Gravel To Sand + Lowering Ph

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah aqua soil does lower your ph, Ian has it in his planted tank.

however when you first put it in it gives off massivley toxic quantities of ammonia for the first couple of weeks so if you wanted to do that you'd need to set up another tank for the fish with a mature filter, put them in there, change your substrate then do water changes every other day and keep testing the water until ammonia hits 0, then put the fish back in.

also as it's a nutrient rich substrate you'd quite possibly find that without extra lighting and Co2 on the tank you'd get a massive algae bloom.

 

[Underwurlde]

So you want to use AquaSoil for an established and what will be / is a planted tank?

Pointless using an old sock, adding Mulm as I siad is a direct way of doing what the sock will take weeks / months to do.
Mulm, peat, AquaSoil.

You can add it to an establsihed tank, but as said it does give off ammonia for the first 3 weeks or so, so you have to be very careful!
I asked this very question of Tom Barr (hope you don't mind me quoting).

When you add it ... make sure you do 2x a week water changes, large ones, add zeolite and/or Activated carbon.
End of story and issue.
the added work pays off and the plants grow very well with 2-3x a week water changes with dosing thereafter

I know I may be confusing things here for you for which I apologize. I am just pointing out possible alternatives you may wish to look into further...


Andy

 

[SLuRpIe!]

MM...
im not so sure about the aquasoil thing now because i dont have much lighting nor do i inject CO2 [or know what zeolite is..]
as im only a beginner[started 2 weeks ago] in having live plants in my tank atm and am also on a low budget - jobless 16

I might just stick with silica sand, slate, driftwood and plants for now until I get the hang of things and want to try taking care of some hard plants to grow.
Thanks for the info though, I would not have been ready to use that! [I thought it was sand lol, selective reading]

So what are alternatives to lowering pH?
Can peat lower a pH of 8.4 to 7.6-7.8?
I'm a bit scared of putting my pleco in there atm because of the high pH but he needs to be in a bigger size tank before April and I'm waiting for my dad to finish the pond so I can convert the 55g into a tropical tank, which will not be expected until maybe sometime during the summer when I can work and buy equipment.

 

[Underwurlde]

Adding peat (John Innes Load Based Compost for example?) to the substrate can also lower pH. Do some research as I am only passing on snippets of info from the back of my mind....

Andy

 

[fenwoman]

im not so sure about the aquasoil thing now because i dont have much lighting nor do i inject CO2 [or know what zeolite is..]as im only a beginner[started 2 weeks ago] in having live plants in my tank atm and am also on a low budget - jobless 16

Am I missiing something? Didn't you say initially that you had shells in a tank for 3/4 year (i.e. 8 months)? Now you say you've only a beginner with 2 weeks experience and want to 'rescue' 2 large fish?

Am I having a 'senior' moment here?

 

[cane76]

i think hes saying he is a begginer in having live plants in his tank

 

[SLuRpIe!]

yes I meant a beginner in having live plants
sorry for the confusion haha

yeah im ready to go now hehe
just need to find somewhere that sells silica sand around here
Thank you Miss Wiggie, Underwurlde and SuperColey for all the help!!11
sorry for having so many questions

 

[cane76]

im not so sure about the aquasoil thing now because i dont have much lighting nor do i inject CO2 [or know what zeolite is..]as im only a beginner[started 2 weeks ago] in having live plants in my tank atm and am also on a low budget - jobless 16

Am I missiing something? Didn't you say initially that you had shells in a tank for 3/4 year (i.e. 8 months)? Now you say you've only a beginner with 2 weeks experience and want to 'rescue' 2 large fish?

Am I having a 'senior' moment here?

yep senior moment then