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Things are looking up! Pinholes have started to recede after two weeks of dosing K @ 1.25PPM /wk. No algae issues to report, i was concerned that surpassing your recommended dose would lead to algae. Thanks Aaron for your help.

bratyboy2

Any new updates?!?! love the tank. and sorry but why did you take the rainbows out?

AaronT

I'm glad to hear it. It really doesn't take much at all, almost as if it just needs a little boost of potassium.

The 20 gallon long from page 1 of this thread has been taken down for about a year now. I still have the rainbows in the new setup though, more of them in fact. Check it out here.

yum

so the pinholes actually repaired themselves?

AaronT

I've never seen that happen. I think he meant to say that the new leaves do not have the pinholes.

xpistalpetex

hey aaron i got 2 questions?
was the topsoil from homedepot earth gro?
if i decide to boil the soil to fasten the removal of ammonia after that how long should i air it out for mineralize 2 weeks?

AaronT

Hi xpistalpetex,

The topsoil I got was from Home Depot. I wrote a whole article on the mineralizing process here.

I've included a list of materials in the article with a link to a picture of the exact topsoil that I used.

There's no need to boil the soil. The mineralizing process should only take 2-3 weeks now that the sun is nice and warm again and that will take care of the ammonia in a much more usable fashion.

looking4roselines

I just finished the mineralizing process. 3 soaking and drying cycles took about two weeks.

I think I might have used a bit too much clay though. Maybe 10 lbs of clay to 50 lbs of top soil. Slightly over the recommended amount.

Whats the down side to the overuse of clay, other than the cloudy red water?

I also just planted the HC and plan on growing it emmersed. This should counter the initial effects of the green water issues right?

AaronT

That's a lot of clay! I only use about 1 - 1.5 lbs. of clay in a 50 gallon tank. I'm not sure what the effects will be from using that much clay. It may end up not being a problem at all.

Yes, you can start the plants emersed. Starting with lots of plants is the key to getting a headstart on algae no matter what type of tank you are setting up.

looking4roselines

lol. Its about 20% clay. Suggested amount was 10-15%?

I bought 2 bags from Laguna and used almost half of one bag.