mixing soil and flourite?

[hubbahubbahehe]

Hi all, I was thinking instead of trace mineral fertilization, perhaps i could spot fertilize with "soil cubes" and provide the traces that way into my 100% flourite substrate. Has anyone tried this? or recommend against it?

[Wasserpest]

Sounds like a big mess to me... There are too many different soils that you could reliably supply all traces. You won't get the right proportions, the water will turn into a nice tea color... Why not go with Flourish or PMDD etc, and supply some root tabs for the heavy root feeders?

[hubbahubbahehe]

yea, i got pmdd, but all that is so confusing to me... whenever i dose, i get either algae problems or overdosing symptoms on the plants.... and then i gotta do another water change to reset the values... my last mistake was overdosing with kno3. i put 1 teaspoon of it into my 40g on mr. barr's recommendation and my nitrates went sky high.... one of my fish died... lesson learned here: buy a nitrate test kit.

you're right though, wasserpest, hehe you always make things clearer for me. I will not be adding soil to flourite.

[Wasserpest]

I am kinda scared of PMDD too, but a bottle of Flourish goes a long way!

Dosing NO3 without testkit is, as Rex put it, like driving blindfolded on the highway. Fatalities occur...

Besides patience, consistency is another good thing for planted tanks. Dosing a teaspoon here, and a few grams there might make things worse, better to tackle one thing at a time, and stick to it