Plants

After the chaos of the past week—plant losses, hitchhiker discoveries, ammonia spikes—today brings calm. The tank is recovering.

One month since setup. No water test today—just a visual observation day. And what we observed was… unexpected.

This was our worst day yet. Major plant losses, oxygen problems, and emergency trips to the fish store.

Three days since the water change, and we’re not out of the woods yet. The nitrite plateau continues.

Ten days in, and we’re starting to see the first real evidence that the nitrogen cycle is progressing. The numbers are moving in the right direction.

A full week since setup. The water is clear, the plants are settling in, and the nitrogen cycle is progressing exactly as expected.

The first two weeks of cycling brought stable parameters and growing plants. The silent cycle hypothesis is looking more likely with each test.

The plants arrived. The soil was ready. Four hours of careful layering, planting, and water-adding transformed an empty tank into the beginning of an ecosystem.

The Walstad method demands heavy planting from day one. Here’s how we selected 41-47 plants for our underwater jungle.