Re: [AGA Member] old soil substrate from a planted tank

[Richard Schiek <rschiek@pobox.com>]

Steve Pushak wrote:

On May 21, 2004, at 7:17 PM, Steve Pushak wrote:

> Richard Schiek asks
> > The old substrate had a rotting smell
> >   I assume that this is bad
>
> No its ok, the smell is quite normal for any substrate, particularly a
> soil substrate. The tank stopped being productive because you probably
> ran out of nutrients that had initially made it grow well. A soil
> substrate can supply a lot of nitrogen for several months and this 
> helps
> to support rapid growth. Unfortunately, the nitrogen often appears as
> ammonia, which can sometimes create a green water bloom. Nitrates are
> not as easily assimilated by unicellular algae but are readily used by
> aquatic plants. Often all you need to do is begin dosing nitrates and
> growth will begin anew.

Thanks! That fits with my experience.  For about a year this tank 
supported very lush growth, but with intermittent algae of all sorts.  
Then growth stalled and I learned about dosing Nitrogen and Phosphate.  
Things improved, but many plants still struggled (even plane old 
vallisineria).  Around this time bubbles would occasionally burp up 
from the substrate as well.  After a recent vacation where tank wasn't 
dosed for two weeks, algae had completely taken over.  So, I relented 
and decided to redo the tank.  Hopefully it will do better on its next 
incarnation.

Thanks,

Rich


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