I have completed my new stand for my 45 gallon tank, so, in order to move the tank to the stand I have to completely tear it down, empty it and re-build it. I see this as an opportunity to try something new (for me). My plan is to use a mix of dirt and Soilmaster as a substrate, operate it with low, but steady CO2 concentration, with no night time shutoff of the CO2, less than EI fertilizer dosing, and my existing 1.6 watts per gallon AHS lights.
Today I walked across the American River levee, which is just behind my condo, and dug some river bank silt to use. It is a sandy silt, fine grained, with a brown color when wet. I got enough for about a one inch layer of silt in the tank. Since I want to set this up in a few days, I am soaking the silt in boiling water to mineralize the ammonia in it. Today was the first soak. I figure another day or two, with more boiling water should do it. I'm reluctant to actually put the soil in a pot and boil it on the stove - that is a very heavy load, about 2 gallons of soil.
For CO2, I plan to use 2 dKH distilled water in my drop checker, which will give me 15 ppm roughly when it is green. Then, with that little CO2 I shouldn't have to worry about letting it run full time, so I will leave the solenoid open full time. (Will that harm the solenoid?)
Fertilizing will be daily, with a pre-mix, and I will be dosing about half of the EI recommended weekly quantities.
More to follow.
Today I walked across the American River levee, which is just behind my condo, and dug some river bank silt to use. It is a sandy silt, fine grained, with a brown color when wet. I got enough for about a one inch layer of silt in the tank. Since I want to set this up in a few days, I am soaking the silt in boiling water to mineralize the ammonia in it. Today was the first soak. I figure another day or two, with more boiling water should do it. I'm reluctant to actually put the soil in a pot and boil it on the stove - that is a very heavy load, about 2 gallons of soil.
For CO2, I plan to use 2 dKH distilled water in my drop checker, which will give me 15 ppm roughly when it is green. Then, with that little CO2 I shouldn't have to worry about letting it run full time, so I will leave the solenoid open full time. (Will that harm the solenoid?)
Fertilizing will be daily, with a pre-mix, and I will be dosing about half of the EI recommended weekly quantities.
More to follow.