No CO2, No Fertz, No Filter, No Water Change 

I highly recommend adding something that will cause the water surface to "move". Something like air stone, or angling the pump to hit the water surface. The benefit to water surface movement is to improve gas exchange between air and water. All your aquatic animals and plants will greatly appreciate it!

Came for the story, stayed for the Sadie soundtrack.

To increase the availability to nutrient recycling, the best and most well understood way is to incoporate dead tree leaves from the beginning, You can even include dead tree leaves as part of the sand layer by chopping them finely. Dead tree leaves contain all of the nutrients that aquatic plants are looking for, and the snails, nematodes and inverts will use it as a food source and break it down further for microfuana and plants. Its been a concurrent practices with all of my aquariums and has never failed me for most plants besides ones that tend to require a heavier amount of dissolved carbon

Not sure why this came up in the YT algorithm but Im glad it did

Gas boubles are CO2 produced by decomposition of substrate organic compounds. It is good for the plants and do not harm fish. Do not need removal.

I watch it without skipping one second , amazing I will complete all the videos in your chanel and I will learn from u more and more . thank u , your new fan from UAE

Well done. Very good job for first low tech to almost no tech aquarium. I have a tanks that are 7 years old with no tech. Not even lights. They get ambient light from windows. Substrate is dead leaves and garden soil. Covered with gravel. No heaters, no filters, no circulation. Weather top ups only once every month or two months, depending on evaporation. My fish eat no flakes or pellets, they get only boiled dead leaves and chicken bones. I remove no dead plants and no dead snails or fish. They get consumed by the ecosystem. I found that red plants just don't do well in any aquarium that I have tried except with co2 Aquariums. I don't do parameter checks at all. The system is self-sustaining. The only critters that don't do well in my tanks are shrimp. They just don't do well at all. Plenty cover, no fish that attack them. All other life does great, also I have moved away from fully aquatic plants to pathos and peace lillies, ferns, and papyrus. They do much much better than fully aquatic plants in my opinion. Biggest thing is, don't change too much at one go. My 4ft tank has more than 300 fish, guppies, endlers, bronze Cory, featherfin catfish, tadpoles, water scorpions, one orphaned cichlid, but a very happy cichlid, very large sailfin pleco, a pair of bristlenose plecos, which have produced 5 clutches of fry this year, which is well above the average. Never had any algae. But also, algae is not a bad thing. It also serves a purpose. It's a good indicator for tank health. Also, I feed my fish boiled dead tree leaves, (any). About once a month. By far the best and healthiest tank I have.

I have been running my 70 liter tank now for 7 years. Actually longer but 7 years ago the heater malfunctioned and boiled and killed everything. Anyway. I never used any filter. Any pump, just a heater because my house is cold. I never touched anything. I use a 20w flourecent light and it's not on a timer. Sometimes I forget to turn it on, sometimes off. About once per week light is on 24/7 and once per month it's off 24/7. I only have 3 types of plants. Java moss, some long leafed ones and a small amount of duck weed. During the 7 years I change 20L in a go once per year. Never disturb the substrate that is only gravel and some chalk stones and a shell that slowly disintigrate. The only reason for a water change is that the detrius becomes very thick, about 5-10 mm. I never remove further then leaving 5 mm. I have one spieces of snails. I have absolutely no algea. The water is never tested, I add sometimes due to evaporation but the level can drop significantly between addings. The water is always clear. No direct sunlight can hit the tank and the room has normal lighting. During the years fish died now and then due to old age. I never remove the dead fish. I started out with 2 Kuhli eals. I have at least one left. Due to the depth of the detrius and plant growth I can't see them on a regular basis. I also had two shrimp. They lived for 4 years. I also had 4 purple head barbs, they spawned once and became many, but now only one is left. So I recently added 4 copper barbs so she got some company. There are no stores for 200 km around, so fish is hard to come by. In total I bought 10 fish in 7 years. I feed once per day some flakes. I am confident that this tank can go on for ever. I have never cleaned the glass, no need. I do remove some Java moss once per year. In 7 years I have spent maybe 2 hours totally on mainteinence. I had fish tanks for 50 years now. And this one is the easiest ever.

