anaerobic(not so good). Did they do anything? IDK really lol. I had only very minor algae since I set this tank up and no water quality issues at all, substrate did go anaerobic/ might still be. I was(still am) much too lazy to do the proper mineralization stuff. I love my free sand though, never used sand before. Mainly because I never liked the look of the "unnaturally" uniform stuff they sell for tanks.

Redchigh is the haze normal for soil based? Mine was mostly clear the first few months, lately its got this light perpetual haze:-?. I increase surface movement a few days ago to see if I can get it to go away. I use to have more surface movement and plants seemed happier back then. IDK why...

Here is a week of growth.



 
#17 ·
Thats a really good idea, using those leaves. i may have to steal that idea for my next setup..

I have that haze in my 1.5 soil setup with my betta, it was also clear for a while before it got this way. My 46g soil setup is crystal clear though, alebeit yellow, but very clear. I know redchigh's soil setups had some crash due to anerobic substrate, mines gone anerobic too so I'm deathly afraid to disturb it. I just hope my mts eventually turn it enough to slowly dissolve the toxins and fix the problem.
 
#18 ·
You need to poke it when you do a WC. Thats the fastest way to fix anaerobic substrate. I don't consider it really bad, just a minor problem if you deal with it correctly it should not cause any problems. Mine was definitely anaerobic for a while. I stopped worrying about it too much once I got it densely planted.
 
#21 ·
Gorgeous tank. I'm hoping to try the El Natural on a 20 gallon or smaller tank for female bettas for my son. Thanks for all the info and the beautiful photos for inspiration.

You said you added sticks? Are there certain species of trees that work better or should be avoided? Do you prep the sticks in any way before adding?

I too may borrow the leaves idea.

I have a 5.5 gallon with soil substrate. The water is pretty clear, however a month ago I had a large algae growth problem. The tank has been up for about 3 months.

Again, a wonderful job on your tank.
 
#22 ·
The sticks that make up my aquascape. Well they need to be dead. Best to find ones that have not been on the ground though. Depends on the trees in your area, I stick with hardwoods usually since they last longer. Most suggest boiling them and removing any bark(which decays pretty fast). I just stick them in the tank though. This only works for planted and the tank needs to have a good nutrient demand. This wood does break down much faster than store bought stuff. Break down will release nutrients. Its not a problem if your tank is happily munching on nutrients.
 
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