2nd soil tank
I'm new to planted tanks. Haven't had an aquarium of any kind for 45 years. Kids got me a terrarium and I saw aquascaping videos and couldn't resist.
In My first tank I used black diamond worm casting potting mix capped with black aquarium sand. The plants are(ludwigia, Amazon swords, alternanthera) growing like crazy. During the cycling process I used the API master kit and did the rookie thing and didn't shake the nitrate bottle and just blasted the tank with kno3 and may have caused my plants some stress.
I'm starting a second 40 breeder (as is the first). The only thing that I'm noticing on the first tank, is unless I do weekly water changes the phosphate goes thru roof. I'm not dosing any phosphate and only csm+b and a small dose of kno3. I'm wandering if the phosphate is coming from the worm casting mix. I'm conflicted on whether or not I should use the worm casting mix again or not. The plants are growing almost out of control on the first tank. Water I'm adding test low for phosphate. Should I mix 50/50 with topsoil or just go with what I started my first tank with? Only about 15 tetras.