This type of video is waaaaay more entertaining for me! I love the narration bcs i know what’s happening even if i’m not looking in the video. Great job! I hope to see more videos like this ❤

Great documentary. Watch the whole video and didn't want it to end.

what i learned from having aquariums on and off for a few years(aquascaping), if u get algae either its too few plants(iwagumi scape=get a few stem plants and bigger leaf plants), too much nutrients in water(fertilization,soil= water change every week about 40% and the last one is TOO much light for a long time( if u start with aquarium go for 4-6 hrs a day and start increasing the duration after 1or 2 months, plants will be fine and then u can increase maximum to 8 -10 hrs light a day but do 4 or 5 on then 2 or 3 off then again 4 or 5 on a day itll help :D

23:25 I confirm this is natural gaz, I have this in my pond and this isn't dangerous at all, it comes from the dead leaves that are getting destroyed by the micro-organism, if you don't do anything they will become dirt and plants will feed in it. It doesn't affect the water as it doesn't disolve in it (that's why it can make big bubbles). You can have 5cm of random leaves at the bottom of a small pond without any problem, it's even good for the biodiversity for many reasons. To me it can't be from the gravel as my pond doesn't have gravel, I kept the plastic tarpaulin without nothing on it sice many years so it's only remaings of leaves and random things. I suppose the small gravel can make the bubbles bigger as it acts as a layer that is harder to cross as the granularity is more complexe. It's both physical and chimical in your case (I think).

Felt like a documentary 😊

No CO2, No Fertz, No Filter, No Water Change, even No tank, no water

that was a great watch.. and to see the tiny CPD fry! awesome! tank looked pretty awesome all the way through... even with the algae 👌

Hell yes setting one of these up at work.

27:50 this is logical, snails produce many eggs at the same time so all the new generation has the same age, as they have a short life expectancy they also die almost at the same moment when they are just too old, it's like the babyboom effect. This massive death produce more methane that possibly boost the reproduction of the remaining ones, or kills the weakers, so you get some waves of life, this is probably due to the absence of predators. Some species deliver more eggs when they'll die too, even plants or trees do that.

The gas is a natural product of anoxic fixation of nitrogen which happens in the substrate. It absolutely does not harm fish, that is a myth. The gas is mostly methane, with only small amounts of hydrogen sulfide and other gases occurring. It might smell a little bad but it's not harmful, just disturb the substrate less an you will see it less.

Thanks bro. Ur video solve many issues and doubts. It is like a milestone for aquarium lovers. Thanks ❤

I recommend reading the diana walstad books, it´s not an easy read but all of your doubts can find answers in that book. For example, the bubbles on the substrate. They are the accumulation of co2 becouse of the descomposition of organic waste, and organic waste is another form of saying "dirt", they are the same at the end of the time. It´s harmless to fish, while it´s extremely beneficial to plants

Very interesting, I did the same test with a larger aquarium (1 year already). I got very different results, let's compare the settings: - 180L - 26°C - Half substrate (as yours) Half old substrate from my 20yo aquarium - Filter - 8 hours/day of light - 3 fish (1 baby pleco + 1 adult puntius everetti + 1 royal tetra) - 1 Bucephalandra Bukit Kelam - 1 Hygrophila Siamensis - 1 Marsilea Hirsuta - 1 Hygrophila Polysperma Rosanervig - 1 Bacopa Compact - 1 Anubia - I selected these plants because according to websites they don't need CO2. - 20% water change per week + quickly clean the filter + glass - A cover on the top Results : All plants started to die immediatly. First to die : Bucephalandra Bukit Kelam (in 2 weeks) Second to die : Marsilea Hirsuta (in a month) Third to die : Hygrophila Polysperma Rosanervig (in a month) Fourth to die : Anubia (in 3 months) How ? I noticed the algaes were getting on the leaves more and more, I constantly had dead leaves all around, the plants tried to make new leaves but they got infested faster than their grow. Anubia that grows slow got holes in its new leaves. Visually it looked like automn in the aquarium for months. After 6 months : I decided to change things : 1) Instead of 20% water change per week it's now 10%. 2) I clean the filter once every 2 weeks instead of every week. 3) I don't remove dead-leaves anymore. After a year : Bacopa Compact (still alive but lost 90% it's original size, they are very tiny and almost don't grow, but doesn't die either) Hygrophila Siamensis (almost died the first 3 months, suddently took 50% of the aquarium in a month after 6 months, I don't know the reason, it was during this summer so maybe the daylight in the room was longer even if I didn't change the light of the aquarium, we never talk about this parameter but it's suspicious, maybe some plants need "soft light") I've cut half to plant to make new plants and they are all growing, at the moment 60% of the aquarium is Hygrophila Siamensis. What I noticed : It seems the big plants generate shadows that is "problematic" for algaes and "good" for smaller plants that got less affected by them. I don't have floating plants. I didn't have the long algeas visible on the video, mines are black are at the location with more current. The leeches you got can't survive 26°C, I had 1 snail that vanished quickly. No bubbles/gaz visible. I think my substrate was too clean, now algeas can't grow on it anymore. I think the plants don't look well since 2 weeks, maybe it's due to the duration of the day quickly decreasing in september ? They still grow but it's getting slower. The bottom parts of the plants (the old leaves) are all gone. So maybe the problem is the depth of my tank, it's about 50cm of water which is possibly too much for some plants ? I thought it was my big fish destroying them as it hides in it but it's unsure. I can also confirm they all grew at the same time. So to me this is more about light than the substrate. Of course they are all clones from the same plants so I suppose they have the same DNA, but it's funny how the most tiny plants manage to make a new leave at the same time than the others. Summary : Try Hygrophila Siamensis, and do not hesitate to cut them to duplicate them, tiny or tall they grow the same.

