mellowserra
Fish Fanatic
I'm so happy 
--I stayed up until 2 am last night setting up my tank, my sand came in yesterday!
I decided to go all out with this venture and use soil as my main substrate, the tank is 48"L x 18"W x 21"H.
The very bottom layer consists of Shultz's aquatic plant soil, it's clay, when I came across it I felt safer using it as opposed to kitty litter. This I mixed well with laterite and a little play sand.
The "soil" layer (about consists of mostly peat, with some vermiculite and lime (for pH), mixed with some kind of "soil-less" aquatic potting mixture, which contains plant foam and composted rice hulls, with earthworm castings and a little playsand added to the mixture. My "dirt" layer is about 2" thick.
And on top, about 1" of Tahitian Black Moon sand
. With the expectation of a possible algae bloom, I ordered a ton of plants, after putting them in there is literally not more than a few square inches that remain unplanted! It's pretty but will definitely have to be scaped after everything settles in and stabilizes.
For lights, I'm using 4x65w.
I'm thrilled to say the least, I hope that the set up I've chosen works out the way I plan for it to. I don't have a digicam, but when I get my pictures back (if they turn out OK) I'll post some shots. Regards
--I stayed up until 2 am last night setting up my tank, my sand came in yesterday!I decided to go all out with this venture and use soil as my main substrate, the tank is 48"L x 18"W x 21"H.
The very bottom layer consists of Shultz's aquatic plant soil, it's clay, when I came across it I felt safer using it as opposed to kitty litter. This I mixed well with laterite and a little play sand.
The "soil" layer (about consists of mostly peat, with some vermiculite and lime (for pH), mixed with some kind of "soil-less" aquatic potting mixture, which contains plant foam and composted rice hulls, with earthworm castings and a little playsand added to the mixture. My "dirt" layer is about 2" thick.
And on top, about 1" of Tahitian Black Moon sand
. With the expectation of a possible algae bloom, I ordered a ton of plants, after putting them in there is literally not more than a few square inches that remain unplanted! It's pretty but will definitely have to be scaped after everything settles in and stabilizes.For lights, I'm using 4x65w.
I'm thrilled to say the least, I hope that the set up I've chosen works out the way I plan for it to. I don't have a digicam, but when I get my pictures back (if they turn out OK) I'll post some shots. Regards
