Aquariumplants.com Total Pellet Fertilizer - Review

[dinokath]

That's what I have heard about it, lightweight.

[mom2reds]

what is sms, Mgamer?

[krap101]

I think they stopped making sms (soilmaster select) since it got bought out by John deere or something. It's called Turface now, and its supposed to basically be fluorite... (fired clay) I got 50 lbs for 9$ (they let me go on taxes) and 1/3 of the bag filled my 29 gal. I didn't have enough the first time, washed the second batch at around 9:00, and I guess I didn't get everything out, and the water is pretty cloudy. I'm considering breaking down the tank again, rewashing the substrate and redoing it, since it seems like this won't settle.

[timwag2001]

how long has your substrate been in krap? i didnt wash my flourite anywhere near what i should have and it took about 3 days to settle. i had to rinse out my filter everyday. when i did my water changes it would stir up some more. got back to normal after about 3 weeks.

just be patient. it's aggrevating, kinda like waiting for your tank to cycle, but it will settle

[krap101]

Well... I have a powerhead that's diffusing co2 right now (broke my glass one) and I'm deciding between turning it off and leaving it on. Also I'm looking at my filter (emperor 280 cartridge and the second one with a 100 micron pad) and it seems like the particles are too small to get filtered out. It's been around 10ish days. I'm not sure how and if it's true, but I think that the suspended particles are also causing a green algae bloom (also it could be caused because of the changing substrates) but I also set up a 10 gallon shrimp tank, with a sponge filter, and it never got cloudy. I'm thinking of it as a "control" since the second batch of Turface wasn't 100% clean. One of my teacher's mottos is "I work my butt off right now so I can be lazy later". I just think it'd be better to get it out of the way. Otherwise I think I like this alot better than sand or pea gravel. It sinks quickly, looks natural, and is overall a good choice imo.

[mgamer20o0]

Originally Posted by krap101

I think they stopped making sms (soilmaster select) since it got bought out by John deere or something. It's called Turface now, and its supposed to basically be fluorite... (fired clay) I got 50 lbs for 9$ (they let me go on taxes) and 1/3 of the bag filled my 29 gal. I didn't have enough the first time, washed the second batch at around 9:00, and I guess I didn't get everything out, and the water is pretty cloudy. I'm considering breaking down the tank again, rewashing the substrate and redoing it, since it seems like this won't settle.

they stopped making the charcoal sms. they now have turface which is close to the same. thats a good price for the turface it tends to be closer to 20-25. it is really dusty. i stopped washing it since it never seemed to do much good. what i do is put it in the tank fill the tank stir it around and wc a couple times. let the tank sit a week or two for the dust to settle.

[krap101]

Well, it did take awhile to wash, but the first batch (shrimp tank) is totally clear.

[dinokath]

Ok, here's an update with some shots. Water chemistry is as follows:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10ppm
Phosphate - 3ppm
GH - 4
KH - 3
pH - 6.7 (regulated by the SMS122)

There is some floating leaves and I am not sure where they are coming from. Most folks, I would imagine, don't take pictures and post them with crap floating in their tank, but objectivity is the name of this experiment here. I remove about 10 leaves per day, not all from the same plant, but mostly the bright red one there in the center and the microswords, but those are the two I see the fish playing in the most, so I am assuming they are breaking them off. Thoughts?

The gouramis (blue) are building a bubble nest too! I am stoked. I have never had fish breed before in all the years I have been doing this. I usually don't have four gouramis at the same time either, so I always figured I had bad luck and had two males or two females in the past. Too cool. Bubble nest is located on the back left.

Everything is healthy and looks good to me, but feedback is requested. There are some leaves with tears on them, but I have seen this in almost every picture of plants. I think my kissing gouramis are hungry during the day or something.

Cleaned a little bit of brown algae off the glass and a very small amount of green spot algae it seems. That was yesterday. I went a bought three oto's to help in that department.

Thoughts are welcomed. Thanks.

[dinokath]

A couple more close ups.

[mgamer20o0]

looks great