# Starting a Planted Tank Part One



## bkh99 (Jan 3, 2010)

After being out of the hobby for about 8 years I decided to set up aquariums once again, and this time I decided to go for the live planted tank. I thought I might share a few of my experiences gained.

I did not want a massive power bill, and so I decided on ‘low light tanks'. I changed the light bulbs around the place over to those new 15 watt screw in florescents and I also stopped putting the computer on standby when not in use, and the result of making these simple changes was that I could run three aquariums while my power bill only increased by about ten dollars a month.

I was very confused by a lot of conflicting information available on the internet, and so finally I had to rely upon my own judgment, and consequently had to learn by experience by making my own mistakes.

For my 55 gallon long tank, I set inexpensive potting soil, with no additives, out in pails of water on the balcony to bake in the sun, which was supposed to help the soil rid itself of the organics that produce hydrogen sulphide (sewer) gas in a planted aquarium. I was intending to mimic nature, by duplicating the conditions aquatic plants encounter in the wild (this would mean creating a layer of sandy silty loam covered with a top layer of sand or gravel). To achieve this effect I mixed the potting soil with mineral rich black onyx sand (Seachem branded) as well as some iron rich Laterite. I laid this out about two to two and half inches thick on the bottom of the aquarium and then covered with about two inches of fractated baked clay chips (these are flat tiny chips of baked clay that overlap and seal in the soil, while at the same time being very gentle on bottom feeders- no sharp edges, etc). I then planted the tank with ‘low light plants' and then found that the tank was burping and expelling hydrogen sulphide gas for almost six months, and so it was not possible to add any fish (the tank literally smelled like ‘manure', to use the polite term).

On my twenty gallon (tall) I used a thinner layer of this soil mixture (about one inch) topped with a layer of ‘Eco-Complete' nutrient rich plant gravel. This tank never produced any hydrogen sulphide gas, as oxygen was able to penetrate down to the soil level due to the shallow depth of the substrate, and the bacteria that produce this gas are anaerobic (they only survive in an environment devoid of oxygen). Fortunately ‘low light' plants are also ‘marsh adapted' and so the plants on my fifty five gallon long were able to survive the toxic conditions and eventually sent roots down to the top soil in the bottom of the tank, and since plant roots release oxygen, this removed the bacteria producing the hydrogen sulphide gas.

On my ten gallon tank I took a different approach. I baked ordinary potting soil in the oven so as to kill all the naturally occurring bacteria. I then placed a thick layer of this potting soil on the bottom of the gallon tank (three and a half inches). I mixed into the soil a generous amount of Seachem Stability, which consists of spores of specially selected bacterial strains that do not produce hydrogen sulphide gas. I then sealed in the soil by covering it with a layer of sand (the type commonly used in marine aquariums, which has a slightly larger grain size). This tank has never produced hydrogen sulphide gas and the Seachem product does do what it claims to do. This baking the soil approach would have saved me six months of dreadful conditions in the 55 gallon long, and I could have also avoided leaching nutrients out of the soil before placing it into the tank (the common advice you get is to leach your soil of nutrients, then put it into the tank, advice that I found nonsensical, because plants need nutrients and that is the point of mimicking nature by creating a rich silty loam covered with sand).

The plants in the ten gallon tank require constant pruning and are growing very aggressively (I can't leave them for over a week without pruning or they begin to block the light). At the moment I have never had to fertilize these plants, and they are doing just fine so far with just the original potting soil combined with fish waste products. I can never ‘vacuum' any of these tanks, because of the plants, and so therefore I have included Malaysian trumpet snails, which are a type of snail that burrows down into the substrate and are like little plows that constantly turn over the surface at the tank bottom, working fish waste down into the soil, and keeping the tanks spotless, while at the same time assisting in fertilizing the plants.

