planted tank experiment

[deddy89]

i got the planted tank bug

i bought greens-mix multi purpose top soil from lowes, it doesn't have any chemicals listed on the bag only says something about being local.
10000K , 6x Actinic led light
and a pea gravel dirt cap
20 gallon tall tank


i filled the tank slowly last night, its still a little cloudy but its seems to be settling pretty quickly. i threw in a a random plant i had floating in a BN breeding tank


anybody have an tips or tricks?

 

[Lilydog]

I found after several months the pH would start to drop. This seems to happen right about the time the soil starts to get good and anaerobic & spitting out co2. My understanding is a lot of h2so4 is also produced. Constantly buffering the pH is a pain in the butt. The way I resolved this was by putting in an aragonite layer on the very bottom under the soil. The aragonite seems to neutralize the acidifying effect of the h2so4 down under the gravel. Keeping the arragonite underneath everything prevented it from increasing pH, which is the problem I found putting calcium carbonate things like shells or dead coral inside the tank itself afterward. This is my favorite way to do plant tanks for many years. Did you have any specific questions?
-rob aka lily dog

 

[deddy89]

I found after several months the pH would start to drop. This seems to happen right about the time the soil starts to get good and anaerobic & spitting out co2. My understanding is a lot of h2so4 is also produced. Constantly buffering the pH is a pain in the butt. The way I resolved this was by putting in an aragonite layer on the very bottom under the soil. The aragonite seems to neutralize the acidifying effect of the h2so4 down under the gravel. Keeping the arragonite underneath everything prevented it from increasing pH, which is the problem I found putting calcium carbonate things like shells or dead coral inside the tank itself afterward. This is my favorite way to do plant tanks for many years. Did you have any specific questions?
-rob aka lily dog

thats interesting, ill have to keep that in mind maybe ill pull it out out at try that out!
no specific questions yet, just kinda trial and error at this point