Choppy Nagle
Seedling
Hello everyone,
I am in the position now where I am almost ready to start my soil based tank.
Before I procede, I have a barrage of questions to pestle you with but I don't know where to start, so appologies if it becomes an incoherent rant.
I am adding John Innes no3 mixed with some akadama and I read somewhere that the organic discharge emmitted doing initialisation would not only cycle the tank, but also be of great benefit to the plants. I don't have any plants yet so should I wait till it's planted before I add water?
Talking of planting, is it easy to plant through a soil retainer?
I'm not in any particular hurry which is just as well as I understand it can take about 6 weeks for the soil to mineralise. That's something I didn't quite understand cos I thought it was being exposed to air that mineralised the soil. Is it neccessary for my filters to be running during this period?
One other thing, I have playsand to use for capping but a lot of members advocate pool filter sand because the grain size is better for water/nutrient circulation. I'm worried about anaerobic spots collecting in the substrate so is it worthwhile ditching the playsand or will some shrimp, snails or loaches eliviate this problem?
Once again, I'm sorry for the deluge of questions but I'm just eager to get up and running.
Any advice would be most welcome and gratefully received.
I am in the position now where I am almost ready to start my soil based tank.
Before I procede, I have a barrage of questions to pestle you with but I don't know where to start, so appologies if it becomes an incoherent rant.
I am adding John Innes no3 mixed with some akadama and I read somewhere that the organic discharge emmitted doing initialisation would not only cycle the tank, but also be of great benefit to the plants. I don't have any plants yet so should I wait till it's planted before I add water?
Talking of planting, is it easy to plant through a soil retainer?
I'm not in any particular hurry which is just as well as I understand it can take about 6 weeks for the soil to mineralise. That's something I didn't quite understand cos I thought it was being exposed to air that mineralised the soil. Is it neccessary for my filters to be running during this period?
One other thing, I have playsand to use for capping but a lot of members advocate pool filter sand because the grain size is better for water/nutrient circulation. I'm worried about anaerobic spots collecting in the substrate so is it worthwhile ditching the playsand or will some shrimp, snails or loaches eliviate this problem?
Once again, I'm sorry for the deluge of questions but I'm just eager to get up and running.
Any advice would be most welcome and gratefully received.