# 'el naturel' method documented in early 20th Century



## a1Matt (10 Jul 2009)

Here is an article promoting a method that looks very similar to the 'el naturel'\npt\Walstad' methodology to me.

Original date of said article.... 1923!   

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/ho ... s-18.shtml


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## Steve Smith (10 Jul 2009)

Interesting Matt!  I'll have a proper read of that on my lunch break   Good find!


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## zig (10 Jul 2009)

Interesting alright although it does not give any reference to where the article was originally published other than the year 1923.


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## a1Matt (10 Jul 2009)

I noticed that too Zig, it is a real shame that it was not authenticated.
I might dig around a bit more at some point to see if I can find out more.


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## lljdma06 (10 Jul 2009)

a1Matt said:
			
		

> I noticed that too Zig, it is a real shame that it was not authenticated.
> I might dig around a bit more at some point to see if I can find out more.



I agree, but if I remember correctly, the world book encyclopedia from 1973 had a very similar setup in their aquarium article.  That's the encyclopedia set I had growing up, so for the longest time, that's how I thought planted tanks were done.  El naturel always seemed to me like just an older way of doing things.   I mean how did they have planted tanks before electricity?    Obviously ponds and fish were being kept by the ancient Chinese and Japanese.  Peter Hiscock's Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants mentions using soil too and his book was in 2003, same time as Walstad's second edition of Ecology.  When did Walstad's book first come out?

Loved the wording in that article. So 1920s.


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## xweeqtx (11 Jul 2009)

> Take a shallow pan, place a handful of sand in it and hold over a faucet so that a small stream of water stirs up the sand vigorously; gently rock the pan, allowing the floating particles of dust and dirt to escape over the rim. Keep repeating this process until there is sufficient cleansed sand to make a layer approximately an inch thick in the aquarium.



Can you imagine how long that would take, one handful at a time for a large tank?   I got bored doing 1/4 of a bucket at a time for a 200litre LOL


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