gjcarew
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Posts posted by gjcarew
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Depends on your tapwater. It is very soft so if your fish are used to harder water, a big water change with rainwater might throw off their osmotic equilibrium
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On 6/11/2021 at 1:18 PM, tonyjuliano said:
According to whom? The article cited contains a communication from a "sales guy" without making any expressed proclamation.
There is much more opinion to out there that claims "high CEC", but hey it's the internet.
Here's an article that seems to have solid evidence behind it...
https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/beginners-planted-tank-101/substrate-101
Sorry, that excerpt was from Caribsea's website (full context below). All I was saying was they claim it contains minerals. As shown in the thread I linked and the one you posted from 2hraquarist, Caribsea's claims both about the mineral content and CEC of Eco-complete are dubious at best.
"Eco‑Complete’s™ secret lies in rich basaltic volcanic soil which contains iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur plus over 25 other elements to nourish your aquatic plants. Floraspore™ symbionts activate the root-substrate interface to facilitate the uptake of minerals which make for a healthier root and healthier plant. Iron rich Eco‑Complete™ eliminates the need for laterite. No artificial dyes, paints, or chemical coatings. Eco-Complete™ has highly porous spherical grains for optimum diffusion performance and contains live Heterotrophic bacteria to rapidly convert fish waste into natural food for your aquatic plants. It establishes a natural biological balance which makes cycling a new aquarium faster and safer."
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You nerds have already probably seen this but Dennis Wong wrote a cool article and an even better video the effects of anoxic layers in a fish tank. His conclusion is that it isn't a bad thing as usually thought. As @tonyjulianomentioned, denitrification naturally occurs in deep soil beds, as well as the reduction of iron to make it more available to plants. Only deeply anaerobic beds will produce hydrogen sulfide gas.
In some of his tanks, Dennis is using 5-7 inches of soil and aquasoil without ill effects. Same thing seems to be happening with the super deep sand beds at Ocean Aquarium.
I like the experiment, but part of me wonders if the undergravel filter is even really necessary for denitrification or if a deep bed is enough.
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On 6/11/2021 at 12:16 PM, tonyjuliano said:
Basalt.
Very high CEC value. It has no nutrients of itself, but has the ability to absorb and store nutrients from surrounding sources.
According to Caribsea it contains " iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur plus over 25 other elements to nourish your aquatic plants."
I found a thread where someone reached out to Caribsea to ask about CEC. Turns out the company never actually tested the CEC of Eco-complete, but indicated it was similar in composition to Seachem Fluorite, which has almost zero CEC.
As for the mineral content, I couldn't say. It's very possible for basalt to be rich in those minerals but it totally depends on the source. As mentioned above, Caribsea appears to not have validated any of their claims. I don't really see a reason to use Eco-complete over any other inert gravel.
As a side note, when I was doing some research on the effects of substrates on corydoras barbels, Eco-complete as well as Caribsea Tahitian Moon Sand seemed to be the worst for them.
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Not unrealistic, but you might end up with old tank syndrome eventually. I would still monitor water conditions with test strips if I were you.
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20 hours ago, Martin said:
Thanks all, I forgot to mention, my tank is a 10 gallon. I read up on the repens and understand that it can get quite large. Given I already have the aponogeton, I'm not sure how well it will all hold up.
Ludwigia palustris is smaller than ludwigia repens, almost guaranteed to be red and pretty hard to kill. Ludwigia repens is itself very easy to keep a manageable size, just trim it when it gets too big.
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Yeah, it's a great epiphyte! It likes CO2 and good fertilization. My favorite example is from Josh Sim's winning aquascape from 2019. It drapes down over hardscape in a way that lends gravity to the scape, whereas most other epiphytes will be oriented more vertically towards the light.
22 minutes ago, Patrick_G said:Can Monte Carlo be grown as an epiphyte?
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Riccardia chamedryfolia, monte carlo, and fissidens fontanus are my favorites
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4 minutes ago, Lowells Fish Lab said:
Aquasoil is powerful but volatile. It leaches nutty amounts of ammonia early on and it's light and smooth-- not fun to plant in initially. That light, open texture makes it easy for plant roots to grow through so that's a plus.
Were you using Fluval Stratum by chance? I've noticed that it's much lighter than most aquasoils, and can be a bit of a pain to plant in. With regards to ammonia, both Amazonia ver. 2 and Tropica soil now leach much less ammonia than they used to, I'm not sure how recently you've tried them out.
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In general, aquasoil > fine gravel > coarse sand > coarse gravel > fine sand.
Aquasoils have high cation exchange capacity (CEC), which is basically the ability of the substrate to hold on to nutrients and make them available to plants. Aquasoils also have a perfect porosity for healthy plants. Topsoil also has high CEC, but it can be messy when moving plants around and needs to be capped with another substrate.
Structurally, your substrate needs to be both porous and supportive. Fine sands are not porous, they don't allow the roots of plants to breathe and you will end up with poor root development. Coarse gravels sometimes don't provide enough support, the gaps between the rocks don't allow the plant to root securely. Coarse gravels can also let root tabs bleed their nutrients in to the water column a bit too readily, rather than keeping it in the root zone.
Coarse sands and fine gravels are the best inert substrates. Examples of these would be Seachem Flourite, Caribsea Peace River Gravel, Black Diamond Blasting Abrasive (medium) and HTH Pool Filter Sand. They are fine enough to retain substrate nutrients, but coarse enough to allow root development. Note that they will not start out with any CEC or nutrients. Aquarium Co-op's root tabs include clay, which increases the CEC of your substrate. It's the best root tab choice for inert substrates.
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Remove old and dying leaves. Make sure you vacuum the substrate when you do water changes, and if you can, increase the frequency/size of water changes. You should be able to remove diatoms pretty easily. It will look better if you wipe everything down, but make sure to get the plant leaves so the algae doesn't hinder plant growth. The diatoms will die out as your aquarium matures, it just takes time (like 2-4 weeks). Cut lights back to 8 hours a day, and put them on a timer.
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Crypt spiralis "red"
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It's from an ultrasonic mister, the kind you can get on Amazon for $13. I put it in the back of the HOB filter.
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Hey y'all, just made an account primarily so I can keep up on when the Co-op brings in new fish and products. I'm a member of the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society. I got started with aquariums in 2018 and have been mildly obsessed ever since. I love my fish and shrimp, but since I just keep pretty basic ones like bettas, apistos, tetras, etc. I find that most people care less about those than my horticultural exploits.
My primary tank is a 22 gallon long, and I've lately been doing a lot of Dutch-style aquascaping. If you want to keep up with what I'm working on, I have a journal at the Planted Tank forum.
Gonna do a pic dump here just because.
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(1).jpg.f57554ae0065e65a1a32a41acfd076b1.jpg)
The myths and legends of anaerobic bacteria
in General Discussion
Posted
There is literally constant freshwater flowing through the amazon. Like, millions of gallons per second, even during the dry season. That is the nature of rivers, regardless of the flow rate. They have near 100% turnover relative to a stationary object at every moment. The Amazon is also not only fed by rain but by snowmelt from the Andes, it never just dries up.