Improving ADA Aquasoil

[Patrick76]

I am planning to use ADA aquasoil in my tank. Does it contains any organic matter? Will it be better if I add some soil/peat underneath the substrate? I am concern about peat as I am worry that it will lower the pH further.

Anyone has experience?

[bennyc]

I believe ADA has a small amount of organic matter. The soil is fomulated to kick start the aquatic plant growth.
May i know why do you want to use peat? Just use the aquasoil on its own is sufficient.
ADA is formulated to lower ph slightly, according to its manual, its organic matter (humic acid) will be released into the water. This is benefitical to plants and fauna.

[Patrick76]

I plan to use peat to act as a organic matter in the substrate. Since you mentioned that it already has organic matter then I guess adding in peat is useless.

What about adding coral chips to buffer the pH?

[cherabin]

I wouldn't add in anything at all. ADA aquasoil by itself is as good as it gets.

[David Moses Heng]

Additives into the aquasoil may adulterate the performance of the soil. Best is to not mix anything with it.

[Patrick76]

I intend to use either aquasoil or cocopeat mixed wtih base fertilizer and top up with a layer of lapis sand as recommended by Juggler.

I have been reading Diana Walstad book and it seems like organic matter is an important source of carbon for tanks without CO2. However, I understand that there should not be too much organic matter as the demand for O2 will be very high.

My question is how do we strike a balance? Material like lignite/Leonardite seems to release carbon slowly which is ideal but not a lot of hobbyist in Singapore are using it.

[felix_fx2]

hello patrick, have you started the tank?

your light source will affect this type of tanks alot. careful with control there.

[Patrick76]

So far I have started 2 tanks, 1 for my sister and 1 for my wife in her office.

My sister's tank is a bit like roller coaster, one moment I heard that the some plants are dying and there are some aglae growth on the glass and next moment I heard that her plants are flourishing like nobody business.

As for my wife's tank, I used Christmas Moss as backdrop. The growth is very slow. I suspected that lighting might not be enough as I am only using a 7W PL lights over a 24 cm cube tank. one of the plants (I do not know what is the name of the plants) the leaves are turning yellow at the base. Again, it could be due to lights as the top leaves are green and growing. Her tank does not have any aglae at all and her colleagues even comment that the glass is very clean and ask her what she use to clean it. Hahahaha...

Both of the tanks I am using ADA Aquasoil. I am planning to start my third tank at home. For this tank, I am planning to experiment with a different substrate. I have read Diana Walstad book and will be very keen to start one with soil. I was also being inspired by Urban Aquaria who managed to grow HC successfully without using CO2.

[Urban Aquaria]

I think it'll be worth trying out different combinations of soil substrates and doing an experiment on it... perhaps 3-4 small nano tanks (time to buy a rack!), each with identical flora/fauna and lighting, but with different substrate combinations.

You could track and compare the tanks over a few weeks and months, and update the weekly progress in a forum thread. That would be very interesting!

[Patrick76]

How I wish I have the luxury of time and space.

Anyway, for my third tank, I am trying out earthworm casting (vermicompost). I read that this is very fertile and 100% organic. Now the problem is where to get it? In the worse case scenario, I might get some earthworm and decompose the food stuff on my own. I am thinking of mixing with cocopeat in a 1 part vermicompost to 3 parts cocopeat ratio and use it as my bottom substrate. Have anyone tried it before?

[Urban Aquaria]

How I wish I have the luxury of time and space.

Anyway, for my third tank, I am trying out earthworm casting (vermicompost). I read that this is very fertile and 100% organic. Now the problem is where to get it? In the worse case scenario, I might get some earthworm and decompose the food stuff on my own. I am thinking of mixing with cocopeat in a 1 part vermicompost to 3 parts cocopeat ratio and use it as my bottom substrate. Have anyone tried it before?

You could try getting them from the horticulture and plant nurseries, like the large ones along the stretch of thomson road (ie. Far East Flora, Fun's Flora etc)... if you are looking at gardening soil, those are the places to check out.

