Westland aquatic compost

[dan4x4]

Just want to say I'm about 2 months into using this aquatic compost and I have already seeing potassium deficiency. I went an Inch thick on the substrate.

I'm over dosing my tropica ferts currently. Waiting for EI dry ferts to be delivered so I can try and address the problem.

However I wanted to mention that I have used John Innes no3 previously and it was about a year before I noticed any deficiency. So I would say using potting mix is better. Mind you I have managed to grow swords this time around.

Anyone thinking about using John Innes, all I would say is to go generous on the bone meal. John Innes is almost black, whereas Westland aquatic compost is almost sandy with what I suspect is lime.

My water is very soft according to water supplier website. Just thought I'd share my findings.

 

[dean]

How's it going now ?
So you used 100% aquatic soil not the 50:50 mix with Irish moss peat as recommended on here ?


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[dan4x4]

Yeah I actually got the peat moss, however I forgot to use it.

I added red clay balls to the substrate also.

Everything is growing. First couple months went fine.

However I have some kind of problem. I started dosing tropical specialised and premium ferts as directed on the bottle. The problem being holes in the leaves of every plant in there. Other than the cranium calastratum & pogostemon gayi.

So first change I made was to dose EI. I'm doing full EI dosing on a daily basis. I got the dry ferts from aquarium plant food.co.uk.

I dosed this for a while however holes are still in the plant leaves. some leaves had a slow death. Every plant still growing however, i.e. sagitarria sending out runners, crypts still making new leaves. Unfortunately I lost my red tiger lotus completed.

Now after dosing EI for months I came on here and posted the problem.. i got advice to increase water changes and also add k2so4. My life runs slow sorry excuse but i eventually started dosing the k2s04. I have read online I am to add approx 10 grams to the macro solution. For now i just added a sprinkle into the tank after a water change.

I had also increased lighting period by an extra hour a day from 8am-12pm off for 5 hours till 5 pm then back on at 5pm until 10pm ( 4-5-5). I observed an increase in growth rate after doing this.

I have 10x tiger barbs, snail population is "healthy" I wouldn't say theres too many. Yjere are some quite big ones too. I also have 6x red sakura (cherry shrimp).

No problems with algae. I did notice we had some sun on the tank on an evening for couple days, not much about 1-2 hours a day and I noticed green algae starting to grow on the glass. I cleaned it off. shut the blinds to the sun on an evening.

I have very soft water.

So far I'd say it definitely doesn't leach as much as john innes. Maybe if i started dosing EI from the start rather than once I started to see some kind of problem then I may of had better luck.

I also run a good flow in the tank. 500lph from jewel pump and 500lph from jecod propellor pump. The jecod provides my surface agitation in the hope to increase oxygen/co2 in the water.