Palmfiber Peat soaked in Chemicult as a substrate.

Best is to get some planting tweezers if you plant in PFP. Works great. The capping doesn't have to be too thick - even 2cm would suffice but would be uncovered easier.

 

The cap was originally about 3cm back and 2cm front. But with water currents having over time leveled everything, it's probably thicker in front and too thin in the back now.

I had planting tweezers long ago, think our stoep-k@kkertjie found it and chewed it. Long gone now.

Prof, you mentioned I should have replaced the pfp by now. Did you mean drain the tank, scoop the cap and chuck the pfp and start from scratch?

Sent from my iClone S2

 

Hi Ferryman,

In the tank in which those crypts were growing, the pfp was two years old and I decided to replace it, because I thought that it was maybe getting too compact and that it may have had an influence on root development. The plants were growing well in the tank in general. I also wanted to check on the root growth after two years because of the many comments that are made about pfp and that I could offer some answers. Well, you can see that there was actually no real reason to replace the pfp because the root growth was actually fine, and if it is fine it means that the substrate was not going anaerobic (not allowing oxygen into the medium).

If you would replace the pfp in a tank, then I would simply scoop out the whole medium into buckets, put the buckets on your lawn, and with a hosepipe, I would spray strongly into the buckets below the water surface. You will find that the pfp will be suspended in the water and overflow with the water whilst the gravel will remain at the bottom of the bucket because it is heavier. Sounds like a big job, but the pfp can be separated from the gravel in this way quite easily. In this way you can remove all the pfp but keep your gravel and then you can replace the pfp with new pfp to which the Nutrifeed/Chemicult has been added.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

When I bought another TASA member's fluorite I sadly also inherited his MTS, I sometimes wonder if they even bother to dig through the pfp or if they just stay in the fluorite layer... I'm not sure I'll ever really know.

I currently only have one tank, so I think I'll keep the setup as is and just make sure I dig up my old dosing regimens and start doing water column dosing.

Thanks for the input prof. And for the follow up pics on how your plants are getting along.

I'm off to buy a wide base gravel vac

Sent from my iClone Galaxy S2

 

Hi Dirk

Is there a life span to the Chemicult in the PFP in other words what would be the longest one could leave the substrate before having to do a total re-scape? Also does the PFP ever go sour or off if it becomes anaerobic?

Regards

Jason

 

Can you overdose on the chemicult if you add too much when you first soak the palm fibre peat?
(What's the risk/disadvantages of adding too much)

Thanks

 

It has nitrogen in the form of ammonia. So, if you add too much you risk killing your fish :worried:

 

Ok, that is an excellent reason not to overdose Thanks!

 

This is my pfp setup

 

Hi guys I'm new 2 TASA
Jus completed readings dis thread n man it is really gr8 da way evrything is explained in such detail it makes me want 2 set up a larger plantd tank
Sum gr8 stuff guys

Kind reguards