plantnoobdude
Member
Clearing up, all on full blast.
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My 60p soft water
- Thread starter plantnoobdude
- Start date
_Maq_
Member
Your Toninas are pretty big! Maybe twice as robust as mine...
plantnoobdude
Member
The tonina in my Low tech, inert substrate tank are much smaller in size, if that makes you feel Any better😂
Carbon is a helluva drug
plantnoobdude
Member
Really out of focus but you get the idea lol
_Maq_
Member
Tonina is not an easy species. In fact, I'm happy (and proud) to keep it alive & well, growing without apparent nutrient deficiencies. Still, the difference in size is remarkable.
plantnoobdude
Member
Swapped over to sand… had some free time and well, things happen
I have a few notes and plans to share, but more on that later tonight.
I have a few notes and plans to share, but more on that later tonight.
plantnoobdude
Member
So, why did I swap to sand?
Aqua soil gets really disgusting without weekly cleaning, I really just don’t have time to clean it weekly. So fine sand should keep most of the detritus above the substrate layer.
Secondly, I moved to sand to further test marschners ratios. Currently my dosing still stays the same as aqua soil, not really seeing any difference, but it’s only been two days… but in the future I am planning on reducing my gh even further and dosing very Low macro+micros. Something like this:
5Ca target
2Mg target
1 K
(TDS should be bang on 20ppm with above dosed to RO.)
0.01-0.02 Fe DTPAproxy weekly dosed
Nitrogen dosed as always
1-2ppm N
0.13-0.26 P
0.66K
Weekly macros
kh 0.25 or similar. Aiming to get a bit more ph stability for co2/pH checking purposes.
Water change every few weeks
The tank is currently on 90% sand. I know for a fact, tonina, cuphea, lud senegalensis, will do great in sand substrate.
Wasn’t sure my eriocaulon quinquangulare and centrolepis drummondiana would do well in full sand, as I haven’t seen any reports of successful cultivation in inert substrate. So I am trying a few of each of those species in sand.
Got some new plants as well in the main. Absolutely no space anywhere but who cares.
Cryptocoryne rosen maiden
Syngonanthus sp giant.
I always envied hufsa and her precious crypts so I decided to ease my self in with the Nurii. Sp giant is just to get revenge on an old friend, scroll back a few pages and you’ll see me kill it brutally under EI.
The ammannia just sensed something was wrong and 2/5 stems stunted lol. Everything else seems fine. Rotala hra is really red so I’m guessing my NO3 is pretty Low.
Really excited to see how far I can push the tank with sand.
Sand tank folk stick together @Hufsa 😂 I’m preparing my self for a world of hurt and pain.
Aqua soil gets really disgusting without weekly cleaning, I really just don’t have time to clean it weekly. So fine sand should keep most of the detritus above the substrate layer.
Secondly, I moved to sand to further test marschners ratios. Currently my dosing still stays the same as aqua soil, not really seeing any difference, but it’s only been two days… but in the future I am planning on reducing my gh even further and dosing very Low macro+micros. Something like this:
5Ca target
2Mg target
1 K
(TDS should be bang on 20ppm with above dosed to RO.)
0.01-0.02 Fe DTPAproxy weekly dosed
Nitrogen dosed as always
1-2ppm N
0.13-0.26 P
0.66K
Weekly macros
kh 0.25 or similar. Aiming to get a bit more ph stability for co2/pH checking purposes.
Water change every few weeks
The tank is currently on 90% sand. I know for a fact, tonina, cuphea, lud senegalensis, will do great in sand substrate.
Wasn’t sure my eriocaulon quinquangulare and centrolepis drummondiana would do well in full sand, as I haven’t seen any reports of successful cultivation in inert substrate. So I am trying a few of each of those species in sand.
Got some new plants as well in the main. Absolutely no space anywhere but who cares.
Cryptocoryne rosen maiden
Syngonanthus sp giant.
I always envied hufsa and her precious crypts so I decided to ease my self in with the Nurii. Sp giant is just to get revenge on an old friend, scroll back a few pages and you’ll see me kill it brutally under EI.
