TURBO ECO AQUARIUM: Low Tech, Walstad Method Aquascape Tutorial 

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Easy way to clean gravel - turn the bag into a sieve. Do this outside, cut the bottom corners, smaller than the size of the gravel, then poke little holes in the bottom of the bag. Then run the garden hose through the bag, shake the bag up once in a while until the water runs clear, bonus use run off water for the garden.

The *best* compost you can buy is 100% Worm Castings, £6 per litre, zero need for sieving. Wash gravel using your sieves! - or a colander, which you can get for a couple of quid.

The tank cleaning montage was so funny. As always a great vid, can't wait to see the progress

This tank is so beautiful! I love the Walstad tanks so much - all those plants are just so lush!

I really enjoy your style of production, your videos have so many artistic elements! The end shots are always 🤌🤌

Good timing on this one as I'm just about to set up my first dirted tank. It's nice to get a visual on it right before I start!

loving the recent walstad method vids! Although it does limit the hardscape it lets the plants take the spotlight more

I've been waiting for you to do something like this. So simple but very beautiful! I love val and dwarf sag.. My favorite plants!

Great set up MD. I'm looking forward to updates on your newest and oldest tanks.

Dude. I really gotta tell ya. You are a master !! This is a so brilliant tank!

Well, when I’m ready to start up again, this is exactly what I want to do. Keep on posting.

MD, all I can say is this is a beautiful tank. My cousin just got some of your discus merch and it looks soooo good on him! Definitely on my Christmas list

Another good 'cap' you can utilize is bentonite clay granules (oil spill control granules). They are about £5 for a 20kg bag. Once rinsed (you must rinse them as they are dusty!), they are smaller than the smallest gravel and coarser than sand. It also holds on to nutrients really well.

Great little scape with lovely splashes of red! And I'm a big fan of that darker gravel.

The tips you shared on feeding fish in a new tank was really helpful. Awesome videos funny and informative.

thanks md for your advice on plant food on an earlier vid, im now using tnc complete but also the api mixed together once a week for the added iron that the plants need and its made a massive difference.

I like how you showed the plants right in front of the camera with their label thing showing it’s name

Simply amazing. Nothing else i can say💯✌🏼

im really looking forward to this in my opinion that gravel is too coarse but MD has proven me wrong on several occasions lol Love the content as always these past few years were awesome learned alot from ja keep it going ,especially love watching the colab videos with Matt and the gang at the shop .

Brilliant! Looking forward to the update.

Who wants to see a tank cleaning montage? LOL! I have been watching your channel for a long time and just love it. You have some really great ideas. Keep up the great work.

Washing the dishes, and set my phone up to find this gem. Good timing MD 🙏🏼

Good Sunday to you MD!

Simply stunning.

Gorgeous and so interesting as always

love these scapes

Fantastic display 👏 great advice as always I would love to show you my creation thanks to you. Well done and thank you.

Thanks for the video.!

Always the best!

Great vids mate.

Great walstadmethod. I love it.

Haha I actually did want to see the tank cleaning montage but even so I did appreciate your humor even more 😅

Dedication. Editing whilst on holiday. Sure I’ve seen you in looe bay yesterday

You should consider a rice strainer for gravel, holes in the bottom for silt and bigger slots for sand and grit, plus you can force water through the bottom to help rinse better.

Love the concept of this tank. Low tech rules! Thanks for another awesome scape. I'm looking forward to updates...

Another beauty in the books! Thank you for all your inspiration and sharing your know how 😊 A question, what tweezers do you use ? They seem so easy to work with. Mine are way too stiff.

