# 15 Gallon High Aquasoil II Experimental Tank



## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

I thought that this would be the best place to post this, but if not, mods feel free to move.

After lurking in several planted tank forums, I noticed that there was a bunch of hype about ADA Aquasoil. Everyone from plant gurus, experienced members, and even noobs were singing its praises. As a tester, this peaked my curiosity so I decided to take Aquasoil II for a test drive. The fact that I had a 10 gallon tank with a out of snail problem and never ending agae issues(despite all my attempts to defeat the problem) meant that I could tear that tank down and set up the 15 gallon high Aquasoil Experimental Tank. The plants from the torn down tank were soaked for 3 days in a solution of two tablespoons alum and 1 gallon water to kill snail and snail eggs. Unfortunately the snails survived the soak and the plants that I had to start with took a real battering because of the soak. The specs of the tank are:

Filter: AQuaclear 150 HOB filter with polyfibre, bag of Seachem Purigan, and bag of Seachem Matrix stones.

Lighting: 2 20 watt coralife colarmax compact fluorescent in a canopy sloppily padded with Mylar sheeting to increase reflection of useable light. Total 8.5 hours using split photperiod 6 hours on from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 2 hours off, then 3 hours on again from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Plants: I had to work with what I had(basically cr*p), which included, Hygrophilia Polysperma, Cardamine Lyrata for floating plant, ambuilia, pygme anubias, anubias nana, java ferns, Crytocorne bronze and red and Ludwiga which I recently added. For those wondering, the narrow leaf chain sword in the rockwool was just recently purchased. I decided to fully leave it in the tank wiht the rock wool for a couple of weeks to allow it more time to acclimitize to the water before removing it from the rockwool and planting it into the substrate. I also have some Riccia fluitans floating and I plant to use it to fill the empty spaces in the substrate once I have enough. By the way the Riccia and Cardamine are pearling like crazy. And talk about a cardamine explosion. I statrted with a few cuttings of cardamine and find myself trimming the cardamine almost every two days. This stuff is just as bad as duckweed.

Fetilization: Tom Barr's Estimative Index full throttle.

C02 Injection: Using Hagen yeast sytem with diffusion going into the fiter intake and two additional 2 litre DIY yeast bottles. C02 diffusion is from one 2 litre is going into a Hagen ladder and the c02 diffusion from the other 2 litre is going into a Rhinox 2000 ceramic diffuser. The brew in each bottle is alternatively changed weekly. Drop checker is contant P*ss color showing 40+ c02. Why so much c02? Two reasons. (1) there are no fish in there and I wanted to provide additional C02 to jump start the weakened plants, and (2) the snails I tried to eradicate resurfaced despite 3 day alum and water soak. The plan was now to poison them with additional c02. So far it does not appear to be working, they seem to be enjoying the extra c02. 








Lol, anyone have a loach or dwarf puffer that they can loan me for a while??

If I get time over the next little while, I plan to create a web page to track long term growth in this experimental tank and provide monthy updates.

Below are pictures of the tank as it looked on Dec 26 2007 at start up.




























Below are pictures of the tank as it looked as of Jan 16 2008



















Based on the short term results vs Seachem Fluorite and Schultz Aquatic soil, I would say that ADA Aquasoil Soil seems to show better plant growth. The only thing that may skew this comparison is the difference in the level of c02 being pumped into the tank. I have never pumped this much c02 tank in any tank that I have set up, so that could well be the difference maker. Also, it is not likely that I will be able to maintain these levels long term and will likely have to gradually taper back the c02 and remove a couple of the bottles as I will need to populate the tank with fish and I doubt that they will be able to tolerate this level of c02.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

Update. This is what the tank looks like as of Feb 17 2008.




























As far as type of plants used in the tank(hygrophilia polysperma, anubias nana, java fern, cardamine lyrata, riccia fuitans, and ambulia). Sorry folks, I had to use what was available and what I had access to.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Hey Homer, wonderful growth! Did you have trouble with cloudy water. I am still have trouble with cloudy water in my scape. It's been changed over for 2 weeks now. It's so frustrating. I used the same substrate. 