Very pleasant watch, thank you.

We also have a low tec aquarium, gas is probably co2, the substrate needs at least a year to get anaerobic and many even more so co2 is from the breakdownin the substrate. An other point : Gravel also increases surface area that can increase algea growth, so apart from feeding less, it helps te have sand instead of gravel. Ours hasend haven't a water change ever and all water characteristics are very good

i didn't expect to stay so long! i stayed till the end

Such an enjoyable video, thank you. I have built a similar system that worked very well, but used an external canister filter, 100 L aquarium, the most rewarding part was watching the cycles and changes. I now only build ecological aquariums, which can take on different forms. Even just a deep fine sand base works well, takes awhile to get going, but lasts for years, ie more sustainable. Ps. Don't worry about the gas bubbles, no harm caused.

I have the exact same light as you on 3 tanks. Unless I need extra lighting due to a blackwater period of adding leaves, mine stay on the 24 hours setting. The fish seem to like the sunrise and sunset affect. They seem calmer than when it is suddenly on. Plus the timer settings were jacking the water temperatures drastically. I experimented with it for a while but went back to the 24/7 sunrise/sunset option and used Purigen to remove the tannins to help the plants grow again. Yeah, it got bad quick with the plants hating the tannins 😢. Love your channel!

great video, you shared tons of great knowledge, ive also learned a ton in my aquarium journeys. my tanks have always been low-tech with a light and filter only, and my plants grow decent.

Gas bubbles could also come from decomposting soil.

I have Alternanthera Reineckii in my 5 gallon fluval spec for over a year and its as red as when i bought it. The first 3 or so months i would over feed my tank a lot, soon i got hair algea on my Alternanthera Reineckii and a stem began to decay from the root and most of the plant detached. So i stopped over feeded and switched to every other day or every 3 days. I thought it would die but its honestly been the best thing to happen to the plant it still has 1 stem connected to the substraight but most of the plant is teathered to that stem and floats in my fluval and it pulls nutriants from the water i believe and since i over fed my tank in the beginning i think i created a lot of micro organisms. And i never added root tabs or any fertilizers. And i use the filter the came with the tank but with no carbon and i havent cleaned the sponge in around 6 months so its basically a glorified sponge filter and all i do is water chnages.

Fantastic experiment, great presentation and highly informative ❤

good work with it! :) i enjoyed watching!

You were getting algea because you were overfeeding the tank. And doing water changes removes the microscopic life out of the tank and those microorganisms also help fighting algea. Lastly, when you get an algea bloom, you normally reduce the lighting to 4 hours a day for 2 or more weeks.

I enjoyed watching this video..

bro 12 - 14 hours is an insane amount of time to expose your aquraium to light

Thank you so much for this and your hard work. Such Beautiful story telling 👏👌 Your RU-vid channel is very underrated. I just subscribed🎉

Nice video and aquarium, but the title says No water changes, and you did a lot and continuously introduced new plants and removed algae. This experience may probe that a few fish with a lot of plants and no filter does all right; but in my opinion without intervention the aquarium will be taken by algae and fish will suffer . So I am still not convinced by walstad method. Any case, thanks for sharing your experience 😊

26:15 the warmer water near the heater goes up, so there is your water movement.