On the ten gallon tank I use one single 15 watt T8 bulb, which is more than adequate (seeing is believing, as the aggressive healthy plant growth in that tank indicates). I also use a pop bottle set up and one of those C02 step ladder things (where the bubbles roll back and forth up a set of ramps, shrinking in size and dissolving into the water as they climb) in order to inject extra Co2 into both the ten and twenty gallon tanks. Plants are about 50 percent carbon, and the aggressive plant growth I get in both tanks indicates that this step ladder approach to C02 injection works fine on small tanks. One thing I do not like about those step ladders is that for some reason, from time to time, the bubbles only roll part way up the ramp, and then for some reason they park on one spot, until enough bubbles build up and then suddenly one giant bubble will shoot up the ramp. However despite all these strange behaviors, the plants are always doing very well.

One the twenty gallon tall I have included one of those store bought C02 yeast fermentation bottles and I hang the bottle inside the aquarium, hiding it behind the plants. I also do this on the fifty five gallon long. Yeast production is temperature dependant, and I have found that I can maintain a consistent predictable rate of bubble production by keeping the yeast mixture at the constant temperature of the aquarium. I use one half cup of sugar, two teaspoons of baking soda (as an acid buffer, to extend the life of the yeast mixture) and then just a few grains of ordinary bread yeast (yeast divide and multiply and so only a few starter yeast are required). I change the yeast mixture when the rate of bubble production slows down noticeably (and this seems to be about every two weeks, although I do not keep to some timed schedule but rather I judge by bubble count). Plants require a relatively consistent co2 level (whatever the level is, it should be consistent, as in consistently low or consistently medium or consistently high, so the plants can physically adapt).

On the ten, twenty, and fifty five gallon tanks I am running airstones to blow off some of the co2, since I find that without this step to much co2 is added to the water, and it is best if everything is consistent in the tank (low light, low co2, lower rate of fertilization). Even with the air stones gently agitating the surface of the tank, the co2 pushes down the PH on the tanks, but only enough to indicate about 10ppm of co2, which is a low level and about what I want.

On the fifty five gallon long I used one of the motorized co2 reactors (a water pump sitting on top of a clear plastic cylinder with a sponge at the bottom. This device is extremely efficient at dissolving co2 bubbles completely into the water (the bubbles cannot rise as they are constantly kept dancing around in the cylinder by the flow from the water pump, while the sponge becomes saturated with co2 enriched water. Even with the airstone working this device pushes down the ph of the tank a little more than I might want. I keep the air pump on a timer, which shuts it off over night to prevent over night co2 spikes (since plants release oxygen into the water when the lights are on, and then release co2 at night while the lights are off, and therefore it is not required that this device also be pounding co2 into the water during the lights off period).

On the twenty gallon tank the depth of the substrate was kept shallow to prevent release of hydrogen sulphide gas. Consequently the plants have depleted the soil and require regular fertilization. I use a pellet making kit, a lump of clay dug up from three feet down, and PMDD (pre-mixed fertilizer compound containing all the major and micro nutrients). When I need to wet the clay in the pellets I use the liquid fertilizer I purchased instead of water in order to use up these compounds. I use a pellet applicator (a type of plunger) which then fires the dried clay pellets about two inches down to the plants roots. 

The flat clay flakes in the fifty five gallon aquarium are ideal for holding nutrients in clay pellets below the surface and out of the reach of algae. I know this to be true for I do tests for the presence of iron in the water (an indicator element) and it is practically non-existent, which indicates that when spot fertilizing with these clay pellets, the fertilizer is effectively kept out of the water column and down at root level where I want it.

A 15 watt bulb on ten gallon tank generates luxuriant plant growth, and when combined with the fertile potting soil and the small amount of co2 creates a tank which requires constant pruning.