Given me some more ideas when it comes to re doing my tank ...... thanks to you and Matt we have 8 tanks now, and thinking of where we can put more ...... its an addiction 😆

Please so tank updates!! 🙏 also i looove this setup cant wait to watch its progress

Looks good

10:47 that stone looks like a heart

beatiful

MDistic shows another great fast low tec tank

I read somewhere that it's not good to use peat moss as aquarium substrate but I can't understand why. a while back I mixed half peat moss and half lechuza pon which is basically a mixture of lava gravel, zeolite, pumic and a bit of slow release fertilizer.I also added a little bit of activated charcoal and capped it with sand and used it as substrate in a bowl. plants and a small betta fish living there were doing so well.even the difficult plants that Normally don't do well in my tanks unless I use RO water were thriving in that peat moss-lechuza pon substrate eventhough I never used any liquid or tablet fertilizer or CO2 and didn't do much water changes except first two weeks. the only issue was that it looked like black water for a while which I suppose is because peat moss releases the same thing that catapa leaves release. I don't know why peat moss won't work in a bigger aquarium

chili rasbora are so cool. you should do a massive school of those at some point (like 36+)

Litorella uniflora grows wild in the UK! Very surreal seeing a plant advertised for aquascaping growing extremely well in the freezing shallows of Loch Rannoch near where I live :)

You are the Bob Ross of aquariums

hahaha amazing tank cleaning montage bravo 🤣👏

The whole point of walsad method is to avoid fertilizer and root tabs 23:36

another awesome video, but just a thought, why not use one of those nifty sieves you used to sieve the potting mix to clean the gravel?

What's the biggest red ludwigia you're using MD? It's looking stunning. Looking forward for your reply

i'm on my first planted tank and the plants are having a bit of trouble despite picking 'easy' plants. Local fish store suggested the same issue with gas exchange with my sand capped set up, so I'll probably also switch to something different

Can we get a follow up video in a month or two? Keep up the great work!

Hi you're wrong many a womans dream is watching guys cleaning up ! 😂 As always great videos thanks

Great video. Was there a reason for no cleanup crew?

All this time I thought I was subscribed, youtube defo has you high in the analytics because I've seen all your post Anywho finally sub'd

Actually, the gravel looks awesome!

Great video. Can you provide a link for the sieve?

I actually like that gravel a lot.

Hey so what are some really good carpeting plants I want to change my tanks a bit and think a nice carpet would be amazing.

I just began in the hobby a few months ago, and I was wondering if I could change a goldfish tank from artificial plants fish tank to a planted plant fish tank while the fish is inside, since I only have one tank, or would I have to do the planted tank first let it cycle and then place the goldfish later?

Amazing setup! I have a question though, would it be okay to keep a shoal of 6 zebra danios, 5 White Cloud Mountain minnows, one (or 2) honey gouramis, in a 26 gallon (80cm long, 54 tall, and 30 wide) tank?? It is heavily planted, filtered, and heated. Would be changing the water frequently. I'm worried about overcrowding it. I'd rather be leaning to the safer, understocked side, so let me know if I'm pushing it. I want to keep them all happy and unstressed. Let me know if it's too much. I haven't gotten them yet, so please let me know.

I was actually just wondering if you'd ever use green bacopa, and there it is! It's one of my faves. It looks amazing in a livebearer tank.

Nice 👌

I always wonder where you get your tank filling/draining thingy from please (sorry, no idea what it's called....a fancy syphon?? 🤣)?

Yes have one empty tank ill will do same .. thank for giving as many ideas setting up fish tank..hope can find a supplier of aquarian product in Canada. especially in Saskatchewan or near city.. more power and more nee set up..

Awesome build as always MD! What is the name of the song that's playing when you planted the Amazon sword?

In her book, Ms. Walstad cites the possibility of H2S in the soil. API root tabs does not contain sulfides in its formula? And that's why I'm curious and excited to follow the development of this aquarium!

Awesome content as always, just curious and I do apologize In advance if you have, have you ever made an aquascape with clown loaches in it?

