Toxic Ten

[DogFish]

DAY 273

Sorry same bad cell. Not bad outside, no so good for indoor tank pics.

This tank first and foremost dedicated to dispelling the notion that organics can't not be used successfully in substrate. What better way to continue to demonstrate than to periodically make changes that could upset the balance. Unless of course one makes appropriate adjustments.

All plants were remove along with 25% of the water. Mostly to keep from splashing water over the side. No special care was made in pulling the rooted plants. Puffs of MTS dirt were allowed to settle for 1hr after the planting with the filters off. The residual dirt was left on the substrate to resettle.

The new planting is Dwarf Sag and a single Echinodorus 'Paul Kloecker', the Val may or may not stay. I 'm out of planting space and need to stick them somewhere.







I am a bit concerned about the Sword as it was a little stressed out from shipping. It had 10' mature leaves that I removed to help it recover. Of course
coming in on trade it mostly likey would have lost those leaves anyway.



ADJUSTMENTS

I added the HOB from my Q-Tank that isn't occupied now. I also covered the top with Water Lettuce for the Bio-filtration and to calm my Ram trio as pretty much all of their cover is gone. To further placate them I'll be covering most of the front glass with brown paper until the new planting gets established.

[speerwashere]

I have dirt from a compost pile (twigs & leaves) in a tank that has baby cories in it and a jar with composted cow manure and top soil with a few more baby cories going and all is good. Pulled most the plants out of the compost tank to catch some baby cories, but they were growing good.

[DogFish]

speerwashere - You should do a thread on that project

[DogFish]

DAY 274

Decided to move the Echinodorus 'Paul Kloecker' out to the pond to try to save it. Hopefully the Sun light will help it pull through.

I replaced it with an Echinodorus 'Ocelot' that I saved from certain doom at the hands of a LFS plant death tank. It does have a healthy roots and had a better prognosis than Mr. Kloecker's hybred. They tossed in a baby that was equally sad.

[speerwashere]

Originally Posted by DogFish

speerwashere - You should do a thread on that project

I think I'm going to make the 10 a bare bottom tank for babies, but may set up a 20gl or 55g with compost. If so I'll start a thread on it

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by DogFish

I got started feeding BARF with a dog that had cancer as you just can't feed for that properly with anyone's kibble. I feel we "cheated" death out of the trwo years for him. (11yrs)

Our 7 yrs old lab has mast tumor cell disease that forms cancer tumors and he wasn't able to keep anything down. (it messes with the esophagus so that he is basically regurgitating the food) We started him on Sojos food about 2 months ago. It's a dehydrated food that you just add water to and whatever raw meat you like. We add tofu to it as the vet thought it best.

It's the only food he's been able to keep down, he absolutely LOVES it and he's lost 15 lbs (which he needed to). He looks great and has so much energy. I definitely think this food/diet is far better than anything else we've ever fed him.

Sorry to divert from topic, but after reading about your experience, just had to share.

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by bluestems

Our 7 yrs old lab has mast tumor cell disease ....We started him on Sojos food about 2 months ago. It's a dehydrated food that you just add water to and whatever raw meat you like. We add tofu to it as the vet thought it best.....
Sorry to divert from topic, but after reading about your experience, just had to share.

It's always greater to hear someone was able to help there dog with a healthy diet.

Not to say I'm better read about BARF after 12yrs than your Vet, however, I can't support Tofu as a longer term protein source. For fish whole Mackerel is pretty inexpensive. I find getting it semi frozen is an easy way to go for cutting it up. You can either toss the chucks in a food processor or cut it to bite size chunks. Ground Turkey & Chicken are also easy to work with. Beef should 70-80% lean. I think Beef hearts are a great value. If you have a wholistic dog food store look into frozen green tripe. I feed that once a week. This is the brand I feed http://www.greentripe.com/

I looked at the Sojos web sight, interesting product. Other than the pecans in one mix it looked o.k. dogs don't really do all that well with nuts with the exception of Walnut oil.

I did notice they use Kelp with I include in my mix. If your dogs blood panel test is ever out of normal range, it may be the iodine from the Kelp. I had that with two of my own dogs. Stopped the Kelp for 2 months normal range on the tests again.

[DogFish]

About the need for some Organic materiel and Anaerobic Bacteria in the MTS mix:

"The iron has to be dissolved in order to be available to most plants. It won't dissolve unless its chemically reduced to Fe++ (ferrous ion). That requires the absence of oxygen caused by anaerobic bacteria acting upon organic material (i.e. peat). Specialized anaerobic bacteria are also responsible for the reduction of the iron. The humic acids of peat also prevent the Fe++ from being oxidized and precipitating (going out of solution) by attaching to the dissolved iron ion (a process called chelation)."

http://home.infinet.net/teban/substrat.htm

[rgr555]

lol this is hilarious

[crazydaz]

I did add two boxes of peat granules to my base layer after you had recommended keeping some organics in there, Frank. I even left a few stray leaves that "escaped" the sifting I've seen a nice difference already....I think that may be why my Hygro corymbosa stricta is going super-red. I have to say that it works.

If you use peat granules, make sure that you put them on the very bottom! I had a few pop up and go floating merrily along with the current. Quite a few, actually! LOL! Once it's water-logged a peat granule will stay down, but my goodness! Those little dudes are very buoyant!!

Originally Posted by DogFish

About the need for some Organic materiel and Anaerobic Bacteria in the MTS mix:

"The iron has to be dissolved in order to be available to most plants. It won't dissolve unless its chemically reduced to Fe++ (ferrous ion). That requires the absence of oxygen caused by anaerobic bacteria acting upon organic material (i.e. peat). Specialized anaerobic bacteria are also responsible for the reduction of the iron. The humic acids of peat also prevent the Fe++ from being oxidized and precipitating (going out of solution) by attaching to the dissolved iron ion (a process called chelation)."

http://home.infinet.net/teban/substrat.htm

[Patriot]

Peat and worming castings go into my tank. Last time I left leaves in the soil bubble kept raising from the soil. I know it was from the decompostion of the plant matter.

[crazydaz]

Meh....a FEW bubbles never hurt anything.....

[DogFish]

Just a little peat and/or worm casings really helps get the whole process off tp a good start as explained in the link above.

BTW - Rottweiler poop....always a RAOK around here, bring a big bag I have shovels you can barrow.

[NWA-Planted]

Originally Posted by DogFish

BTW - Rottweiler poop....always a RAOK around here, bring a big bag I have shovels you can barrow.

What you can't just ship some?

Sent from a dark corner in my happy place

[150EH]

Real men don't use shovels?? Rotty pooh looks just like the dog too, a black jacket and brown on the inside.

I'm glad to see this tank is still in action and it makes me wonder if you could make MDS as a stand alone soil.