Comparing substrates - please help with a protocol ...

I sundry mine - you have to work quickly when putting them into the water as they begin melting at once.

 

Interesting the frozen pellets seem to be a better option then ...

 

Yup. Thats the stuff. Supposed to last 6 months. I've haven't kept a planted tank that long yet.

 

@f-fish,you can go with glass jars,water volume would have no impact and filtration unnecessary,you're not going to have any fish in there.What I would do is do regular ph,ammonia,phosphates,nitrite,nitrate,gh and kh tests because some of these subs. will leach ammonia and phosphates and will affect water hardness.
The test plant also needs consideration,Vallis as a species is a hard water plant,meaning it evolved to grow well in water that is alkaline.How well will it grow in softer,more acidic water?Even if the substrate is more nutritious?
I see you have a picture of the subs. you're going to use,why not list them?I can see at least one bag I don't recognize.

 

OK .. here goes

ADA - aquasoil
JBL - proflora
Sera - floredepot
Tetraplant - CompleteSubstrate
Seachem - Fluorite
Macro Aqua - Energy Nutrients soil for plant

Point taken on the vallis I shall ponder ...

 

Just had a thought, what about eco-complete (dunno if u mentioned that) plant substrate and onyx sand. Just a thought.

 

found the containers ...

3 sizes

1) 3l caterer jar - 110mm mouth (to be used for isolated water column testing) 5x
2) small 67ml ointment jar (to be used to check deterioration over a long time) 12x
3) rectangle tub 110mm x 80mm x 80mm (to be used for planting container - should allow for 2 inch substrate depth) 20

got some organic potting soil, earthworm castings, fresh block of potters clay

no luck on Canadian peat moss or volcanic ash / rock or guanasol fertz.


Have not done any LFS crawls so no extra root tabs or stuff at this stage.

Later Ferdie

 

Cool tHing about canadian peat is that it doesnt stain the water. Hmmm can send you a bag. Its very light?

 

ah wait a minute ....

is this Canadian peat moss ?




Still have a bag of this stuff from the first time I ever did lucky13 ..

 

it looks like very fine coconut shell shaVINGS

 

usually get it at the reptile side of the shops

 

lol - thanks, here I have been looking at the nursery and all they want to sell me is PFP ... thanks will see if I can get some today.

 

F fish any decent nursery will stock canadian peat

 

Still need to find a few bits ...
But the idea total 4cm substrate or max 400g per tub. If the substrate needs to be capped then that will be 200g of uncapped substrate and the rest capped to 4cm or total of 400g.



Can you name the content of each of these bottles ? ... Hint think substrate ..

Later Ferdie

 

@f-fish, I am looking forward to seeing the results here short of a full test with water parameters this will be very interesting...

 

Nice experiment. For time intervals, I would say every month for the next 6 or so.

 

Perfect ... got some this afternoon ... from a LPS, the 3 the plant people want to sell me peat with fish and seaweed - eish ..

 

I caved, did some clippings from my propagation tank ... (do not think any will survive but hey live and learn)

Lets see if I can get this done before my coffee is cold ;-)



Wet down, all planting happened in wet substrate.



Ok all done .. no clue on how I will compare the results - maybe it is obvious, the notion of plant mass weight is out the window. (coffee was getting cold)




All done ... hmmm cold coffee

Later Ferdie

 

Best growth takes the cake?

 

Yeah .. I covered the tank with shade cloth, so I will refrain from looking for a few weeks ... I expect a few things to happen

1) algea (but it is part of a much bigger water system) so maybe not
2) escape artists ... plant that want to be free from the restraints of a substrate (during drop down only the ADA lost a clipping or two, planted it back)
3) nothing - dead plants (since all bar the vallis is from CO2 rich, stable temp ada tank) sunlight might just melt the lot
4) ITS A FOREST ... now that would be nice.

remember I have 4 3l glass jars for the substrates that shows the most promise in the next few weeks. These will then be own water column.

Later Ferdie