Selfsustaining Ecosystem

[Frank_Pizz10]

Hi im trying to make a selfsustaining ecosystem in my 55 gallon tank as a project for school. There are no strict guidlines and i am able to give it adequate help to get it going ubtil i feel it can run by itself.

My plan is to have many plants with great biodiversity. Right now i have 20 plants. I have 4 ocotlinus catfish and a few small snails. I plan to add fish to create a food chain. I am thinking minnows and guppies at the bottom and danios at the top. I would be allowed to feed them insects because it is natural food.

I am running a filter but there is not filtration. I added some benificial bacteria in the beggining and i added media. I am not sure if the colony is growing well.

I am checking everyday for amonia i find it in small amounts maybe .3. I also check for nitrite it is usually under .25. The ph is around 6.8.

I have noticed my plants are beggining to wilt. The tank has been set up for about a week. There is about two inches of organic soil at the bottom and about an inch of sand. The plants seem to be worse then when i put them in. The are a dull green or slightly discolored. Thy are thinning and there are even some holes. Today i found a leaf floatibg at the top.

If anyone has any suggestions on my plans or what fish to use or you see any flaws in my plans i would greatly appreciate any advice. Also if anyone has any suggestions on why my plants might be wilting i would greatly appreciate it. Thank you and i hope to hear from you guys with advice throughout my project.

 

[Woefulrelic]

Thoughts off hand here, not going to do all the creative work for you.

Plants are good, caring for plants is another story. Unless you are dosing fertilizers or using root tabs this task becomes much more difficult. Plants need co2 to really bloom, which is created by fish. Depending on your plant to fish ratio it can work, but realistically your option are quite limited without injecting co2. Lighting could be playing a part in rooted plants for sure.

A few question.

What lighting are you using?

What plants are you using so far?

What kind of water movement do you have?

How long does the ecosystem need to last?

Temperature is not mention nor your location, so I am going to assume your using a heater or enjoying the benefits of the summer weather. My suggestion without knowing this information would be to stock up on a low light floating plant like duckweed for the guppies to eat. If you start with healthy guppies the fry can feed danios and minnows. Snails and otos will need algae, which might not be created with low light and a high potential plant like duckweed so it might be a difficult. Depending on the questions I asked it may change a bit, but this would be an easily justified short term ecosystem as long as water changes are acceptable. With that said, I'd go heavier on the stocking side, particularly the guppies if filtration and parameters allow.

 

[Frank_Pizz10]

I am using sunlight controled by blinds i am not using a heater the water is room temperature so in theory it shouldnt go below 70 degrees. So far i have some java ferns some java moss some vallesneria spiralis sagittaria moneyworth wisteria and banana plants

I am using an overflow filter so i think water movement is adequate

I am trying to get the ecosystem to run for as long as possible

 

[ehh]

ideally your ammonia and nitrite should me at zero. and your nitrates should be fairly low in a planted thank. in my planted tank, which has no filter but only a small airstone, ammonia and nitrite are always zero and nitrates are pretty freaken low. almost undetectable.
so your first problem is that your tank isn't cycled. you need to up those water changes otherwise the ottos are going to suffer. i wouldn't add anymore fish until your ammonia readings are at zero.

it can be done, if you do it right. and if you use the right plants. i personally would stick to java ferns. they're very low maintenance and i have yet to see die in any of my tanks, planted or not.

 

[Frank_Pizz10]

What do you guys think about danios for cycling and how many do you guys suggest in a 55 gallon with 20 plants

 

[Frank_Pizz10]

Also does anyone have any opinion on diy co2 injection where you fill a 2 liter bottle of warm water with sugar baking soda and yeast?

 

[ehh]

you already have fish in the tank though. Just continue using them to cycle the tank.

Adding more fish will not make things easier.

 

[jaws7777]

Hes also gonna add safestart....

Thanks ehh lol

 

[Coryloach]

Can you post any pictures of the tank just so to get an idea what you are at right now?

The plants, depending on where you got them from, may be adjusting to the different water conditions.
Many of the ones we buy were grown emersed and will drop all their leaves and regrow once submerged.

In a similar setup I had a massive melt the first few weeks. Then they started re-growing. The potting soil should have enough nutrients for now so that should not be the issue and that's not the reason your plants are not doing well. Remove any melt and dead leaves daily. Replant the tops if needs be.

You need good oxygenation because right now while the tank is cycling and the organics in the soil breaking down,this all uses up oxygen. If the soil doesn't get enough oxygen via the water/water movement, it will become anaerobic and kill the plants and the fish eventually and that's the most common reason why setups like that turn out a big melting mess.
Even if you don't have a filter, a good flow is a must and for now good surface movement.
You don't need a diversity of plants. You need a combination of fast growing and slow growing plants. Floating plants will also help as they have access to aerial CO2.
Otherwise, the co2 needed for the submerged plants will be produced by decomposition in the soil. But for the right type of decomposition, you need good oxygenation as I already mentioned. Otherwise anaerobic decomposition doesn't produce co2, it produces toxic other gasses instead. Hence oxygen is so important in such a system and especially at the very start because that soil needs mass amounts to "mineralise" inside the tank.

Up the water changes for now as already advised or you'll either kill the fish outright or they'll eventually get diseases because ammonia and nitrite weaken their immune system. I would not add any fish in the next 4-5 weeks. Patience is a key. The tank has plenty of bioload between the already existing fish and organics in the soil which also produce ammonia right now.
And I don't know how many plants you have, but you need lots of them, aim for 70-80% of the tank planted with plants.

On a side note, two inches of soil is a bit too much as in most of it oxygen will not reach. If you ever need to restart the tank, do one inch of soil only with a sand cap and the sand shouldn't be the finest type. You don't want it to act as a barrier to the soil. The organics produced by fish and oxygen needs to reach the soil layer to replenish the used up stuff and keep the "ecoysystem" going.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Frank_Pizz10]