I visited that stretch of plant nurseries a few weeks ago and its like a shopping paradise for plant and gardening enthusiasts, they are like huge supermarkets for plants and planting equipment/materials.

With so much decomposing organic compounds in the substrate, the amount of ammonia constantly released would be very high, good for plants but would be tricky to balance for fishes and shrimps. Though if you were to create a dedicated plant-only tank, it would be ideal to test them out.

Btw, on the subject of earthworms, my post HC DSM tank still has earthworms burrowing around in the soil even 2+ months after flooding... if they are still doing their jobs of eating rotting plants and producing castings, then i guess its almost like having a 24/7 organic compound factory working inside the substrate too.

[Patrick76]

I just came back from Thomson Road. Ya, you are right! There are too many choices and it is available in rather big packet also. I guess 1 pack can share among 4-5 of us.

[Shadow]

I surprise there is still hobbyist in Singapore now a days doing DIY substrate . All the trouble and time spend probably worth more that the designer soil available from LFS, but then learning process is priceless . Keep up the good work and update us on the result

[felix_fx2]

How I wish I have the luxury of time and space.

Anyway, for my third tank, I am trying out earthworm casting (vermicompost). I read that this is very fertile and 100% organic. Now the problem is where to get it? In the worse case scenario, I might get some earthworm and decompose the food stuff on my own. I am thinking of mixing with cocopeat in a 1 part vermicompost to 3 parts cocopeat ratio and use it as my bottom substrate. Have anyone tried it before?

The you can try using a red bucket and throw in cocopeat or some gardening soil and throw in excess plants or vegetable that are cut (cabbage core and such.) then let earthworms do the job.
There are people who throw their excess frogbits/hortwort into pots for their gardening use.

I got a old canister that is doing that for my pots outside the flat. (every week i dump plants in)

[Patrick76]

I am reading up on vermicompost now. The worms do generate worm liquid which seems to be rich in nutrients. If we can dilute the liquid fertilizer and use it to dose our tank then it will save us money to constantly buy liquid fertilizer.

You can refer to the following website.

http://step929.wix.com/terracyclesg#...ts/worm-liquid

[li_gangyi]

If we can dilute the liquid fertilizer and use it to dose our tank then it will save us money to constantly buy liquid fertilizer.

Buying ferts as dry powders (CaNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4 etc.) is really cheap and lasts a long time. I doubt the effort put into keeping the compost going is justifiable, but hey, if you get it to work, I'm sure many here would like to see it.

[Patrick76]

Ya, I agree with you. I am using dry powders as my fertilizer now. The trouble is that I need to mix CaNO3 into stock solution and KH2PO4 plus K2SO4 into another bottle and not forgetting the trace elements as well. If it works for the worm liquid, it will be just dilute with water and add it in. For bigger tank, maybe it is possible to add it straight into the tank..

[AQMS]

interesting....... keep us updated..

[Urban Aquaria]

I guess the question with alternative fertilization methods is how they affect the water parameters (and subsequently the fauna) in an aquarium planted tank, as they are designed for gardening purposes rather than for aquarium environments.

It'll be great if you can try them out and test the parameters to see how it works in a planted tank... experiments and new discoveries are fun!

Btw, waste creation and management from fishes, shrimps, snails etc are also natural fertilizer sources for aquarium plants too. They process food and plant matter into waste in a chain, each of them breaks it down further into nutrients that plants can use... ie. fishes > shrimps/snails > micro-organisms in the substrate > bacterias.

For established planted tanks with a good mix of bio-load and regular feeding of varied foods, certain macro (and even micro) nutrients could be well supplied by the fauna and feed.

[Patrick76]

I finally found vermicompost selling at Hua Hng Trading Co Pte Ltd.

http://www.huahng.com.sg/

I see from their website that they do sell volcanic sand/soil. Thsi product seems to be rich in minerals. I am wondering if I can mix volcanic soil with vermicompost and form my base fertiltzer.

Anyone has knowledge on volcanic soil? I read that Eco-Complete is also a type of volcanic soil.