Re: profile as substrate

["John N. Alegre" <listhub@libros.andante.mn.org>]

I have been around these bases myself, trying various soil additives and then
testing water.  To this date, Florite is the only substance I have found that
does the plant thing without increasing General Hardness.  Yes, VERY expensive.

One solution I have found is to use plant baskets on a bare bottom or black sand
bottom tank.  Put the Florite in the basket.  Plants grow like crazy with very
little investment in Florite.  If concerned hide the basket with driftwood or
inert rocks.

john

On 24-Apr-01 Al Smith wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mopargrrl" <mopargrrl@mindspring.com>
> To: <apisto@listbox.com>
> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 8:11 PM
> Subject: Re: profile as substrate
> 
> 
>> Al,
>>
>> I just started experimenting with Profile. After a not-so-scientific test
>> here at home, i found that it significantly raised the general hardness of
>> my water, but not the carbonate hardness. So fine for plants, but not
>> so good for most Apistos, or my new dwarf Pikes.
>>
>> Flourite is really the way to go, but terribly expensive. Supposedly
>> there is an Aquatic Plant Soil made by Schultz, but i have only seen
>> it once. The aquatic plant soil is supposed to be totally inert. On the
>> Aquatic Plants Digest several folks have reported raised hardness
>> levels in tanks with the Profile Clay Soil Conditioner.
>>
>> I recently set up and planted a tank with the Clay Soil Conditioner.
>> Our water is very soft here straight out of the tap, about 35 ppm KH
>> and less than 20 ppm GH. In my little test i found that the GH went
>> up to 180 ppm, while the KH remained stable. I'll test this newly
>> setup tank and see what the levels are.
>>
>> later,
>> christine
>> danville, CA
>>
> 
> 
> 
> The aquatic planting soil is suppose to be the same stuff as the soil
> conditioner..the soil conditioner on the Shcultz page says it is inert
> also..also I just used a condutivity meter not a reagent kit...the stuff
> looks nice in the tank....but changing the water chemistry is not
> good.....just looking for something simple to grow some of the easy
> plants....looking for ideas from others who grow plants in soft water and do
> not go the super substrate method..if there is such a way...
> 
> AL
> 
> 
> 
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----------------------------------
E-Mail: John N. Alegre <listhub@libros.andante.mn.org>
Date: 24-Apr-01
Time: 11:17:21

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