Best Substrate Hi Tech Tank

[Ps3Steveo]

Yup, all plants take them from the water column but some use roots also but not very much, must plants use roots mainly to anchor themselves, nutrient rich substrates are used to store excess nutrients too so thy keep what the plants don't use.

 

[phishyphil]

Okay. I have the soil soaking in a tub outside, ill leave it there for about a week, and hopefully this will get rid of most of the ammonia ?

 

[Primous]

Okay. I have the soil soaking in a tub outside, ill leave it there for about a week, and hopefully this will get rid of most of the ammonia ?

It shouldn't contain any ammonia. The soil has to be 100% organic or you'll run into a lot of problems. Also with soil you only need to soak it for a few hours just to get the wood chippings and other non essentials that rise to the top once it's submerged and given a good stir. I soaked my soil for about 6 hours, drained it until it had the density of thick mud then capped it.

 

[phishyphil]

Okay. I have the soil soaking in a tub outside, ill leave it there for about a week, and hopefully this will get rid of most of the ammonia ?

It shouldn't contain any ammonia. The soil has to be 100% organic or you'll run into a lot of problems. Also with soil you only need to soak it for a few hours just to get the wood chippings and other non essentials that rise to the top once it's submerged and given a good stir. I soaked my soil for about 6 hours, drained it until it had the density of thick mud then capped it.

Ahh I see, saw something on a post somewhere about ammonia or excess nutrients or something like that.

What soil should i use (Brand etc, is John Innes No3 okay??

Should I set the Pressurised CO2 up from Day 1? or should I wait a week for it to settle down with the new soil base?

 

[Primous]

"Miracle grow organic choice" is the soil I swear by People have used everything from b&q/local garden center to the more "high end" soils out there but the key thing is that it's 100% organic. Hobbyist on another forum made the mistake of using "compost" and the results were pretty horrendous.

As for CO2 plants take a while to settle into any new set up. I waited two days others have started immediately -7 days So I guess it's whenever you feel the plants are calling out for the co2 injection lol

One last thing, if you do decide to go ahead with soil. Cap the soil with the same depth of substrate. For example: 2" of soil capped with 2" of substrate and so on...

 

[phishyphil]

Ok. No where round here sells the Miracle-Gro Organic Choice. Homebase do there own Organic Choice spoil would this be ok.

My intentions are too mix the soil with red clay (for iron). 1 inch of this with 1.5 -2 inch of gravel. Would this be good?

 

[Primous]

Homebase would be ok though I should tell you that garden center soil tends to have more bits of wood, great stuff regardless just a little more soaking required. Alternatively you could go buy the miracle grow online. 3 bags cost me about £10 which in comparison to other plant substrates is pretty much a steal.

 

[SO19Firearms]

K guys, just be aware of what you're putting in to your tanks. Obviously Primous has tested these things and knows what he's doing but you're always going to be sailing close to the wind when you're pushing the boundaries (I'm behind you all the way) - Earlier on it was said these things won't contain ammonia, they do. This doesn't have to be a problem, but when your setting out without the full picture it can make things difficult further down the line. You can see that the MG Organic choice does contain ammonia, again, doesn't have to be a problem, but when it's made from chicken and cow poop you start to increase the variables IMO
One reason we dose tanks is so we know can make a best guess at what's going in / being taken out - and you're giving up some of that control.


IMO

 

[Primous]

@SO19Firearms Are we talking ammonia you can measure with a liquid test kit? Because if we are then I'm going to have to most respectfully disagree. I let my soil settle for about six hours and tested the water with every test kit in the nutrafin range. None of the readings came back with a +/- anything. To be clear, compost and soils with ferts added contain a bunch of stuff including ammonia. Miracle organic does not. And I waited a few days with it capped while continuing to test and still nothing.

When I started out on the soil route I took a lot of time to research and one of the things that made me less apprehensive was the fact that none of my parameters would change. I'm on a few forums such as ukaps and plantedtanks and only those who make the mistake of buying soil which isn't 100% organic have had readings above normal. With 100% organic and your good to go...

 

[ian]

Primous,

http/www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/af/af230838-fc7a-4ef3-8feb-3c912f93d488.pdf

see manure?

It contains A LOT of ammonia, NO3 and PO4. They tend to leach over a period of time, the ammonia tends to be a longer period of time than the bought aquarium soils.

again, this is a reason you get away without using ferts.


also don't trust hobby grade test kits, they are the devil.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

You say get away without dosing Ian but what happens when the ferts from the soil are depleted, do you just wait for your plants to show signs of deficiencies or wait till algaes like BGA kick in to know your nitrates are gone?

 

[Primous]

Hobby grade Liquid test kits are absolutely fine by me. Nutrafin is the brand I trust over api but that's based on my own comparisons. Also that is a lovely little diagram ianho but on both ukaps and plantedtank you have never posted a soil aquarium so...


And to be clear if we going to get technical I'm not using soil I'm using peat which doesn't contain manure which is pretty much what I've been saying with each post. That link is based on a write up from 05. If you actually take the time to buy some or look into it yourself as opposed to just troll me you'll see that it doesn't contain manure or compost.

 

[ian]

FAO Steve

The soils still tend to have good CEC as the have various litters in, so in lower light environments you can get away with dosing. As for the OP and his lighting, i would deffo air on the side of caution. These soils contain a lot od N and P as well (Primous will disagree with this), this is from the general rotting stuff in the soil. Rotting stuff always contain pO4 and a little N03. Rotting stuff always contains NH4, always, there is no getting away from that.

I'm not starting all this with Primous again as we have been here before...but if you read the above fact sheet from the company that own Miracle grow, you will see manure on the list of ingredients, and if you read back you will see Primous stating to use this product.

 

[Primous]

@Ps3Steveo soil doesn't run out so to speak. The consensus on the "depletion date" is about 8-10 years according to who you read.

 

[ian]

and what substrate do you think i use??