(New Setup) Volcano Filter Aquarium - YES filter, NO CO2, NO Ferts 7.6 Gallon Tank

This project started with a lava rock from a local rock yard back in June. It took so long to finish b/c I bought the rock without a plan, and I wasn’t sure if I could do this successfully. If the rock didn’t work out, the whole project would not have come to fruition. After the rock was drilled, I had to plan things out one by one, here and there, with a bit of procrastination, and that’s why this took nearly 3 months to finish. I also made the table that the tank is sitting on.

The tank was custom made at a local aquarium store. It’s a low iron 8mm thick glass.

One thing to mention is that the cap lava gravel is too big. Also, b/c the pump is moving the water around, the water column became brown very fast. First time filling up the tank, I waited 24 hours to see if the water would be clear enough to plant the plants. It was not. I did 100% water change, and waited another 24 hours. I repeated this process for around 10 days. So, that’s ten 100% water changes in 10 days until it was clear enough to plant the plants. This is the reason why I usually wait 24 hours after the very first fill. If the setup is all good, the water column shouldn’t be too brown and you can plant the plants. In this case, the cap gravel was too big, and the pump is located below the gravel so the organic soil leached out much quicker.

I don’t expect all of the plants to make it. I don’t know if the java moss can survive on the wet rock, either. I also know I shouldn’t have bought the expensive plants for a Walstad method tank, but I couldn’t help myself :)

I’ll update this tank in 2 months.