Re: [AGA-Member] Possibilities of Sozo Haishoku

[roger@spinn.net]

I have tanks (and substrates) that are as much as 18 years old.  I guess that
those substrates should be just bursting at the seams with fertility.  Oddly,
they don't seem to be.  I still have to fertilize to avoid nutrient deficiency
symptoms.  The only way to create or maintain fertility in a substrate without
adding chemical fertilizers is to make your food additions balance or exceed
the plant growth in the system.  Normally that means keeping a large 
population
of adult fish or a low-production plant community or both.

High-growth plant communities are pretty popular these days, and most of us
don't keep real large populations of adult fish in their planted tanks.  For
the common case substrates *should* lose fertility over time, not gain it.

Troy, I'm pleased to hear about your success with your aquariums.  It's an
interesting approach to aquarium keeping, but it is only one approach.  Mr.
Amano's recommendations and products are appropriate for high-growth 
tanks.  He
probably did not have your tanks or your methods in mind when he recommended
changing the substrate.


Roger Miller

Quoting Troy E Hendrickson <t_hendrickson@qwest.net>:

> The main source of nutrients in your substrate are the result of bacteria,
> both aerobic and anaerobic, breaking down waste, therefore they are
> replenished if your substrate is capable of supporting the process, so I
> would have to disagree with you in part. Some substrates may deteriorate,
> others get better.
>
> I'm neither a perfectionist nor an artist, but I know that science is as
> much a part of this hobby as is technique, and I certainly haven't seen
> anything I would call deterioration in my tanks that would make me want to
> destroy a balanced system that I have worked hard to achieve, and the
> science supports my "technique" as it does anything Amano does.
>
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