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## bkh99 (Jan 3, 2010)

*Starting a Planted Tank Part Two*

On the fifty five gallon tank I am using full spectrum low watt T5 bulbs which are not supposed to be used for plants according to what you read on the internet. What I have discovered is that when you use these low wattage bulbs on a tall tank, you get long spindly stalks at the bottom of the plant and all the heavy growth occurs in the top one third of the tank. This is acceptable to me, for the fish have open space to swim in the bottom on third of the tank, while the plants shield the fish from the light bulbs. On the far right one third of the tank I have planted swords and large anubias, as well as a long grass like plant (vals). This creates a dense plant growth which extends right from the bottom of the tank to the top in this part of the tank, and this is also a popular area for the fish, since fish do like the sense of security as well as the interest generated by dense foliage. Sword plants require good fertilization since they only grow on single and very large sword shaped leaf on each branch, and so any nutrient deficiencies would show themselves in ugly looking damaged leaves. My swords have flawless leaves that are now over a foot long, and I also new sword plants popping up here and there (runners sent out below the surface start new plants). These types of plant do exceptionally well under low light conditions, and create a pocket of dense foliage that extends from the tank bottom to the tank top. I have noticed that swords are very greedy plants that are very competitive at the root level, and as a result I have had to prune damaged leaves off of the anubias from time to time, and I am now dealing with the situation by giving the anubias extra fertilizer pellets at the root level.

My tank maintenance routine includes no 'gravel cleaning'. I maintain the filters (I use a Rena external on the fifty five gallon long, and hang on the back filters on the ten and twenty gallon tanks. The filter on the ten gallon tank failed and it took me about two weeks to realize that the tank water was not being properly filtered. I use 'Seachem Ammonia Alert' as an early warning system on all tanks (it attaches to the glass inside the aquarium and turns green and then blue in the presence of ammonia) and this device remained yellow throughout, because the plants in the ten gallon tank took over from the filter (plants are able to directly feed off of ammonia in the water, which would normally be processed by the filter). Without the plants, in the case of the filter failure there would have been a dangerous ammonia spike in the tank, which would have immediately been displayed by the color change in the alert device.

I maintain pristine water conditions, by doing heavy water changes in my tanks, so as to remove any unwanted dissolved organics and so on. What this means is that I change half the water twice a week and then on Sunday I change half the water twice in a row (the net result is a 75 percent water change). I know that there are people on the net who advise 10 percent once every two weeks and so on, but I consider this advice to be badly dated (going back to the days when people erroneously believed that fish require old, so called 'aged' fish water). It is a well known fact that aquarium fish live short stunted lives. Neon tetras only live a few years in a tank, while the life span of a wild neon tetra is measured in decades. The reason for these short life spans is inadequate water changes. Fish are not harmed by heavy water changes, if heavy water changes are the norm (chemically the water does not have time to alter, and it is the chemical difference between 'old aged water' and new replacement water that can potentially harm fish in a manner similar to the way that a reverse osmosis filter works...as long as the water is similar large water changes can do no harm, and I know that the fish love water changes and indicated by their jubilant behavior after each change. I use the Marina Aquavac which hooks up to the kitchen faucet and elminates the need to carry pails. I use Seachem prime as the dechlorinator which I add directly to the tank during the fill phase (contrary to what you somtimes read on the net, chlorine or choloramine are deadly toxic to fish, and even if it doesn't kill them, it can leave them permanently damaged, as I found on my twenty gallon tank when I stupidly took some advice from the net about how you don't really need to remove cholorination, its just a gimic to make money, only to have fish in that tank either drop dead right on the spot or become infected and sick and die later).

The following is a list of plants that I have had good luck growing under low light conditions.

