Quote:
Originally Posted by Vonzorfox
Excellent post Homer. This gives me hope for my 55 I just went low tech with. After reading Tom Barr's post I see I need to increase my plant mass asap. It's definitely working for your tank, it looks like it's doing great.
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Thanks for those kind words. Despite the heating issue, I can honestly tell you that I am quite surprised by the level of plant growth, considering there is only 14 watts 6400 K dalylight cfl,no c02 injection into the tank, although I am dosing Excel daily and using ferts once a week including Yamato green at 1/2 teaspoon. The other interesting thing is the way some of the plants are rooting and forming thick roots deep into the substrate, something that I never saw when I had this tank set up as a Natural Planted Tank with Top Soil and pea sized gravel cap. I also never saw this level of root formation and dispersion where I set up another tank with fluorite only, DIY c02 injection,EI dosing, and 30 watts cfl. The Seachem Onyx Sand is pretty dark so it is hard to get a good picture to show the deep root dispersion. I have a theory about all this stuff but not the Science to validate it. It is said that Leonardite unlocks nutrients in the substrate and makes those nutrients more bioavailable and accessible to the roots and this may explain the deep thick root formation and dispersion. I think that if there is some truth to this, everyone may benefit from a dusting of leonardite under fluorite, whether high tech, low tech, or something in between. And perhaps I am just dreaming when I say this, but using a leonardite underlay under a substrate like fluorite may infuse the fluorite with Aquasoil type qualities by unlocking and making the nutrients in the fluorite more accessible to roots.