Can't find a thread for soil substrate
- Thread starter crimsonmoon
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WPG is 3.5,pressurized CO2,and flourish excel daily with regular flourish 2 or 3 times a week.The red one in the middle is a red melon sword(i think,im terrible with plant names).It is alot more red now,not sure why.
The rooted plants seem to really like the soil to grab onto and have all been doing great.Had some BBA issues so I started to up the excel dose.The val melted a bit when I upped the excel,but came back just fine.
The rooted plants seem to really like the soil to grab onto and have all been doing great.Had some BBA issues so I started to up the excel dose.The val melted a bit when I upped the excel,but came back just fine.
I feel like I hijacked your thread to post my own pics,but here is one of the sword today(the tank needs to be pruned)
Do you mean a few weeks in tank or out of the tank. If you aerate soil, just spread it out on a cookie pan or something like that, excess amonia is leeched out within 24 hours. This is according to the Walstad method as outlined in her book, Ecology of the planted aquarium. If you are interested in a low tech, soil based approach, I strongly suggest you get the book, even if you have now decided to drop this method as you just said. its a good read.
The other approach to using soil in the tank is NOT to use top soil, but instead sub soil which is free of organic material. Decaying organic materials can cause problems. The organic free soil approach is explained here
How to Grow Beautiful Aquarium plants (cheap)! by Steve Pushak
Organic free soil is much safer if you make mistakes. Steves method is to use a clay soil with just a very small amount of organic material, peat. Just enough so when it decomposes the acid makes the oxidized minerals in the clay more accessible to the plants.
Clay gravels were made for the aquarium for a reason. They are inert. They do not decay, decompose and break down like organics do. They are high in minerals but void of nitrogen. Organics are rich in nitrogen, but as it decomposes it lowers the oxygen level in the substrate and eventually in the water as well.
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