Anacharis (Egeria najas)
Anubias Nana (Anubias barteri v. 'Nana')
Bacopa (Bacopa carolina) (susceptible to algae attack)
Cabomba Green (Cabomba carolina)
Cabomba Purple (Red)(Cabomba pulcherrima)
CLOVER, FOUR LEAF Dwarf(Marsilea quadrifolia)
(I don't recommend clover as it prefers to float on the top of the tank and must be constantly skimmed with a fish net before it blocks all the light)
Congensis (Anubias 'Congensis')
Contortion Vals (Vallisneria asiatica)
(Vals is a very aggressive long grass like plant, that constantly sends out new plants on runners, and requires constant pruning so that its long grass like leaves do not block out the light to other plants. Its one advantage is that it creates a dense grassy effect, and thrives under low light, while its disadvantage is that it requires constant control)
Dwarf Baby Tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides)
Baby tears are another plant to avoid. Floats on the top and robs light. Requires constant removal.
Heteranthera Stargrass (Heteranthera zosterfolia)
Star grass prefers to float on the top of the tank, and has a tendency to be attacked by filament algae that was accidentally introduced into the tank by some plant I bought-this type of algae must be introduced to appear in a tank and should be avoided like the plague as it grows in dense clumps and requires constant searching and plucking).
Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
Hygrophila corymbosa 'Angustifolia'
Hygrophila balsamica (Hygrophila balsamica) 
Pennywort, Brazilian (Hydrocotyle Leucocephala) (becomes a floating plant, but is not a problem like the clover or tears)
Myrio, Red (Myriophyllum heterophyllum) (thrives and requires constant pruning, susceptible to being attacked by filament algae)
Mayaca (Mayaca fluviatilis)
Myrio, Green (Myrio pinnatum)
Tiger Lotus, Red (Nymphaea zenkeri) (Thrives and requires constant pruning to prevent its leaves from robbing all the light...no other plant can grow in the shade of this plant, which is best used as a center piece...requires constant feeding at the root level)
Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides) (becomes a floating plant, gets attacked and killed off by filament algae)
Wendtii, Bronze (Cryptocoryne wendtii v. 'Tropica') (a beautiful sword, mine has leaves over a foot long, and is starting new plants here and there...really fills out the bottom and midsection of a low light tank...like all swords it requires very fertile soil, developes a massive root system, and requires consistent fertlization)
Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis) (fast growing and can become a very big plant if not constantly trimmed)

The following plant thrives under low light conditions, sending out runners and creating a grassy bottom on the tank, and then suddenly dies... this happened before I discovered fertilizer pellets as this type of grassy sword, like all swords, must be constantly fed fertilizer pellets once the available nutrients are depleted
Sword, Narrow Leaf Chain (Echinodorus tenellus)

The following plants die when in a low light tank.

Giant Hairgrass (Eleocharis montevidensis)
Lloydiella (Lysimachia nummularia)
Myriophyllum tuberculatum
Ludwigia Peruensis (Ludwigia peruensis)
Ludwigia, Broad Leaf (Ludwigia repens)
Pogostemon stellata (Eusteralis)
Rotala Indica (Rotala roundifolia)
Sword, Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae)
Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii)


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## bkh99 (Jan 3, 2010)

*flex*

Flexibacter Columnaris

The problems in my tank are compounded by the fact that when I bought my first fish I ignorantly brought home a Flex infection. This bacteria is like a fish version of 'flesh eating disease', and it appears like a white fungus, and attacks and dissolves the tissues on the fish body. As I discovered due to misuse of antibiotics, Flex has now become ferociously resistant to antibiotics and nothing can rid of it. The disease was transferred to all three of my tanks through sharing of equipment.

What I have discovered is that if a fish has a strong immune system, Flex causes no problems. From time to time there will be a small outbreak of Flex fungus on a fish which will disappear in a couple of days. If the immune system of the fish is unable to handle flex, the fish dies, and antibiotic intervention never does seem to work.

To maintain the fish immune system I do these heavy water changes, and I also feed the fish New Life Spectrum fish food, to maintain the highest possible nutrition, and this tactic does work, for any degradation in either the health of the fish or the environment would result in an outbreak of this latent flex which has now become a permanent part of all my tanks.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Sounds like you are doing quite well and have done your research!

In the future, I would avoid using potting soil altogether. There are many substrates available (such as flourite and eco-complete) that I feel are superior to the "natural" approach...and less messy.

