Fertilized Plant Substrate

[hopeful1]

So fertilized plant substrate last about a year. Do you remove the old pellets and put in new?  How do you deal with the original fertilized clay?

I notice most responders seem to not have the fertilized plant substrate. Am I better off with or without it? I like to vacuum almost daily. My my ammonia nitrite cycle has been pretty much zero, but my nitrates in the 40 gallon tank could be less, recently I did 50% water change. It seems I can hold nitrites near zero by daily gravel vacuuming. Basically I let my 40 gallon take go a bit and got into nitrate concerns. Since then I have changed about 80-gallons.

Do you feel that the ammonia/nitrites produced by a fertilized plant substrate will result in more otherwise unneeded water changes?

[Patrick_G]

I use nutrient enriched substrate (aquasoil) under a decorative substrate. Some folks use regular soil. Both will alter your parameters, especially when you first start the tank. To mitigate that I choose one of the substrates that has the least enrichment, Fluval Stratum. I then mix it with some sand and gravel. It’s expensive and I want to get as much coverage as possible. Using this method  I haven’t noticed any unusual nitrogen spikes. In my four month old 75 gallon I generally don’t do water changes and the Nitrates stay manageable. 

[hopeful1]

After 1 year, will just add more aqua soil?

 

[Patrick_G]

My tanks with enriched substrate haven’t reached a year yet. If I start see problems with the plants I’ll add root tabs, but I think you might get much more than a year with a typical plant mass.