Soil Substrate

Alright.... My tank I dont really consider NPT, but pretty close, I used soil as a base layer, then some aragonite, and finally gravel on top of it all.... anyway, MY TANK FLOURISHES! I would highly recommend to everyone that wants to start a planted tank..... honestly, its crazy how much growth Ive had in 2-3 weeks.... INSANE!

Its not just the growth, but plants seem to multiple more.... for example, all my ludiwiga trimmings I put in there are branchin out to become like 3 different stems.... And, I barely have any lights... just runnin watever cheap florecent light that comes with a 20gal. I will post some pictures for the disbelivers, but wow! I feel like a gardening ninja masta! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

exacly what kind of soil?

any. got mine from fred meyer..... "cory" wrote a whole thing on NPT, in the diary section... think he has pictures of the soil he used.... using soil is like the whole Natural planted tank tech by dr walsted (think thats her name)... except I use filters, c02, and water changes... where as the NPT tech, doesnt.

cool thanks

I know there is allot of additions, but you can tell the amount of growth from the original plants.... also, See how many times the ludwiga has split to branch off (circled), as well as sprouted two new stems from the ground (picture #3), this has never happened in my other planted tanks..... So, definetly SOIL is the way to go!!! gotta try it!

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have you ever used floralite or are you using that as well as soil

I use flourite in my 55gal planted tank.... there is some pictures of the growth in that one under (my first planted tank)... pretty impressive... The soil is beating it by far though

no flourite in the soil tank.... its just soil, then think sprinkled aragonite (SW substrate), and lots of brown gravel (from walmart) on top.

ok ill be doing onje of the 30gals in my tear this way time to order the book from this dr huh?

Here is the pic... shows the substrate layers...

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I havent read the book, just tons of stuff online about it.... but I heard there is great bunch of info in it.... You could get away with just readin corys diary, or shoot me a PM, I can walk ya threw it....

i cant wait to give this a shot do you think its worth it to redo my 55 planted? this would intale moving all my stock in it as well!?. how long dose it take to cycle? with the dirt?

will do latter tonight

Honestly, after witnessing the growth I got from the soil.... I was almost gonna redo my 55gal planted.... lol, the only thing that is stoppin me is I got no home for the discus while it cycles....

As for cycleing... well, I didnt have much of a cycle at all in the 20gal, not sayin you wouldnt though.... but I do have a nitrite reading, cant seem to get rid of it, amd its been 3-4weeks. I know it says something in the book about false positives on ammonia and nitrite cause of the soil.... but like I said, I havent read it... Man, Now I want it too. lol

Please keep me updated on how well your stuff goes, Cory has been doin great keepin up on his tank.... his plants even pearl (get so happy they cry o2 bubbles), he got a picture of them doin it!

Nice job! Very interesting how the layers stay like that. I imagine if I tried it with my bad luck dealing with plants, I'd have a big muddy mess on my hands.

Posting an after picture.... added a few more clippings from my other tank... but do you see the growth! ITS INSANE... less than 1 month people!! WTF .... the coolest thing is I have the stupid light that comes with 20gal tanks on there... nothing fancy.... no fertilizers.... nothing.... and just look at the insane growth in 1 month!!! I wish I wouldve done this with my 55gal... seriously.

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Just a FYI, you're gassing off your CO2, you're injecting with that hang on back filter.

thats why I was so surprised by the amount of growth i am still getting... its incredible!!