Also, I wouldn't worry about running airstones with your tanks using DIY cO2 - I would be impressed if you could create enough co2 to harm any fish with that method (assuming you don't have like 6 pop bottles running at the same time!).

You might look into buying a pressurized cO2 system with a manifold which will allow you to inject co2 into all your tanks from one cO2 cylinder.

As for your water changes etc., I won't debate any of your methods as they seem to work for you and you don't mind taking the time to complete them!

Last, I fully agree: strong immune system > any medication


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

I'm glad that you've got your tanks more or less the way you want them now. If you don't want to do that much pruning, cut back (or eliminate) the CO2 and fertilizer. It's normal for larger spp of vallisneria to grow to the top and along it -- jungle val does this very enthusiastically. There are shorter growing vals that don't make it to the top in a tall tank. You could also replace some of your fast growing plants with slower growing ones.

I think your early problems were mainly due to taking ideas from several different systems and trying to get them to work together without understanding how the parts of these systems work together. For example, if you want to use a soil substrate, it should be a mineral soil, not an organic one like potting soil -- i.e. it should be mostly clay and very little organic matter. Potting soil is usually almost all organic matter. Diana Walstad is best known for researching and developing this method, and she usually recommends no more than an inch of soil under one to two inches of inert substrate, and it's important to get plant roots growing through it as soon as possible. Investing in her book ($23 at amazon.ca) would have saved you a great deal of time and hassle. Actually, I'd recommend this book (Ecology of the Planted Aquarium) to anybody who wants to understand what's really going on biologically and chemically in an aquarium whether you want to experiment with soil substrates or not. 

Substrates with good CEC like laterite, fracted clay, fluorite, turface, ecocomplete or whatever give most of the benefits of a bottom soil layer in a substrate, especially if you let grunge percolate down into it.

A few other comments -- Cryptocoryne wendtii is a great low light plant that likes a rich substrate, but it's not a sword plant. The term 'sword plant' usually refers to Echinodorus spp, most of which prefer more light and quite different conditions than crypts.

You can probably get your CO2 bubbler to work correctly by adjusting its position. Sounds like you've got it at a bit of a slant, or else something has gotten a little clogged in it.

And despite what anybody says on the net, you can grow plants under pretty much any form of artificial light. Well, not black lights....


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

@ bhk99, great post with a ton of info. Thanks for sharing your experiences.



Chris S said:


> In the future, I would avoid using potting soil altogether. There are many substrates available (such as flourite and eco-complete) that I feel are superior to the "natural" approach...and less messy.


Can't argue with the messy part, but I'm pretty sure the problem with tanks gassing off is the depth of soil used, not that soil was used. An inch of soil and 2 (maybe 3) inches of gravel is about the maximum that can be used without it going anerobic and producing H2SO under most circumstances. O2 must be able to reach down into the substrate.

Eco, Fluorite and all the others peter out within weeks/months and long term provide no food for rooted plants. That's why people are buying expensive root tabs from Seachem, ADA et al, making them at home as bhk99 is, or sticking Jobes spikes, Osmocote and a dozen other types of fertilizer in their substrates...or using mineralized top soil, or worm castings, because there's no food there.

I really like the look of Eco, I'm not impressed with it's performance vs plain gravel given the cost. If our plants could live off substrate, the substrate would be eaten up and turned into plant matter but lets face it, Eco, Fluorite, fracted clay, quartz, volcanic or other types of rock are, well, rock (for simplicity's sake). There's not much to eat there unless we add something.

/Threadjacking over...


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## okoolo (Nov 1, 2009)

so wouldn't that mean that if I used eco complete with no ferts then I shouldn't see any growth in the long run?


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

okoolo said:


> so wouldn't that mean that if I used eco complete with no ferts then I shouldn't see any growth in the long run?


