It would be a bit of a hassle but you could always put something healthy UNDER the inert substrate. -----Original Message----- From: gsas-member-bounces@thekrib.com [mailto:gsas-member-bounces@thekrib.com] On Behalf Of Laurel Larsen Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 2:19 PM To: Greater Seattle Aquarium Society member chat Subject: [GSAS-Member] Am I doing the right thing with Vals? I got some Vallisneria at the auction, and so far my mbuna either haven't figured out that it makes a tasty snack, or they're not eating it fast enough for me to notice. I'll start with telling you that I'm a complete plant noob. I have an inert substrate(3m Colorquartz) that I have them planted in, and I'm dosing the tank with excel every day or every other day if I don't remember. I also have been dosing it with Flourish twice a week. I noticed a couple days ago that some of the leaves appear to be turning slightly transparent. They might have been this way beforehand, and I didn't notice it, regardless, should I be doing something to combat this? Should I be adding anything else to the water? It's buffered pretty heavily(with a premixed buffer as well as a bunch of aragonite substrate in my filter) and has Malawi GH boosters as well which I believe is calcium and some other stuff. The tank's levels(of stuff I have test kits for) are - pH - 8.0 Amm. - 0 NitrIte - 0 NitrAte - >5, <20 KH - 15º GH - 15º Phosphates I haven't tested in a while, but they're fairly low Thanks for the input, after having such bad luck with Anubias, I wan to make sure I'm doing this correctly, but I'm not willing to switch out for an enriched substrate, the colorquartz is too perfect for my mbuna. Here's a shot of the tank on thursday http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/Laurelthequeen/Fish%20Tank/?action=vi ew¤t=DSCF5423.jpg _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member