# Can I do El Natural without tearing down my old tank ?



## art_b (Sep 2, 2006)

Hi,

I broke my Dupla regulator, and my LFS don't sell them (or any pressurized CO2) anymore, so I think it is a good time to go El Natural (or semi-El Natural). My tank is over 10 years old, and I haven't tore it down once. I used hygro polysperma as fast growing plants. I have anubias, and crypts. The crypts are now thriving after being long dormant for a couple of years after its initial melt. I have a few fish that are moderately expensive. I don't have soil in my substrate. I used laterite in my initial setup over 10 years ago. I've used laterite balls on the substrate about 3 times in the course of 10 years. I don't have substrate heating cables. I've always had algae, but you won't see it unless you view from the side panes or look hard at the back of the tank. Right now, I have GSA on the side glass of the tank, and I think green thread at the back glass and intake tube of my filter. I only have 2 x 30 watts T8 lights on a 36x18x18 inch tank. I used Flourish, Flourish Iron, Flourish Excel, KN03, KH2PO4.

I really don't want to tear down the tank and start again, so here are my questions.

1. Since I do not have soil, it will take awhile to accumulate mulm from fishfood. Instead of pulling up plants and replanting the top shoot, Can I cut at the base, and allow the roots to rot in the substrate?

2. Is it still ok to put ferts on water ie Flourish ? Or is better to put laterite balls on substrate as source of iron ? Or should I use something like Flourish Tabs to make the substrate rich ?

3. Since there is no CO2 produced by decomposition, is Flourish Excel a good option ? How long before mulm becomes source of CO2 through decomposition ?


----------



## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

You can also use soil cubes... freeze balls of soil then push them into your subtrate..

Try searching this forum for "soil cubes" or "soil packets" ... that should turn up some threads that will explain beter 

Good Luck 
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


----------



## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Umm.. For a 10 Gallon tank would you start out doing 1 or 2 ice cubes of frozen dirt? 

Or would you do this with a ton of them and push them all underneath the substrate? And how deep can the substrate be without causing a problem? 

(Does it have to be 1 inch or would 3-4 inches of substrate cause problems?)


----------



## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

Though I havnt tried this method I would guess the normal rules of a soil tank would apply...

about 1" of gravel..... this might not be the case though since the coverage of the soil would be spotty.... you certainly could get away with pushing them 1"-1.5" deep in a 3-4" subtrate though.

-Justin
One Mynds Eye


----------



## swannee54 (May 24, 2006)

If it were me (but is isn't) I would suck all the water I could get out of the tank, push all the gravel to one side, add top soil to the other side (empty side) push all the gravel on top of the soil side, add soil to that now empty side and than spread all the gravel around, and fill it back up it could be a bit messy, but IMO if you fool around with mud/ice cubes and soil packets you will end up tearing it all down and have to start from scratch, in 
which case you may as well do it now and be done with it, less work in the long run, 

And I believe you will need more lighting as well, according to my calculations 60 watts of light over a 50gal tank only comes to 1.2wpg, and although Diana Walstad states 1.5wpg will work IMO 2wpg is ideal and will grow most plants including alot of the red ones:clap2: 

In any case I wish you all the best in your endeavour!


----------