It depends on a lot of factors. In a low tech tank, fish fertilize the plants. A lot of different systems work, but they work by having all the factors in balance. In intense light, plants will grow faster and need more nutrients (fertilizer). If you fertilize them, CO2 becomes the limiting factor. Similarly, under low light conditions, light is the limiting factor and adding fertilizers will just promote algae because the plants aren't growing fast enough to take up the nutrients. Adding CO2 won't help because they can't use it without more light, etc.

You can have a nice looking tank with low to moderate lighting, no CO2 or fertilizers, and very little pruning or other maintenance. This is the low-tech, low cost, low hassle method. You don't even vacuum the substrate because you want the mulm in there as plant nutrient. If the substrate is full of roots, it will stay aerobic and healthy even if there's a lot of mulm in it.

If you start pushing growth with high light intensity, the plants will need more fertilizer than what they get from the fish, and you may need CO2 to keep the plants growing fast enough to outcompete the algae for the fertilizer. The balancing act becomes more difficult, and you have to intervene to control the plants by pruning and thinning as well as making frequent additions of fertilizer.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Mr Fishies said:


> Eco, Fluorite and all the others peter out within weeks/months and long term provide no food for rooted plants. That's why people are buying expensive root tabs from Seachem, ADA et al, making them at home as bhk99 is, or sticking Jobes spikes, Osmocote and a dozen other types of fertilizer in their substrates...or using mineralized top soil, or worm castings, because there's no food there.


I have to disagree. Eco-complete, for example, will never run out of nutrients (unless you somehow dissolved it in water - which of course, given time is possible). The substrate itself is what provides nutrients, as the plants actually liberate the needed elements from the "rock" itself.

Well, to be perfectly correct, nothing last forever. That said, by the time eco-complete is broken down into clay (the nutrients having been extracted or slowly weathered/leached away), we will likely be long dead 

A good substrate won't eliminate the need for fertilization as you mention, but what it will do is provide a base of trace elements available on-demand to the plants. If you aren't fertilizing at all, you should still see marked improvement using a rich substrate like eco-complete over straight up gravel.

Edit: Forgot to mention, referring back to what bae mentions regarding limiting factors in plant growth and how adding, for instance, more nitrogen to a system already limited by lack of cO2 will cause algae (long intro there, sorry): The good thing about Flourite and Eco-complete here is that they will provide nutrients as needed. The rate at which they leach into the water on their own is so slow that on its own, it won't create any imbalance (ie. will not trigger excessive algae growth).


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

Chris S said:


> I have to disagree. *Eco-complete, for example, will never run out of nutrients* (unless you somehow dissolved it in water - which of course, given time is possible). The substrate itself is what provides nutrients, as the *plants actually liberate the needed elements from the "rock" itself*.
> 
> Well, to be perfectly correct, nothing last forever. That said, by the time eco-complete is broken down into clay (the nutrients having been extracted or slowly weathered/leached away), we will likely be long dead


C'mon...plants don't liberate nutrients, they only absorb nutrients provided to them, in a form that is bio-available, plain and simple. For every gram of plant a gram of something had to be come from somewhere. Especially Nitrogen which Eco has _*none*_ of, or so it seems according to Caribsea info and the package itself.

To understand the science behind your "theory", I'd like to discuss and debate this further, this comes at a good time for me since I am in the process of deciding how to handle my seemingly inert Eco.

New thread to leave this one to the OPs original subject: Is Substrate Fertilization Necessary? Long term, I think so.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Actually, it's advisable that you change your planted substrate every 3 or 4 years. They do run out or simply becomes inaccessable. Having said that though, I don't bother to change mine as I know that the build up of mulm over the years will take over and provide what is missing. Plus, I am not doing an award winning tank, so there is no need to replace the substrate.
If you ever have a chance to use the ADA stuff, their man made soil do break down and does turn to mud. A clear indication that you need to replace your tank with new planted substrate.

