# soil



## fishude92 (Apr 2, 2006)

can you use soil in a planted aquarium? if so is it better than commercial subtrates like flourite?


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

I have five tanks set up with topsoil substrate and it works great. Here's my 125 gallon natural planted tank. Here's a summary I wrote on Diana Walstad's Natural planted tank method. I'd recommend getting a copy of her book.


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## fishude92 (Apr 2, 2006)

WOW!! that is a amazing aquarium.

so you never use any speacial co2 equipment and fertilizers and you still got the results you wanted?
also, all you used for filtering was two powerheads with sponges?


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Yep... two powerheads with sponge prefilters is it. In a Walstad-type natural planted tank, there's no need for standard filters cuz the plants are the biofilter, plus there are some nitrifying bacteria in the soil. That's cool because you don't have rising nitrAte levels and don't see pH drop cuz of KH getting used up over time. In a NPT, the waste products get turned into plant mass. and the very best part is the very infrequent partial water changes. 

No CO2 or water ferts. The plants get everything they need from the soil and from fish waste. close to 2 wpg and sunlight. It's a jungle. I even see pearling in winter when the tank gets direct sunlight.

Yea, I'm happy with the tank. tho I'm still struggling trying to get a foreground. The sag subulata that I thought would stay short got two foot long. I had to pull a 4 inch strip of it all the way along the front of the tank and replaced it with some chain swords that should stay short. The sag is so happy it's invasive. Both the amazon and ozelot swords are throwing out plantlets left and right.


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