Economical Planting Substrate

I will be moving soon into a new house. It has a very large basement and my fish room will be expanding There is also a 100ft by 50ft pond, spring fed that is 12 ft deep. Apparently there are sunfish (don't know what kind yet, haven't moved in), perch and bullhead.

I have used the commercial planting medium, laterite (the red stuff) with good success, but the thought of buying enough to plant a 90 gallon, two 55 gallons, a 30 gallon long and and ten 10 gallons makes my wallet cry uncle!

My girlfriends parents live on the shore of Lake Erie in Angola, south of Buffalo, NY. The cliffs are shale and slate. There is a large lense of really brittle gray shale, its almost like chalk in some places that seems to be physically very similar to the laterite (light-weight and brittle). I can collect a lot of it and break it down to have small enough grain size AND its free!!!. Does anyone think this would be good planting substrate? My only thought is that it may make the water a bit on the harder side. Before I took the time to get a bunch I was wondering if anyone had any experience using something similar to plant their tanks. Thanks.

One 55 gallon will house my spotted gar Garth (~8 in), a couple blue-spotted sunfish (yet to be obtained), and golden shiners for food. I have a great supply of shiners nearby.

The 30 gallon is for my grass pickerel Pete (~6in) and maybe another blue spot and shiners for food. We'll see how that works out LOL. Seeing the gar and pickerel side-by side reminds me of a WWII bomber and a new generation fighter jet.

The remaining 55 will house my tropicals and I will use the 90 to grow out the fry I cultivate in all the 10 gallon breedin set-ups. I've been breeding a few types of rainbows and barbs with fair success for a little while now with a passive approach. Keep the java moss thick on the whole bottom of the 10 and 15 gallons, fatten up the females for a while in those tanks, add the males, leave for two or three days then remove the fish to the next set-up. Hatch, feed with greenwater etc., repeat. It helps with the power bill!!! I would love add a couple pairs of pygmy sunfish in the not-to-distant future to start breeding natives. Maybe the bluespots will spawn too.

There is a large lense of really brittle gray shale, its almost like chalk in some places that seems to be physically very similar to the laterite (light-weight and brittle).

This could possibly be limestone. Shales and siltstones are often indistinguishable from limestone, and they are easily confused. Sometimes the only way to tell the difference is to drop a couple of drops of acid on it and see if it reacts.

Busting up all that rock seems like a lot of work to me.

I would recommend using soil in your tanks, covered by pea gravel (or smaller), assuming that none of your fish are diggers. This is about as cheap as it gets. You can also use dirt right from your yard (free!).

In addition, soil is an excellent medium for growing aquatics.

i usually add soil to my tanks but the first thing i put in there is a thin layer of Green Moss. you can pick it up at stores such as Home Depot or Walmart. it will run you about 3.50 a bag. From my experience i covered the bottom of 3 ten gallon tanks with about one bag.

I used eco-complete for the bottom layer and then Arkansas pea gravel for 2 inches. Not all that expensive and the plants love it. For rocks I combed the mountain for inert material including white and rose quartz.

i usually add soil to my tanks but the first thing i put in there is a thin layer of Green Moss. you can pick it up at stores such as Home Depot or Walmart. it will run you about 3.50 a bag. From my experience i covered the bottom of 3 ten gallon tanks with about one bag.

I hadn't even thought about using soil. I could try a couple different things in the ten gallons and see what works best I suppose, that would be the "scientific" thing to do. When I last set up my main planted tank I used moss, as described above, underneath the planting medium in large plastic pots (getting ready for the move). It made a very strong hydrogen sulfide odor when I removed them from the tank once at ont point. I don't know if this was typical of using the moss (sphagnum?) as you described but is the anerobic condition underlying the planteded area what is beneficial to the plants?

You might want to read this article I wrote for AC Scott:

http://www.farmertod...e_fish_tank.pdf (1.1 mb)

It'll at least get you started. I'm also in process of getting my presentation from the Convention up online. Once that happens, I'll have a lot of video and so forth that'll help illustrate how I've walked through this process already (the science thing).

No promises on delivery though. I just started overhauling my site, so there's a lot of work to get done, and I continue to generate more content since it's still field season.

Todd

Thanks Todd, there's a ton of great info in there! I'll keep you updated on my progress. I'll start moving tanks in two weeks or so. I have enough tanks to house the fish while I set up "shop". I have all of the tanks I own full of water with at least an airstone and some rosey reds so I can save as much cycled water as possible for the new set-ups. I'm going off of city supply to well water, and even though its good water without chlorine I am concerned about the differences in mineral contents stressing the fish out at first. This will be fun.

I wasn't going to go crazy with the lighting. I was planning on getting a whole bunch of single or double bulb 4ft flourescent shop lights (single strip so I could offset the bulbs farther apart). I have had success with the "planting" or "aquarium" bulbs available at home depot for both aquarium and terrestrial plants. Those don't break the bank too bad, I'll need a whole bunch for what I am planning. Any suggestions for a large lighting set-up?

Any suggestions for a large lighting set-up?

For a 90 or 55 you can certainly get away with 40 watt lamps. And yeah, the GE or Philips daylights are fine. Some people don't like the color of one or the other, but that's really the only complaint. If I were going to do anything differently, I might go with power compacts on the 90, but it's not necessary. I use halides on my 100 gallon, wouldn't be a problem on your 90.

When I do 40 watt, I like to put an aquarium plastic strip in front to match the grain of the tank plastic and wood, and then stick 1 or 2 dual light strips (like the $12 kind) behind it. On the 90, I would fit in 5 lamps. I use a single and a dual on my 75's, have used the extra 2 before and didn't find it make much of a difference, but youre going to need the extra saturation in the taller tank, I think.

And please let me know how things go. I've been meaning to set up a thread called "Tell me about your deep sand/soil planted tank experiences" but just haven't gotten around to it. I've tried to be as systematic about this as I can, but you're always going to have some amount of bias that you don't see for yourself.

Todd

I might go with power compacts on the 90, but it's not necessary

Those are just better bulbs for the strip lights right? I could put 2 or three compacts and then regular bulbs if that the case.

When I do 40 watt, I like to put an aquarium plastic strip in front to match the grain of the tank plastic and wood, and then stick 1 or 2 dual light strips (like the $12 kind) behind it.

I have 4 single strip aquarium lights. I have one 55g doubled up with two of those. I could use two double bulb strips and put one of those infront so its presentable if it ends up upstairs in the living room. There are lots of windows up there and don't know how to manage too much sunlight, is it really a problem as long as its not in direct light? Maybe I could get away with fewer bulbs if theres enough ambient light, it'll be a work in progress ykhtg

I currently have one double strip over a 15g long-ways and 2 10g short-ways on the shelf. Keeps stuff pretty green

Those are just better bulbs for the strip lights right?

No, they're a double pinned recepticle, that's specific for a different kind of high output bulb. They're the ones that are U shaped.

Look here:
http://www.premiumaq...y_Code=Lighting

You can see what kind of $$ are involved too. It'll be substantially more expensive than normal output. But the light looks pretty good. I like halide even better because you get glitter lines like the sun is shining.

There are lots of windows up there and don't know how to manage too much sunlight, is it really a problem as long as its not in direct light?

Nah, you'll just get more algal growth on the sides facing the indirect sun than the others. It really isn't a big deal. People who have "problems" because of indirect light actually have nutrient cycling issues, not sunlight issues.

Todd