I love all your experiments!


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

Tex Gal said:


> Hey Homer, wonderful growth! Did you have trouble with cloudy water. I am still have trouble with cloudy water in my scape. It's been changed over for 2 weeks now. It's so frustrating. I used the same substrate.
> 
> I love all your experiments!


Thanks Tex Gal. Lol, the ultimate will be when I can aquascape and have tanks as beautiful as yours. 

I only experienced a little bit of cloudiness on the first day or two, but it was hardly noticeable and went away by the end of the second day. I used Seachem Purigen(100ml prebagged) insert in my 150 Aquaclear HOB filter, did daily 50% water changes for the 1st week, 2nd week 50% water changes twice a week, then the third week 50% once a week. I regenerated the purigan at the end of the month. I think the use of Seachem Purigan may be the main reason I did not experience a lot of cloudiness. I know Amano Takishi, the father of Aquasoil, uses carbon in his filters for the 1st month.

Interestingly, any new plants I put in shed just about all their leaves but when new leaves grow back they appear healthier than the lost ones. This is what is happening now with the sunset hygrophilia that I put in. It seems to shed leaves the way my parakeets shed their feathers, so I find myself netting out the lost leaves almost daily. Also, I got some christmas moss that was in pretty bad shape. I put in the tank anyways to see if it would rebound, but no miracles here, it never rebounded, but it may be just that my tank temperature is too high for it to do well.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Homer you are too much! Thanks for the comment about my tank but who cares what it may look like when it's too cloudy to see it! I have done so many water changes. I have purigen in both my Xp3 filters. I have a micron filter in each too. I have used a water clarifier 2 times. I think that it may just be that I have too much water movement. I have a power head in there because I had a dead corner. Maybe I should turn that puppy off and see what happens. I don't know what else to do.

What's that little plant on the right beside your hygro? The one with the little spray of leaves at 2"-3" intervals? It grows like cabomba but it seems to have a solid leaf.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

Tex Gal said:


> Homer you are too much! Thanks for the comment about my tank but who cares what it may look like when it's too cloudy to see it! I have done so many water changes. I have purigen in both my Xp3 filters. I have a micron filter in each too. I have used a water clarifier 2 times. I think that it may just be that I have too much water movement. I have a power head in there because I had a dead corner. Maybe I should turn that puppy off and see what happens. I don't know what else to do.


I think that one cycle(8 hour run time) of a Diatom filter would definitely clear the cloudiness. If you were my neighbour, I'd let you use my diatom filter for free. Costwise they are not super expensive. I have one on standby and plant to use it every 3-6 months to give the water in all my tanks a good polishing and clean up the build up of fish poop. I don't plan to use it as a substitute for water changes. Just something in addtion to regular water changes and maintenance.



Tex Gal said:


> What's that little plant on the right beside your hygro? The one with the little spray of leaves at 2"-3" intervals? It grows like cabomba but it seems to have a solid leaf.


That is a ambulia aka: Limnophila sessiliflora. It is classified as an invasive species in some parts of the states and banned. I can see why. It grows like a weed, I end up trimming and throwing away so much that again, if you were my neighbour, I'd give you as much as you could handle. I'd sooner give away excess trimmings, then throw them away. I find that ambulia only shows controlled growth in my 5 gallon 15 watt compact fluorescent low tech, non-c02 tank. This is one that I don't think I am going plant in another high light, c02 injected tank. Lol, just too high maintenance.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks for the info about the diatom filter. I may end up having to do that. I changed a ton of water today. I rearranged things, planted my foreground and turned off my power head. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for the info on the ambulia. Up close it does look like a cabomba.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

You're welcome Tex Gal 

These are some of the cheapest diatom filters around.
http://www.diatomfilters.com/index1.html

I paid a lot more for the same model(Vortex Freedom Filter DFF) this guy sells, but that is because I wanted to deal with a Canadian Supplier in case there were problems and I had to ship back for replacement or repair. This supplier is located in the U.S.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Hey Homer - got the filter on order. It should be in stock by March 10. Maybe I'll see some clear water by then..


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