Hello all, when I set up my 180g Oceanic 2 1/2 years ago I followed the advice of the LFS person and laid down heating cables, covered them with sand then put Eco Complete over the sand.
My unscientific observation has been that plant growth isn't much different with or without the heating so I figure why have the added expense of running the cables. After reading the popular opinion on this forum regarding the pointlessness of heating cables I subsequently unplugged them and haven't used them for over a year. I am now at the point where I believe I need to uproot the plants and do a good deep vacuuming (it's been 2 1/2 years, and there are spots in the aquarium where plants just will not grow presumably due to lack of substrate cleaning). So I'm thinking I will remove the heating cables while working with the substrate, but since I have this bed of E.C. over the sand I am wondering what to do;
Options: (all options include the removal of the heating cables)
1. Get the sand back down under the E.C. as well as possible
2. Mix the sand up with the E.C. (will the E.C./sand mix be good?)
3. Remove the sand and just have E.C.
4. Switch to a new substrate since I'm in there anyway
Your thoughts would be appreciated. In general plant growth has been good over the couple of years I've had the E.C. I'm getting mixed feedback on whether or not the E.C. has any nutritive value left after the few years I've had it. My guess is it's inert by now.
My unscientific observation has been that plant growth isn't much different with or without the heating so I figure why have the added expense of running the cables. After reading the popular opinion on this forum regarding the pointlessness of heating cables I subsequently unplugged them and haven't used them for over a year. I am now at the point where I believe I need to uproot the plants and do a good deep vacuuming (it's been 2 1/2 years, and there are spots in the aquarium where plants just will not grow presumably due to lack of substrate cleaning). So I'm thinking I will remove the heating cables while working with the substrate, but since I have this bed of E.C. over the sand I am wondering what to do;
Options: (all options include the removal of the heating cables)
1. Get the sand back down under the E.C. as well as possible
2. Mix the sand up with the E.C. (will the E.C./sand mix be good?)
3. Remove the sand and just have E.C.
4. Switch to a new substrate since I'm in there anyway
Your thoughts would be appreciated. In general plant growth has been good over the couple of years I've had the E.C. I'm getting mixed feedback on whether or not the E.C. has any nutritive value left after the few years I've had it. My guess is it's inert by now.