scouse_andy
Fishaholic
I received my copy of Diana Walstad's 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium' in the post today. I have skimmed through the book and read the section on soil as a substrate in detail. An excellent read and reasonably understandable if you can lock yourself away from the kids and give it your full attention!
I was in the garden centre this afternoon just investigating which topsoil to go for when I came across Westland Aquatic Compost I can pick up 20 litres of this (more than I would need for my 240 litre tank) for under 6 quid. Does anybody have any experience of it? I know it is meant for ponds but I would have thought it would do the job in the aquarium (or am I being stupid?) it is already sterilised and has a slow release system to stop nutrients leeching out. Would this serve roughly the same purpose as presoaked top soil so it could go straight in or am I completely missing the point? The last thing I want is a release of ammonium/nitrates which would kill my fish. My tank has a fully cycled sponge filter and also a heavy plant biomass which would obviously help to use up small quantities ammonia/nitrites/nitrates released over a period of time.
I have a few days off left and would quite like to get my substrate sorted before I'm back at work.
If this is a no-no then the alternative is this topsoil which I would obviously need to soak. I am away on holiday for quite a while in August and don't want to put this in shortly before leaving so would leave this to soak for the best part of three months and redo the substrate with this then.
I have no reservations over using this topsoil if it has been well-soaked as it follows Walstad's recommendations. I'd just like to know whether I could save some time by adding the aquatic compost straight away without causing major problems.
Whichever of these two methods I choose, I will be mixing the soil/compost with the 2 inches of silica sand currently in my tank as Tom Barr suggests and then placing a further layer (about an inch thick) of more silica sand or fine (3mm) dorset pea gravel. Does anybody have a suggestion as to which would be better? I may, in time, house corys in there but I think that size gravel is ok for them. It is just that Walstad mentions a layer of gravel on top of the soil and not sand. Any real difference or is it merely an aesthetic thing?
Finally, apologies for all my ramblings on here in the last couple of weeks about substrates. I know it's pretty dull but I am just keen to get this right as it is such a pain to have to redo it if I change my mind.
All opinions/experiences very welcome.
I was in the garden centre this afternoon just investigating which topsoil to go for when I came across Westland Aquatic Compost I can pick up 20 litres of this (more than I would need for my 240 litre tank) for under 6 quid. Does anybody have any experience of it? I know it is meant for ponds but I would have thought it would do the job in the aquarium (or am I being stupid?) it is already sterilised and has a slow release system to stop nutrients leeching out. Would this serve roughly the same purpose as presoaked top soil so it could go straight in or am I completely missing the point? The last thing I want is a release of ammonium/nitrates which would kill my fish. My tank has a fully cycled sponge filter and also a heavy plant biomass which would obviously help to use up small quantities ammonia/nitrites/nitrates released over a period of time.
I have a few days off left and would quite like to get my substrate sorted before I'm back at work.
If this is a no-no then the alternative is this topsoil which I would obviously need to soak. I am away on holiday for quite a while in August and don't want to put this in shortly before leaving so would leave this to soak for the best part of three months and redo the substrate with this then.
I have no reservations over using this topsoil if it has been well-soaked as it follows Walstad's recommendations. I'd just like to know whether I could save some time by adding the aquatic compost straight away without causing major problems.
Whichever of these two methods I choose, I will be mixing the soil/compost with the 2 inches of silica sand currently in my tank as Tom Barr suggests and then placing a further layer (about an inch thick) of more silica sand or fine (3mm) dorset pea gravel. Does anybody have a suggestion as to which would be better? I may, in time, house corys in there but I think that size gravel is ok for them. It is just that Walstad mentions a layer of gravel on top of the soil and not sand. Any real difference or is it merely an aesthetic thing?
Finally, apologies for all my ramblings on here in the last couple of weeks about substrates. I know it's pretty dull but I am just keen to get this right as it is such a pain to have to redo it if I change my mind.
All opinions/experiences very welcome.