making diy "aquasoil"

[gardentank]

i am interested to watch this! it seems very nutrient rich, more so than aquatic soil often is. once you get past the blooms it may be great though. i think that i would stuff it with fast growing stems / floaters like anacharis, milfoil, hygro, foxtail etc until the nutrients stabilize. maybe keep a uv sterilizer handy....please keep us informed!

Here is the tank yesterday and today. I was shocked this morning to see how clear the water is. I missed a few spots planting, couldn't see through the brown water. Today I introduced 2 Amano shrimp, 4 nerites, and 6 o'cats into their new, dirt bottomed home! Who thinks I should have waited? Who thinks they will die a miserable death from the evil new tank syndrome? Here is a hint: the ph is down to around 6.4 today :) I have an interesting (I think) water change/cycling plan.. I will take 5 gallons out, take 5 out of my 55 and "swap" the water. Every day until I get sick of doing it. My 55 can soak up lots of ammonia (I know because I actually used to DOSE ammonia into it! And to answer your question, I had zero out of 50+ fish die during that time bcuz ammonia is much less toxic in water with low ph) I predict that the shrimp/snails/fish will thrive and show no signs of distress from the tank cycling. We will see! Oh ya the reason I didn't fill the yank all the way is partly bcuz Amano shrimp jump and partly bcuz the plants are all short and don't need deep water unnessesaryily blocking out the light coming from my very DIY lighting system consisting of a lamp with 23 watt 2800k cfl bulb on the left (gooseneck.. LOL) and the one modular hydrofarm 24 watt 3000k t5 on the right.

[Totenkampf]

porter is on the NE side of town, we dont have anything good out this way! not even a cool theme park lol

[gardentank]

No algae yet.. running the lights ten hours a day :)

[gardentank]

Noooooo algae. Only two partial water changes :)

[gardentank]

Look! SLOWLY worked up to 6 watts per gallon, only two partial water changes in about a month and NO ALGAE :) Aquasoil is a ripoff folks make your own dirt!!

[gardentank]

Penny for your thoughts? .....

[gardentank]

Call it what you want but I added co2.... I'll call it a true gardentank

[fishman1]

not bad nice growth

[Totenkampf]

so you are running the MH then...nice growth and never a green water spell like i would have guessed. i made soil once but the sand cap went aerobic on me so i have never tried again. this does make me want o...

[gardentank]

No metal halide :) it only has 6wpg sometimes.. the lights I've been using on this tank ( I move my lights around bcuz I currently don't have enough lighting for all my tanks to have lights on during the day, so my lights do shiftwork) a 6500k t5ho 24 watt and or a 3000k t5 24w or a 23w cfl I bought brand new for 1.97 plus tax screwed into a lamp and or a 55w cfl screw in bulb I got for 13 bucks at Walmart... They rotate. No algae yet. No algae yet. No algae yet....

[Totenkampf]

ah i remembered you saying u were putting a MH here, i printed out your soil recipe yesterday lol. i have to say i am impressed but then you did what you are supposed to do in a new tank and stuffed the thing with plants. i have never had green water when i have been able to do that.

[Dan]

Just read the entire thread. It's very interesting and well done so far. I actually thought about using Flora Grow 7-4-10 years ago but never got around to doing it. Any updates?

[gardentank]

This would be considered more of the "el natural" approach in plant substrate.

So what? You don't even have a plant tank.

[eklikewhoa]

So what? You don't even have a plant tank.

just recently sold it so you are correct.

but to be corrected I actually have a jar with emersed grown hyrdoctle 'japan', crypt wendetii, eleocharis parvula and anubias nana petite. That would be considered a tank.

Why are you so defensive and hostile?

[gardentank]

Just read the entire thread. It's very interesting and well done so far. I actually thought about using Flora Grow 7-4-10 years ago but never got around to doing it. Any updates?

Flora grow lowers ph quite a bit and turns water brown but it goes away.