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

["Amit Brucker" <amitb@gtek.co.il>]

Steve,
Can you elaborate a bit on this:
"....Feeding N at the roots can reduce the
amount of extra trimming you have to do on stem plants, which can grow
like weeds if you are feeding N in the water heavily. What I mean is you
can slack off the hydroponic N dosing and still keep that favourite
centre-piece plant flourishing."

I really enjoyed reading your reply ;-)

Amit Brucker
www.plantica.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Pushak" <teban@powersonic.bc.ca>
To: <aga-member@thekrib.com>
Cc: "APD" <aquatic-plants@actwin.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 3:17 AM
Subject: RE: [AGA Member] old soil substrate from a planted tank


> 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. The soil provides abundant phosphates, iron &
> trace minerals for years but is not a good long term source of nitrogen.
> As Thomas Barr has pointed out, dosing nitrates regularly & keeping CO2
> levels high is an excellent way to have a highly productive tank. Soil
> also supplies CO2 for several months as the organic matter decays but
> this CO2 production declines over several months too so CO2
> fertilization becomes more important, especially in "high" light tanks.
> You can consider anything over 1.5 watts/gal to be in the high light
> category IMHO. Others may disagree on that last point. :-)
> 
> I continue to use soil+peat+micronized iron substrates even though they
> tend to be quite messy, and somewhat prone to algae problems. But they
> usually produce excellent results especially with Crypts. Peat seems to
> counteract some algae problems, possibly by releasing humic acids into
> the water. My theory on the micronized iron is that the reduced soluble
> iron in the substrate reacts with reduced phosphates to precipitate
> them, thereby keeping the P available only in the anaerobic reducing
> areas of the substrate where they are preferentially available to rooted
> plants.
> 
> I also like to feed the roots with Osmocote (ammonium-nitrate) inside
> clay balls for those plants that I want bigger such as a Black Sword,
> Lace plant or other Aponogeton. Feeding N at the roots can reduce the
> amount of extra trimming you have to do on stem plants, which can grow
> like weeds if you are feeding N in the water heavily. What I mean is you
> can slack off the hydroponic N dosing and still keep that favourite
> centre-piece plant flourishing.
> 
> Is heavy growth a problem with most folks? Or am I just
> complaining/bragging? :-P
> 
> Steve P
> 
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