What's the effect of soil in water ?

[Xzap]

I'm gonna add a small amount (6 or so square inches) of soil (NC red clay) to a 29 gal planted tank; from what I've read about substrates I didn't see any warnings about ph balance or anything. Anything I should know beforehand ?

Thx,

Dave

 

[czcz]

Hey, Dave. Things you may find interesting to know:

Diana Walstad likes southern states' naturally collected clay soils. She used clay soil from a southeastern pasture in her 50g described here: http://www.aquabotanic.com/diana_walstad_gallery.htm
Steve Spituch, the same guy responsible for that calculations page used in your pH and kH thread, won AGA2001 Biotope award for a tank that used naturally collected Texas clay: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2001.cgi?&op=showcase&category=1&vol=-1&id=39
Lots of commercial substrates are fired clay, like Flourite and Schultz.
Malkore summarized clay soils, including reference to Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium, here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=55466 -- great book btw: if your clay has low organics, lowered pH shouldn't be an issue.

 

[krap101]

pretty much your water will get cloudy i think. youll have to cover it with gravel before you fill with water i think

 

[Xzap]

I've read 2 of those articles, hadn't seen the one by Steve Spituch. What I'm doing is making some rock planters (they're about 2 square inches) that I'm gonna fill with soil and fluorite. I picked up a bag today and replaced about 50 % of the gravel in my 10 gal with it. I like the color & characteristics of it and wanted to see how the plants do in it.

My ates are still 10 today. pH seems to have leveled out at 6.6 - 6.8 (29 gal tank)

Dave

 

[greenmaji]

My ates are still 10 today. pH seems to have leveled out at 6.6 - 6.8 (29 gal tank)

The PH stabling out sounds great!.. It also seems like your tank didnt consume as much NO3 as you were expecting.. good thing your tracking it now. Wish you the best of luck

 

[Xzap]

Looking back at my whole concept, I may be over feeding too much. I over feed purposely, it looks like this is gonna work without dosing anything.

Thx,

Dave

 

[rubysoho]

ooo, very cool. Let me know how it works out because in about a month I'm going to start building my 55 gallon paludarium and I am very interested in collecting the majority of my stuff from outdoors. Of course, here in the NC mountains we don't have red clay, but I would think the concept is the same.

 

[Xzap]

That's why I'm doing Ruby.. I'm setting up a 90 gal this Summer and I'm testing substrates first

BTW, what's a paludarium ?

Dave