I had planaria when i first setup my planted tank. not walstad method, but aquasoil with filter. i used NO Planaria to eliminate them all which was so effective.

You should look into telling stories. I’m not sure if this is your real voice but it is relaxing!! Your tanks are beautiful. I have a few dirted tanks also. Please stop doing water changes.

Never tried this method...but looking forward to. You just got yourself a new subscriber! Awesome work. How many liter/gallons?

fascinating to see your progress. I love experiments.

Great looking tank! I like to use electrical tape over the LEDs of the light to help reduce the amount of blue and red lights

I'll try it too. Soon. Thank you. It's a great work. Ben de deneyeceğim, yakında!..

the soil HAS ferts already in it, that’s why the gasses are being produced.

Should consider to remove frogbit as they will suck out all the nutrients from water leaving nothing for other plants. I keep shrimps so I need my tank to bloom with algae which means I need to on my lights for 12 hrs a day. Then there goes the problem, string algae. Those frogbits helped me with my string algae problem but my mosses won’t grow too. So after no more string algae in tank, I removed those frogbits n my plants r growing since. Plus consider getting a surface skimmer pump too.

You say you didn't add chemicals to the aquarium but I saw you add dihydrogen monoxide, NH3, and Calcium fluoride. They don't seem to have killed the beneficial bacteria. Also if you did not research your water source there is a good chance it contained chloramine which does not dissipate overnight. Cool aquarium though.

Amazing

love your vlog, I think you need to update the water temperature for each event that happening in your aquarium. I also struggling with algae and moss die all the time, turn out there's a moment when water temperature rise, algea will bloom and moss will die. For me 24-27 Celcius is the best temperature, the plant will still have enough oxygen, and plant grow more healthier. And I also notice that everytime the water don't have any ripples, bio film tend to accumulate faster. for the heater part, the warm and cold water are flowing, its like air, hot water will tend to move to colder water (in my opinion)

20:45 Those are 100% NOT fish fry. The first one looks like some sort of fly larvae and the second looks like mosquito larvae. Also another main reason you dont see huge blooms of your shrimp population are that your fish are snacking on the babies.

Fantastic video! I have an under the sink water filter, for drinking water AND for using in my tanks! honestly made a huge difference in my life and my tanks!! I highly recommend them to EVERYONE! city tap water sucks and is so bad for you and your fish!!

Hey thanks for the really interesting video! I want to do a shrimp tank in a 30Lt one. And this video Gave me a lots of ideas! I will definitely watch mor of your work!

dont put red plants in these types of settups they wont work ! crypts hygrophila polysperma limnophila sessiliflora pearl weed etc are some good plants for this type of setups

Hi from Vietnam, really amazed with your journey, i'm going to start the same route as you, the difference is I gonna use airlift pump, have you ever consider it, let me know yours opinion yeh?

When did the narrator from the Stanley parable take up fishkeeping?

Hi, I watched all your video because I am interested in the same kind of experiments: good job! I am writing because some years ago I tried the same experiment, with almost the same ideas and setup, even the gravel and KH and GH are almost the same! Interesting, most of my results were similar to yours. 1) bubbles from substrate that were harmless: I suppose it is carbon dioxide from the decomposition of organic matters; 2) very high level of phosphate, but I learned that if is again not a problem if you have lot of plants. I suspect is unavoidable side effect of using soil and worms casting; 3) the red plants do not thrive. My "somewhat reddish" plants are a Rotala ( Rotala "colorata" AKA Rotala "Singapore") and Myriophyllum cf. "Roraima". Both are not so red such as they are in the tank of the friend that gave them to me, but he uses CO2 injection and strong lights, are coloured with respect to the green Rotala but definitely not red. All the other red plants that I tried either melted or turned green; 4) adding water movement removed the film on the water surface and improved the health of both shrimps and fishes (I had Endlers) without impacts on the plants; an air stone or a small sponge filter is enough, mechanical filters sucks shrimplets. I have two questions for you: 1) did your fishes breed in your tank? 2) do the Dwarf Corydoras live well in your tank? I have same water hardness as you and I was told that they need lower hardness and low PH to live long.

