scouse_andy
Fishaholic
After some major reading up on here, Tom Barr's very good website and various other places, I am planning a major overhaul of my tank in about a month's time.
I will be stripping the tank right down and restarting my substrate with a 2 inch mix of top soil (soaked for at least 3 weeks) and silica sand, which is already in my tank (two parts sand to one part soil). I will then add some bleach free kitchen towel to keep things separate, this will obviously biodegrade in time. On top of this I will add an inch of silica sand to avoid the soil getting into the water. I will also add as much mulm from my existing set-up as I can extract. I have read a post from Underwurlde suggesting tape around the glass at the bottom to lower chances of algae kicking off so will give this a try. I reckon I have about 2 inches of silica sand in my current set-up to use, I may well need a little more to add in with the soil layer. Would play sand be OK for this lower layer (nice and cheap) or is it too fine? I have it in my 20 gallon and it is very very fine, am I better with a coarser sand (i.e. buy some more of my silica sand)? I reckon I could do the substrate of the tank for less than a tenner this way and, as I understand it, there would be little difference between this substrate and eco-complete/aquabasis plus/flourite/onyx sand. Can somebody with experience tell me if that sounds about right? I would be willing to pay more if these commercial products gave a massive advantage but for a low-tech naturally planted tank it appears soil will do the trick nicely. Soil can then be replaced via mud cubes every year or so to add a few more nutrients
In the interim period, to keep my tank ticking over, I'm planning on adding a few ice cubes of boiled soil and sand at the front of my tank to help with my root feeders (crypts/swords). This, in addition to the 2 pro aqua fertiliser bags I have in my filter column, should keep algae at bay and allow slow growth.
I have a heavy plant biomass already, which seems to be taking care of all the nitrates so I shouldn't need to do water changes. I'll just watch out for the small ammonia spike expected after adding even a bit of boiled soil. Do people think that this whole approach will work for the next month or so? I suppose I'm actually doing the low tech natural planted tank approach already as it is (nitrates are all disappearing into the plant biomass) but just supplying nutrients through the water rather than the substrate.
I have also been looking at Tom Barr's page carefully and he suggests adding small doses weekly of KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate), KH2PO4 (Monopotassium Phosphate) and Seachem Equilibrium, which has a number of other nutrients in it. I was thinking of about 1/4 teaspoon KNO3, 1/16 teaspoon KH2PO4 and about 1/4 teaspoon Equilibrium. These apparently supplement the nutrients the plants receive in the fish waste and from the soil so I think the higher stock of fish you have the less you should dose as there is more natural nutrients for the plants. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that because it was quite a technical thread I read. All of these nutrients can be got from Aquaessentials and should last ages at the small doses I am planning. I would probably not dose the Flourish Excel as this would only speed up growth more and lead to more regular pruning and more water changes.
I also plan to add some Amano shrimp or otos to clean up what algae there is. How much should I be looking to pay for these and how many would you recommend for a 240 litre tank? Ten ish?
Anyway that's the plan for now. I am going to buy Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium from Amazon to give me some more ideas as this is such a different way of thinking.
Who else has been down this route and can you give me any pointers or (hopefully) encouragement that I'm planning on doing things more or less right?
I will be stripping the tank right down and restarting my substrate with a 2 inch mix of top soil (soaked for at least 3 weeks) and silica sand, which is already in my tank (two parts sand to one part soil). I will then add some bleach free kitchen towel to keep things separate, this will obviously biodegrade in time. On top of this I will add an inch of silica sand to avoid the soil getting into the water. I will also add as much mulm from my existing set-up as I can extract. I have read a post from Underwurlde suggesting tape around the glass at the bottom to lower chances of algae kicking off so will give this a try. I reckon I have about 2 inches of silica sand in my current set-up to use, I may well need a little more to add in with the soil layer. Would play sand be OK for this lower layer (nice and cheap) or is it too fine? I have it in my 20 gallon and it is very very fine, am I better with a coarser sand (i.e. buy some more of my silica sand)? I reckon I could do the substrate of the tank for less than a tenner this way and, as I understand it, there would be little difference between this substrate and eco-complete/aquabasis plus/flourite/onyx sand. Can somebody with experience tell me if that sounds about right? I would be willing to pay more if these commercial products gave a massive advantage but for a low-tech naturally planted tank it appears soil will do the trick nicely. Soil can then be replaced via mud cubes every year or so to add a few more nutrients
In the interim period, to keep my tank ticking over, I'm planning on adding a few ice cubes of boiled soil and sand at the front of my tank to help with my root feeders (crypts/swords). This, in addition to the 2 pro aqua fertiliser bags I have in my filter column, should keep algae at bay and allow slow growth.
I have a heavy plant biomass already, which seems to be taking care of all the nitrates so I shouldn't need to do water changes. I'll just watch out for the small ammonia spike expected after adding even a bit of boiled soil. Do people think that this whole approach will work for the next month or so? I suppose I'm actually doing the low tech natural planted tank approach already as it is (nitrates are all disappearing into the plant biomass) but just supplying nutrients through the water rather than the substrate.
I have also been looking at Tom Barr's page carefully and he suggests adding small doses weekly of KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate), KH2PO4 (Monopotassium Phosphate) and Seachem Equilibrium, which has a number of other nutrients in it. I was thinking of about 1/4 teaspoon KNO3, 1/16 teaspoon KH2PO4 and about 1/4 teaspoon Equilibrium. These apparently supplement the nutrients the plants receive in the fish waste and from the soil so I think the higher stock of fish you have the less you should dose as there is more natural nutrients for the plants. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that because it was quite a technical thread I read. All of these nutrients can be got from Aquaessentials and should last ages at the small doses I am planning. I would probably not dose the Flourish Excel as this would only speed up growth more and lead to more regular pruning and more water changes.
I also plan to add some Amano shrimp or otos to clean up what algae there is. How much should I be looking to pay for these and how many would you recommend for a 240 litre tank? Ten ish?
Anyway that's the plan for now. I am going to buy Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium from Amazon to give me some more ideas as this is such a different way of thinking.
Who else has been down this route and can you give me any pointers or (hopefully) encouragement that I'm planning on doing things more or less right?
/www.cheapfish.co.uk/amphibiansandinverts.htm
