• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Thoughts on nutribase and sand for low tech

F

fz1ben

Member
Joined
24 May 2013
Messages
99
Hi all
I'm setting up a small planted nano(superfish scaper 45) for my 7 year old son. He's showing an amazing intrest in the hobby especially the plants which is great and it gives me a pass to set up another freshwater water tank.

I'm pretty set with all aspects of the set up, I'm definitely going the low tech route as already have 2 sps dominated reef tanks to look after. However that being said I'm a little unsure of which substrate to go for. I'm not keen on the aesthetics of aquasoil and maybe over kill in low tech? My local shop has colombo nutribase in stock which sounds good but I have no experience with this product so a little unsure. Would the nutribase capped with something inert like sand and fine gravel be a good choice for easy low tech plants? If not any other suggestions would be great?

Thanks
Ben
 
He also has very soft water and adds a lot of plants.

He also uses scaper tanks, filters and lights which you already have.
 
Yes I watched alot of his videos but didn't notice him using nutribase, ill have another look over them. I can make the water parameters to suit ad I have around 600l of Ro on hand at all time, was going to use 70/30 ro to tap. I'm planning on loads of plants and fast growing easy stems as well as plenty of floating plants. What sort of depth of nutribase would you aim for?
 
This isn't directly answering your question, but if you're ever unsure how many KG's of soil/sand etc to buy, figure out roughly how many cm of depth you want, then there is a simple equation:

Tank length x tank width x desired substrate depth /1000

I'll give you an example for a standard ADA 60P tank (60x30x36) with an average of 8cm of substrate front to back.

60x3x8 = 14,400 /1000 = 14.4KG of soil

Hope that helps a wee bit.
 
Maf 2500 said:
That is probably fairly accurate for porous clay based aquasoils and the like, but for sand I believe you would have to multiply the answer by a factor of 1.5-1.6 to allow for the greater density of sand.
Click to expand...

That’s a good point and something I didn’t take into consideration 🙂
 
I don't think nutribase is a very good idea. It doesn't have any macros other than potassium as far as I can tell, though they won't actually share the composition. Very dodgy.

MD makes some cool projects, but he's sponsored by all these snake oil salesmen. API with their horrible fert and useless root tabs, Colombo (nutribase)... I suspect his success is more to do with the pond soil he adds than anything else. He will also break down the tank before the soil has a chance to deplete so the api fert lacking most useful nutrients won't become an issue.

I've had great success with a layered approach. Lava rock or something porous to add volume, tropica substrate (not aquasoil), though pond soil would work just as well I assume, optional aquasoil then a thick sand cap. Having lots of macros in the substrate means you don't have to fertilise much, which helps a lot with algae in low tech.
 
Whatever planting soil you decide on, MD does have the useful idea of putting it in fine mesh bags first. I've done this with my 240 litre tank, covered them with sand, and find it eliminates messiness when planting and replanting.
 
I think MDs sponsers ,2 maybe 3, are reputable companys , the fact that he is honest with the methods he uses proves this IMO
 
I am going to go down the MD route when I reset in a month or so. I'll put it in the journals section.

Fir me it's just another trial, I've done the aquasoil thing. Now it's sand+
 
Miniandy said:
I am going to go down the MD route when I reset in a month or so. I'll put it in the journals section.

Fir me it's just another trial, I've done the aquasoil thing. Now it's sand+
Click to expand...
Look forward to your results. I'm currently dark starting a small scaper 60 with nutibase capped with pool filter sand. I'm a novice and this is only my second tank and is also experimental. I will be running CO2 on this tank too! My first tank is low tech and all I used was Fluval stratum and I initially had hude algae problems and I'm still dealing with cyano almost a year later. Although the plant growth is reasonably good I always feel the plants are surviving rather than thriving. Mostly slow growing crypts and anubius with some rotala, a sword and some hygrophila polysperma rosanervig. I can't wait to get started with the planting!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top