Really good narration and love your voice. The way you tell it. I've tried this before after watching "Farther fish" and will definitely try again. In your way. It's a bit different, the way you do it with the plants. Because it didn't work the first time. But will definitely emulate your way of doing it. Thanks for a good video. However, I thought the music should be changing. It quickly becomes boring to listen to. Hope you have a good day. Rigtig god fortælling og elsker din stemme. Måden du fortæller det på. Jeg har prøvet dette før, efter at have set "Farther fish" og vil da helt sikkert prøve igen. På din måde. Den er en smule anderledes, måden du gør det på med planterne. For det lykkedes ikke første gang. Men vil helt sikkert efterligne din måde at gøre det på. Tak for en god video. Syntes dog musikken gerne må være skiftende. Den bliver hurtig kedelig at høre på. Håber du får en god dag.

Excellent video. Subbed

What are your light settings?

i'm 3 years in the hobby. and a modder. here's my suggestion since i accidentally bumped into your video. about red plants. it's all about intensity of the light and the substrate. i've tested and perfected it. been experementing for almost 2 years of any known soil and wierd combinations in the dictionary you can find. I lived here in PH and this one is widely used here. it's called ( Soiless Potting Mix ) + ( lasagna Method ) ( 16/16/16 + 14/14/14 ) = Optional / I called it plant steroids. you can use it or not depends on you. here's my layer sample Fine Sand. gravel or xs lava rocks. ordinary garden soil. soiless potting mix. 8hrs of WRGB lighting here in the PH you can buy one with a very low wattage consumption. this method will surely starve the algae in the surface leaving the plants out competing algae in the surface nutrients. and the red plants will not starve to death becoz of algae and not having enough nutrients. the substrate enough will be suffice but not for long ( depends on the amount of plants you have ) you'll be needing the steroid mix for that once every 6 or even a year. that's all ciao~

Have you tried using carbon to cure the milky water, or could it be the blooming of beneficial bacteria? Battling algae is also a major factor for the plants. I've always heard that having more aquatic plants allows them to absorb nutrients faster than algae, which will then die off. It could also be the daily lighting schedule or excess nutrients in the substrate that are causing the issue. Have you ever tried introducing more photosynthetic bacteria into the tank to help the other plants survive during a blackout method to fight off algae? In the end, what is your final conclusion about the Walstad Method for creating a self-sustaining ecosystem?

Where do i go for plants, hard scape, etc? im new to this hobby and not sure where to get such things.

What is your aquarium size and what wattage light do you use

Algae and snail increase if there is dead fish or dead snails ... Addrd bio mass increases algae and fould water.

that gas is carbon dioxide from the break down of organic matter

Well done

Wonderful video! Could I use my old inert Eco-Complete gravel to cap the soil ? It looks a little bigger than the one you showed in the video

Are you Santa Claus 😂

super video

Wow amazing video you have spend lots of time in this video

Hi, how does the algae disappear? I see a lot at the first step of video. Other side, very nice video.

Very fascinating video, thank you. New subscriber from the dominican republic

i would believe ya , i feed brocoli to my goldfish all the time

It was a nice sharing my friend, regards

The Voice is killing me xD

Hello good sir can i humbly ask of what are those low tech plants youve placed?

May i know what lighting you use? Thank you.

What light?

The gas is anaerobic bacteria, good for controlling nitrates. 👌

how many gallons and what dimension of the aquarium?

I don't use co2 and my red tiger lily stays red

Nice video❤

There was no nitrite-peak? Not even after setting in the shrimps or the fish? How come? Can anyone tell?

how to use sir light

What size tank is it?

At 5 min you did a water change lmao

The organism that flitted by was seed shrimp.

That's a Ramshorn snail, they are awesome better than pond snails.

More and more algea, more and more snails.... a result of overfeeding

Anybody know where I can find the devices he used to raise the lights ?

20:42 no fish fry.

Is this your real voice ? 🙈

I am going to do the same thing as him I am just waiting for my sand ,I have vary hard water do you know of any fast growing stem plants ,the only ones I can grow is backpacking

Great video. Your algae is not being helped with the lack of water movement. A couple of young Siamese algae eater fish may serve you well but those will grow over time

Put a rotting leaf from the stream in there.

ok

Sup

Gonzalez Karen Garcia Helen Taylor Thomas

at this point not sure whether to read the text on the video, watch the video or pay attention to what you're narrating, with AI. Too much! Reduce the tech in your creations as well, please.

I wish you've tried salt water as well!

Inspired by foo the flowerhorn ??