Love how your transitioning to nano fishes but really miss seeing your videos with the discus or big fishes(medium-large) :(

Soy Latino (Perú) no sé inglés mi único idioma es Español, llegue a ver tu canal de casualidad y resultó lo mejor que vi en YT, gracias a ti tus vídeos tengo mejor experiencias en diseño y acabado de acuario, y este vídeo me gusta porque es más natural y mas económico . Yo hago mi sustrato casero con tierra negra 60%, grava volcanica 20%, humus 20%, y me resultó bien para plantas bajo y medio, tengo encima de las tierra (sellar) arena fina natural, aún estoy probando que tamaño de arena sería buena que no m cause problemas alguien me dijo que arena fina no es bueno para sellar tierra, yo creo que está bien, cual es tu opinión o quién pueda leer dime tu opinión (haré otro sustrato per agregaré arcilla roja es bueno para aumentar el hierro) saludos desde Perú siempe activo en cada vídeo.

What grain size gravel do you recommend for the walstad method?

MD your videos are really great, I like your style and content generally. However, you need to follow up more on your builds. Most folk in the hobby can now setup an aquarium thanks to the enormous amount of content out there, but the pains of getting them going is something very few feature. Fill that gap Sir.

"Who wants to see a tank cleaning montage?" Me: "Ooh me!" Me: "oh......"

Hi MD! Is it possible if I apply this method to blackwater aquascape setup? Love from Malaysia 😘

Where would you suggest going for the aquatic plants? I have had bad luck ordering live plants online and there are no shops in my area. Thank!

Hi MD, have you tried to carpet marselia hirusuta ? They don't need co2( they are one of the few) :) I love your low budget videos, have you tried to due a video with DYI CO2? That will be great :) thank you so much 😊❤️

Does this aquarium create biofilm on top?

Nice tank that

Do you find with the tanks without filters that your fish need some water movement, maybe air stone?

Woah those reds really popped out

Bravo from România

Hi md! This thanks looks great Are u coming to the netherlands to vivarium next year its the biggest convention of salt en freshwater in europe! Hope to see you there next year and maybe we can do some great fish store tours here in holland! With love from the netherlands 👋👋

Hey bro really love what u do Would u mind working on a 20 gallon LONG tank 30:25 × 12.5 X 12.5. Please

Do you have experience with basalt aquarium supstrates?

What is your hose that you use to fill the tank?

Peat free means it will have a lot less impact on the ph of the aquarium, peat tends to be acidic if I remember correctly.

What do you do when your water gets cloudy when you’re just started an eco-aquarium

No gas exchange... I don't know, if that's a bad thing. I put NPK houseplant granules on the very bottom, crushed lava rock bags, pond compost, then capped it with thick layer of pool filtration, then regular gravel. Sometimes there are bubbles of the gas released, from the anaerobic processes, but same thing happens in the nature streams. It could be the thick layer used, it could be the combination of all, but it's the most stable tank I ever had. Started in June, no water changes... I'm doing regular checks, but the water parameters are better than my tap water. Normal algae levels and both fish and plants are healthy. EDIT: Ironically I've done 50% water change a day or two after this comment and cleaned one of the filters. It turned out some red tetras got sick and easy targets for bigger fish, but I suspect food.

Can i use Potting Organic soil Wich Includes Cow Dung is there any problem if i can make walstad with it

Have you ever considered setting up a marine tank?

Peat free compost is better all around. Peat helps retain moisture. But the thing is if you plan on keeping the tank set up for years the moss will break down and cause mold and other bad things. It's called peat moss. I dont have peat moss in any of my pots or tanks.

Update on the huge pond you help your friend with?

i have only Anubias Heterophylla in my 25lt tank for like 4 years and now they have a lot of algae on them. how can i clean them somehow?

MD I love all your planted content. But could you show me how to do a planted tank in a 20 Gallon long tank. For golden wonder killifish.

about the gas exchange, I've seen people poke the sand to let air bubbles out with wlastad. Not sure what it means but maybe important

ok so you said you used a twinstar light on this tank, can you put the link for the light please because i cant find a twinstar light for under £150

Love the video. Can you do a video on a budget tank. For me I can afford a small tank like from Petco. Can you do a video on making a betta fish tank using Petco small tank? Thanks

นี่คือสิ่งที่ฉันรอมานาน😂😮

Hi, How do you disinfect your plants?