A micro-habitat in a water tank

[Forage420]

Hi all,
A few people on my allotment use water tanks as a stand-alone supply of water which is useful if the mains supply is not available, for whatever reason.
I filled my tank with water last year and now I would like to create a micro habitat in the tank so that I can use the water on my plants, which will no doubt be healthier for plants than the brown murky water you can see in the photo.

The water in the tank I would like to emulate is clear right down to the bottom, with aquatic plants and lots of water-snails and newts that occasionally swim up for air and then disappear back down again.

I notice that the tank has some 4-6inches of soil at the bottom of it, and I'm curious to know if I added some soil to my tank I could create a micro-habitat like my neighbour's.

I'm willing to trial this and post progress photos as things progress.
I plan on adding quite a large amount of sieved compost (not manure) to the tank which I will let settle for a day or two. Then I will transplant some of the vegetation in my neighbour's tank (with permission of course), as well as a few water snails.
If anyone has any advice they can share to help things along, I would very much welcome it.

[burnie]

If you can get some mud from a pond rather than using garden soil it will work better, it will act as a "starter". Be careful what plants you add, some "oxygenators" can be thugs and get too rampant, a small water lily might work, the leaves will shade the water and reduce the growth of the green algae that folks don't like. If you want amphibians to take up residence, you will have to give them the means to get in and out of the tank, Newts don't spend the winter in water, usually they are under structure like a log pile.

[veggiechicken]

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, Forage
Do you want a wildlife pond or a source of water? I'm not sure that you can do both unless you have a way of topping up the tank (with rainwater) as often as you take water out.

[Forage420]

Hi, I'm trying to get the water to be clear so that I can use it and not feel like I'm putting scummy water on my plants. I don't particularly enjoy handling water that's filthy and I wonder if it's carrying diseases which may affect the plants..
I do have a way of topping up the tank with a nearby tap, and of course the ran water run off from the shed feeds into it.

I went to a garden centre and purchased some elodea, which is an aquatic plant. I was told that it would happily live in the tank and clear the murky water. Some weeks on little has changed, but let's give it a little while longer.

[bario1]

Can you put a lid on your tank? That will stop algae from growing in it and turning it ‘scummy’, and have the added benefit of stopping wildlife falling in....