The ammannia just sensed something was wrong and 2/5 stems stunted lol. Everything else seems fine. Rotala hra is really red so I’m guessing my NO3 is pretty Low.
Really excited to see how far I can push the tank with sand.
Sand tank folk stick together @Hufsa 😂 I’m preparing my self for a world of hurt and pain.
So excited to have a sand buddy 😍🤩🥳
A small dark part of me wants to see your plants struggle a little bit in the sand, to make myself feel better about my struggles.
But the rest of me thinks that is very mean and I think you will probably totally nail this too 😃 (just to spite me 😭)
Watch out for low dosing, your plants might hit the wall without the soil to back them up. But I bet you will be watching very closely
_Maq_
Member
An interesting testimony of the twists of the Earth. Some 20 years ago most hobbyists ran on silica sand and those who didn't felt like adventurers.
Confirm from here. I've been attempting to emulate natural biotopes, i.e. very low nutrients by our standards. It can be done if you dose every day. I'm way too lazy for that.
I think the problem with trying to emulate natural biotopes is that what we want in our tanks are sometimes nothing like natural biotopes. At least Ive never heard of a river that looks like plantnoobdude's tank. Not even the relatively species rich karst ones.
Also I sometimes wonder if even daily dosing of nutrients cannot be compared to the constant run-through of new replenished water, if it is quite different feeling to the plant, and that maybe this is why "nature can get away with dosing so little". In other words the amount is low but the availability is near constant.
But I shouldnt derail @plantnoobdude 's journal so I will leave it at this 😁
plantnoobdude
Member
Yayyy
I see I see. My eyes are wide open to spot any signs deficiency.
That is true. Quite interesting haha.
I have no problem with daily dosing.
very good point, nature’s plants often look very uhmmm natural.
I really don’t mind, in fact I find it quite interesting!
KirstyF
Member
plantnoobdude
Member
All things considered things aren’t going too bad.
Hard to see on the picture, I hope im very wrong but is there the start of some BGA on the leaves midway on Pantanal?
Or hopefully just thicc green dust algae
plantnoobdude
Member
I’m not sure if it’s bga. I thinks it’s just fluffy green algae. It doesn’t smell of much.
Wouldn’t cyano usually attack substrate? Near the glass, anyway, there’s none against the glass.
Cyano should stink very aggressively foresty/boggy. Like too much / in a bad way. Cyano can sometimes grow on plants if they do very poorly. I checked some of the older pics where the hue is different, looks more like very well fed GDA 😁👍
Freshflora
Member
Those toninas are some thick boys 
plantnoobdude
Member
Very easy plants😁 never complain about dosing.Those toninas are some thick boys
plantnoobdude
Member
Guess what happened after changing to sand? Bacterial bloom plus green water lol. System reset basically.
Got some new plants, a syn and crypt nurii rosen maiden.
Actually considering getting the sand pots out because the quinquangulare and blood vomit are growing fairly well outside in sand.
The hacked down ammannia are making some tiny side shoots which should grow in well, not sure how they’ll do in sand, but excited to see. It really is my favourite plant so if it doesn’t do too well it’ll be put in a pot of soil because I know I can grow it in soil consistently.
Interestingly, some of my Pantanal converted back to the fine flowery leaves from the ugly “emmersed“ form. All in all the Pantanal are doing pretty well.
Even after a weeks shipping delays by Royal Mail, the plants are doing pretty well. Thanks to @Roland !
Got some new plants, a syn and crypt nurii rosen maiden.
Actually considering getting the sand pots out because the quinquangulare and blood vomit are growing fairly well outside in sand.
The hacked down ammannia are making some tiny side shoots which should grow in well, not sure how they’ll do in sand, but excited to see. It really is my favourite plant so if it doesn’t do too well it’ll be put in a pot of soil because I know I can grow it in soil consistently.
Interestingly, some of my Pantanal converted back to the fine flowery leaves from the ugly “emmersed“ form. All in all the Pantanal are doing pretty well.
Even after a weeks shipping delays by Royal Mail, the plants are doing pretty well. Thanks to @Roland !
