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Old 20-04-2003, 07:17 AM
Dave Millman
 
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Default My Worst Planted Aquarium Mistake (Please Contribute Stories!)

Here's a chance to give back to the group: Contribute the story of your
worst planted aquarium mistake, and how you fixed it. Here's mine:

During Summer 2001, I read Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana
Walstad. It's a great book, with lots of accessible science. The book
makes a strong case for soil substrates, so I decided to use one for my
first planted tank. The basic idea is to cover a layer of clean soil
under a layer of gravel, so the gravel keeps the soil out of the water
column.

Soil substrates have many advantages, and I'm sure that thousands of
aquarists use them successfully. Unfortunately, I failed miserably. What
the book didn't explain is that it's really hard to make any changes to
a soil substrate tank once you've filled it. Try as I might, I was
unable to move a plant, replant cuttings, add new plants, or do anything
in the substrate without releasing a torrent of soil into the water.

After a month of grief, I switched to 100% Flourite and have never
looked back. I replant cuttings every two weeks, and rearrange the tank
every month or two, without any worries about the substrate at all.
Haven't vacuumed it in a year either, but that's true of any planted
tank.

About 8 months ago, my Ancistrus sp. catfish started to breed in the
planted tank. Every so often, the male decides to dig a pit in the
substrate under his driftwood cave. If I were still using soil, that
would be a disaster.

It's my theory that people who succeed with soil substrates either 1)
plan the layout of their tank in advance, and make minimum changes over
time, or 2) go the low-tech route (no CO2), so they do less pruning and
replanting, or 3) are just smarter than me. Whatever the explanation, I
have yet to find a down side to Flourite.

My second worst mistake was not planting lots of fast-growing plants on
day one, as the experts on this group advise, but my guess is most
people on the group have made that error at one time or other and know
the result.