Shrimp Jararium Log
Entry 1: Bacteria, please please please grow!
22/08/2025
23 days ago, I was struck by divine aquatic inspiration. I needed a Walsted shrimp jar!
The Walsted method is a low tech approach to aquarium keeping popularised by Dianna Walsted. It’s a low tech method, that relies on heavy planting and thick, natural substrate to keep the water clean.
So that night I ran down to kmart and picked up 5.6L jar for $12. Not bad, and just big enough to support a few red cherry shrimp (in theory). I set it up immediately, using garden soil capped with potting sand for substrate, plus a cutting of devil’s ivy.
When setting up a new aquarium, adding animals right away is generally not advised. Its best to let the tank cycle first, that is, to wait for a healthy community of microbes to grow that will help keep nitrogenous waste to a minimum.
Two weeks later and no sign that the cycle had begun. My tests showed the jar contained a moderate amount of ammonia, but no nitrite or nitrate. This is only my second time setting up an aquarium so maybe I was being impatient, but I felt some nitrifying microbes should have grown! There was a biofilm on the surface which at least meant I hadn’t fucked up horribly and killed them all.
In an attempt to get the cycle started faster, I went and bought a bottle of Seachem stability. The efficacy of bacteria-in-a-bottle products like this are questionable, but I’ve had good luck in the past.
I also finally got some plants! A bunch each of ambulia and bacopa. I think I want one more fast growing plant, perhaps pearl weed if I can find some.
It’s been five days since adding the plants using the stability and still no sign of that good bacteria. I’ll just have to pray.