# Mud bottom nano



## corsair75 (Dec 21, 2011)

This is a neat little tank I am experimenting with. Petco clearanced its refugium mud for a whopping $6 a bucket, and I decided to see what happens if you stick plants in it. Just like soil, it is intended to be capped by another substrate, but I am attempting to use the mud exclusively here. It gets spectacularly cloudy when disturbed, but it looks and feels exactly like the gunk in the bottom of the river. The look is just absolutely spot on, and the tank should be fertilized for life.





The tank is a Fluval Spec that had been modified to be a nano reef. I moved the coral into the big tank, and traded in the mini-livestock so I could build the new freshwater setup. It was a really pretty tank, but I had forgotten how much of a pain a 5 gallon reef is. Plants are better  The light is a Marineland single bright led, and the pump was upgraded to a Marineland 404. The filter has been gutted. Look closely above and you can see the fuge light slapped on the back. It's turned off, but it used to come on at night to control pH.

Plants, fish and inverts will be added over the next week or two. Basically, as soon as the LFS gets the critters I asked for  I'll keep taking pictures as things shape up.


----------



## JKUK (Feb 16, 2007)

Love experiments like this 

I have a similar sized tank that was set up much like yours five or six years ago. The only issue really that I had, was very green water for the first few months. This was sorted by adding some tiny orb shells collected from my ponds. Once matured you will be surprised how little clouding the substrate actually causes. 

Looking at your plant choices so far, I think you will need some fast growers to help settle things down. I find Ambulia grows like crazy in this sort of set up, as do the indispensible floaters like Salvinia and Pistia.

Good luck, keep the pics coming


----------



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

I've been stirring the substrate in one of my tanks in which I have a bunch of wild tetras. When the dark colored particles settle there is a whitish opalescence that lingers for about 1-1/2 days. You may say that's not a good thing but then something unexpected happens - the fish start to behave in a very different way, the fins that are clear actually become invisible, and when the fish moves there are rippling shadows running from the eyes to the tails. The school is huge - about 80 fish and that whitish water definitely makes the entire tank look completely natural - the way it is supposed to look. It is an amazing visual experience - an interaction of water, light, and animals.

All the color lines/spots on the fish start to really make sense. From a distance you can't really make up a fish - just spots and lines. That's the power of a true natural aquarium look I guess.

Also there is a pretty cool post from 2006 here on APC about a full blown Tonina tank without any water column ferts but with a mud bottom. I will find it and post a link to it later.


----------



## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I've done things like this accidentally, LOL, and they worked out pretty well. Can you tell us more about the refugium mud? I gather from the web that it is made for saltwater, unless there is another product for freshwater that I didn't see.


----------



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Here's a tank full of Toninas. 









German rich substrate with an inert cap. Apparently long term this tank works perfectly with zero ferts in the water column.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/substrates/30140-substrate-help.html#post228954


----------



## corsair75 (Dec 21, 2011)

The particular product in this tank is Fiji Mud, which is intended for saltwater. Most of these mud products are nothing more than wild collected silt from the bottom of the ocean. Basically, when the 'manufacturer' hauls up a load of live rock, they rinse off the mud and collect it for sale. The most efficient way to find more info is to google 'Leng Sy' and do some reading on the 'ecosystem' aquarium. Adding a silty mud is common with heavy macro planting or (especially) mangroves.

My opinion is that the marine community is *way* behind when it comes to plants. For example, nobody as far as I can tell has ever attempted using dirt under the sand in a refugium, nor any of the common commercial substrates for plants. Water column dosing of fertilizers is virtually unknown. I have found that larger macros, such as caulerpa behave exactly like freshwater, vascular plants. I use Flourish liquid fertilizer semi-regularly in my 'planted' reef with noticeable effects. Were I to do that tank again I would add enriched substrate under the sand in the areas intended for planting.


----------



## corsair75 (Dec 21, 2011)

I added a few more plants last night, and introduced the fish



Five glowlight tetras, which necessitated reinstalling the heater. I have reservations about keeping tetras in such a small tank, but I didn't want something as busy as danios. Hoping that a nice house makes up for a lack of space.



@Niko, that's an amazing tank! I'm so bad at consistently dosing my tanks that structural solutions are much more interesting to me. I absolutely agree about turbidity occasionally looking 'just right' in natural tanks. This morning I watched the fish wake up and nervously swim around, kicking up dust trails behind them while they reformed the group. Just something about that little moment that looks so _natural_.


----------

