Hi, I'M New - So Some Questions

[OldMan47]

Be very careful with the hike upstream looking for sandy gravel. I own a part of a creek that can be followed upstream from a road. It gets into places, on my own land, where it looks pretty darned wild and might be the place that WD is talking about. At that point it is just a few hundred yards from where my farm fields and my neighbors farm fields run off into it. It looks pristine and wild down in the woods below the fields but I know that it has the residue from chemical run off since long before I owned the place. If you kept following and walked uphill to check things out, you would find my unfertilized tree plantation, I converted an unproductive field to forestry uses. That would convince you even more that the creek was safe, but the chemicals from my upstream neighbor would still be there along with who knows what from the person that owned my property before me.

 

[waterdrop]

Not sure which aspect of caution you are getting at OM, but I certainly would advocate thoroughly rinsing, cleaning and then subjecting the gravel to pours of boiled water. Perhaps there are other precautions? Or perhaps you were concerned (rightly so!) about the safety of the hiker in the stream water!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

My main concern is just how deceptive that wild looking spot can be WD. There are almost no places in the world that are truly wild and undisturbed. On my own land I know that there are places that seem perfectly safe for collecting that sandy gravel bottom and I would never even be tempted to use that stuff because I know a little of its history.

 

[waterdrop]

Are you concerned about the stone being porous? I guess it -could- give back chemicals its been exposed to and its true we really operate in the dark for 90% of the chemistry going on in the tank, so something negative could be going on and we wouldn't know it except for bad results. I agree that getting substrate from a source that's commercial greatly raises the likelihood that its completely safe.

My source for the stream approach was a conversation with a fellow from PA who gave a talk about how he breeds corys (he was an invited speaker at one of our society seminars down here.) He cited improved results with his stream-found substrate and said that for him the reason was obvious when he held the substrate in his hands. If he found the right stuff, it was much more smooth to the touch than anything he could obtain commercially, regardless of whether its was sand or gravel.

Anyway I agree it would pay to be cautious and if one could travel to perhaps more mountainous parks, perhaps knowing where the stream-head was and judging whether it was natural from the source then clearly that would be superior. On the other hand we all have to take some risks sometimes...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Hungrydoug]

Well tank is set up, built the stand and set up the heater and the filter last night, finished filling it at about midnight, 65 litres is a lot of water .

Put the substrate in just to see what it looks like I just got a little bag of sand so I've got the front quarter of the tank in sand and the rest gravel. Since the filter has been running the sand had slightly covered the gravel on the rest of the tank so it looks really nice (I think).

Made my first beginner's mistake, filled the tank with water from the cold tap, at least I know my heater works! Expecting my test kit from eBay tomorrow, bought my ammonia on Saturday so all set for a fishless cycle!

 

[waterdrop]

sounding good doug!