As for the debate if flourite or eco-complete is better than normal gravels or sand. I think if you ever tried then, you'll know there is a remarkable difference. Some of the best plant hobbiest used to brag about there being no difference until they actually tried flourite and eco-complete, that quickly changed their opinion. To understand the science behind it. Look into CEC (Caption exchange Capacity) research.

Going back to orginal topic. A very nice most bkh99. I'll need to re-read it a couple of times later on, to pick up every you said . Too much information for me to desseminate today.

But, yeah, the stinkyness may be from an overly think substrate. That's why there is the 3" rules for aquarium substrate.

I am really surpprise that you aren't running into algae issues. That is one the of major problem I find working with plant soil. It's impossible for me to keep the ferts balanced in the tank and the organics decompose and rot causing the stink you mentioned. Baking the soil pretty much burn the organics to ash. This method will give you dirt and not soil as its now organic free. This pretty much makes it the same as flourite or eco-complete except that it's now dirt size. So you might want to try skipping the soil part all together. Just a theory, there, there may be other factors at play that I can't forsee.

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## jimmyjam (Nov 6, 2007)

eco def loses its nutrients after a few yrs. In my experience with that product, it loses capacity about half after the initial first 1.5 years. Redistributing the product around after that time helped with the growth of my plants for another year. I have had aquasoil and nisso sand, and they are similar products.. great for water and nutrient exchange but you must add substrate fert... in ADAs case, its powersand, and with my nisso sand, I added azoo substrate ferts. I found the eco to cause more algae problems in my tanks than flourite or ada or Nisso. I think this is bc it is induced significantly with the nutrient, and in some forums, have been known to leak into the water column.. anyways thats my 1.5 cents.. hope it helped


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## bkh99 (Jan 3, 2010)

*a few comments*

About the oven and the potting soil. I did not burn the organics out of the potting soil. You only need to raise the temp to a minimum of 160 to kill bacteria (think of the oven thermometer which is used to check roasts near the center). The organics still remain in the potting soil, and from time to time the trumpet snails will dig up a piece of bark or other material that were included in the potting soil.

Using DIY CO2 does work, even on a fifty five gallon long, as you can see the bubbles dancing around in the powered reactor tube, and you can also check the ph, which is pushed down by about six points on that tank, and that is with the airstone operating (without that it would push it down even lower, which is something that I don't want).

As for the ecocomplete, I have noticed that right after I shoot down a fert pellet, one of my plants sends out bright red shoots of new growth, but without the pellet the new shoot would be green (apparently a depletion of iron, or the iron is not available in a form the plant can use).

As for using soil that is mineral rich but free of organics, it would seem to me that the only reason why someone would want to do that is to avoid that hydrogen sulphide gas, because over time the soil will become organically rich, just from the accumulation of mulm. Aquarium plants do love potting soil, especially the crypt which has roots spread throughout the potting soil (you can see it along the glass edge) and which has healthy purplish colored leaves over a foot long, as well as starting new plants here and there. My ten gallon tank has a very deep layer of potting soil (and is now probably a six or seven gallon tank as a result) and I have never had to fertilize and the plants grow very quickly, and require constant pruning, as I mentioned, which makes potting soil something to avoid if you like low maintenance tanks. Currently the ten gallon is an all natural tank, with no filter, which is the first time I have tried this technique, and so it seems a little odd, but it does seem to work, as there is no ammonia registered in the tank (there are three glow light tetras and one algae eating fish of some type, which was sold to me as a baby otocinclus, but which is not an oto, but some kine of territorial fish-one pestered the second one I had until it jumped out of the tank and died, and otos are gregarious, much like Cory cats, and don't behave that way...the algae fish eats that brown algae that you can get in low light tanks...I have no algae in any other tank, other than that filament algae that grows like a carpet of moss, or forms floating clumps, and might actually be a moss and not an algae at all. I am not sure. It was introduced into the tank along with some plant I bought, and since then has proved impossible to get rid of)


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