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JamesC's 200 litre Akadama journal

Everything is growing nicely at the mo. But something is eating my Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia' that I have just brought :twisted: Just wondering if the shrimps are a bit hungry and have decided it is rather tasty.

What has surprised me is how clear the water is. Never had it this clear when I just used silica sand

Thanks for the interest.
James
 
James, hows it going now? Just wondering, Ive got hard oxfordshire water, could I just soak the akadam in that for a few weeks to sort out any potential changes in the KH before adding it to the tank. Ive got soft water fish and don't really want the GH to rise. Or could I for that matter just soak it is ex-tank water so that it stabilises itself to the water chem of the tank say over a few weeks?

Cheers

Sam
 
Re:

Tourney said:
Looks great James, very healthy. I've been in touch with the guy you recommended to me about the Akadama, and he will ship a 10kg bag to me for £14 all in. Not a bad price for mail order, cheapest i've found so far. Thanks for the link.

There is another online bonzai shop where you can get £9 for a 15l bag and the nice thing is that it's even better if you buy 2 bags of it because the postage remain the same at 7 quid. If you buy more than 2 bags then the postage starts increasing exponentially.

http://www.herons.co.uk/prod6.asp?prod_ ... g=&offset=
 
Sam,

I'm sure just soaking it in hard water will be fine, just not quite as effective as adding GH salts. Water changes in the first couple of weeks will help loads as well at keeping KH stable.

Tank is going great and I'm really happy with everything so far. When I get some time I'll post up more.

Thanks
James
 
Great journal!!! Thanks for sharing!

I was thinking whether it would make sense to soak the substrate in PMDD. If I understand the theory correctly this way it would pick up some Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Co.

Also, is there any substrate capable of binding P ?
 
Something always eats my Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia' , so have given up growing this specimen.

Not sure if it's the otto's, flying fox's or trumpet snails. :?
 
could you tell me the dimensions of your tank james? im trying to work out how much i would need for my own, thanks
 
Yes, the 10kg or 14 litre. Because we know the volume of the bag it's a fairly straight forward calculation to work out the volume of substrate required and therefore the number of bags.

Thanks
James
 
I like the akadama, plants looking very healthy, looking forward to the next update with some photos :)
Something to consider when I need to change my gravel, will this place a lot of amonnia on the tank like the ADA soil does?
Safe to change it while fish in the tank?
 
Garuf said:
Any updates? How has the tank coped with dosing urea?
I'll get some photo's done soon, though I'm a plant grower rather than an aquascaper so my tanks reflect that. Didn't really notice any difference when dosing urea so have now stopped and gone to an EI modified dosing method.

Out of interest I've been growing some UG (Utricularia Graminifolia) in my small Akadama test tank which is now growing like mad, but can't seem to reproduce the same results in my main 200 litre tank. I have seen some reports that it doesn't like strong light and also prefers leanly dosed tanks which may explain something. Now that I have got loads to play with I may try it again in the 200 litre in some of the more shaded parts.

Thanks for the interest.
James
 
From what I've read about terrestrial carnivarous plants, they hate fertilizers and adding them can kill the plants. So it doesn't surprise me really that UG prefers a lean tank.
 
JamesC's come back please.
Have u algae ?
Akadama is out ? u prefer now ADA aquasoil ?
News please!
 
belgarionp said:
JamesC's come back please.
Have u algae ?
Akadama is out ? u prefer now ADA aquasoil ?
News please!
Hi, I'm still here. Nothing much to report except nothing much has changed. The Akadama is holding up well with quite frequent replanting of stems. Algae is almost none existent except for a a small bit that grows on the glass and needs scraping off every week or two. The only thing I now do is to add some Osmocote to the Akadama to help provide some nutrients. This is the one I use as it comes in a form that I can push down into the substrate similar to root tabs - http://www.gardendirect.co.uk/miraclegro-controlled-release-plant-food-tablets-33-x-5g-tablet-p-1620

I do prefer ADA AS as a substrate but I don't like the cost of it which is why I opt for the Akadama which gives me excellent results.

James
 
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