I'm not totally opposed to that. What do you suggest? If they're already getting nutrients in the water column, do they need more from the substrate? On May 19, 2008, at 2:28 PM, Shango Los wrote: > > 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 _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member