have been doing some research about using worm castings and even soil in planted aquariums I have a bag of worm castings and plan on attempting to use it with sand on my 30 gal project. does anyone have experience with worm castings or any kind of soil mix. I also have PRO-MIX a soilless mixture. IM just curious about using them for a bottom layer then worm castings as a middle and sand on top. let me know would love input.
WORM CASTINGS- Planted substrate
- Thread starter sd760
- Start date
whats up with that. no posts am I not clear? lol ok well I have read that I need to boil the castings and then remove the floating material. my plan is to use sand 50/50 with worm castings is this going to be an ok mixture also is the boiling completely neccessary, to the point that rinseing wouldnt be enough.
sweet. ok just cleaned out my tank and will begin soaking in the morning I will be doing a 1/4 inch of perlite in the bottom of it. (also thinking about mixing the perlite with the wormcastings to prevent gas build up and to add pockets for root build up) what do you think about the mixing? or should I go Bottom perlite middle castings and gravel on top? be like a total of 3-4 inches of substrate. having all kinds of responses on here. doesnt seem like anyone has tryed this method on here so I will be documenting this method.
any stock list Ideas for flora and fauna.
the begining will have a sword or 2 and 2 ottos to start as i have 2 extra and then i dunno want rams or eartheaters tho. hope people start to pipe up and share pics and ideas lol dont wanna have a ****ty (worm ****) aquascapeing haha.
any stock list Ideas for flora and fauna.
the begining will have a sword or 2 and 2 ottos to start as i have 2 extra and then i dunno want rams or eartheaters tho. hope people start to pipe up and share pics and ideas lol dont wanna have a ****ty (worm ****) aquascapeing haha.
its worm ****. indoor growers ave been using it for a long time. well growers in general lol but i got my castings from a hydro store. I will keep you posted I like your oscar bro. I used to have an awsome tiger.
I don't know man, sounds like a looooot of nutrients to have tucked in your substrate. Really depends on whether it's going to leech into the water or get disturbed and mixed up into the water column. I'd want to test it in a small tank or container first.
If you want to use worm castings, perlite which I think might be a bit buoyant, and soil, personally I would mix all of it up with some terracotta clay and put that in as the first layer of the substrate. Then lay a good inch or two of sand and/or gravel over that.
3-4" of substrate is almost guaranteed to go anaerobic which isn't necessarily a bad thing so long as it's not disturbed, which would rule out keeping any species of Geophagus.
These links on mineralized topsoil and deep sand beds might be of interest to you.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-mineralized-soil-substrate-aaron-talbot.html
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_7/volume_7_1/dsb.html
If you want to use worm castings, perlite which I think might be a bit buoyant, and soil, personally I would mix all of it up with some terracotta clay and put that in as the first layer of the substrate. Then lay a good inch or two of sand and/or gravel over that.
3-4" of substrate is almost guaranteed to go anaerobic which isn't necessarily a bad thing so long as it's not disturbed, which would rule out keeping any species of Geophagus.
These links on mineralized topsoil and deep sand beds might be of interest to you.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-mineralized-soil-substrate-aaron-talbot.html
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_7/volume_7_1/dsb.html
im not going to use my pro mix soilless mix just wast hinking perlite and worm castings as the castings are extremley dense and the perlite though boyant would be good for adding some aeration to my substrate (any thoughts on how going though with this ) Im thinking of mixing them both up and putting it at the bottom then going with some sand and gravel.
as for set up you talk about disturbance of the sub. so I cannot add any more plants as the setup matures? does everything have to be pre planted be for i add water to keep my water colum clear
as for set up you talk about disturbance of the sub. so I cannot add any more plants as the setup matures? does everything have to be pre planted be for i add water to keep my water colum clear
I wouldn't say you can't add or remove plants once set up, you'd just want to keep substrate disturbance to a minimum. Use long narrow tweezers for planting things, and hope you don't have to uproot any well established Amazon swords.