El Natural With A Twist (long 56k!) - Page 4 - El Natural

AaronT · 11-04-2006, 05:30 PM

Here's the 75 gallon I setup finally yesterday. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...tml#post244306

I posted in the aquascaping forum rather than here in hopes of getting some helpful feedback on the 'scape.

Steven_Chong · 11-04-2006, 10:19 PM

Aaron, I just wanted to say how cool this project is. The first time I heard of this "El Natural" concept, I was pretty much turned off because it seemed limited compared to other options (perhaps just because Walstad herself is more of a scientist and not an artist?). However, this tank idea is cool, and what I got was that even if you don't want to go full-blown El-Natural, there's still a lot that could be learned from the method, and a lot of grey area to experiment between Full-nutzness, and Full-el-Natural.

Just like in real life when you walk around with a T-shirt and shorts. XD

AaronT · 11-05-2006, 05:02 AM

Thanks Steven.

I can't take credit for the idea at all though. One of the members in our club has been using this method for over a decade and I finally got up the nerve to give it a try.

Freemann · 11-05-2006, 06:13 AM

As I have said this in Posts in APC and in APD (Re:Subject:earthworm castings) years ago, here is an article that refers to my tanks aswell on this (Natural Fertilizer for planted tanks) I have been using Greek Forest Soil from Decidious trees for the last 27 years I never even bothered to boil or do anything else with it, I would remove the stones and big wood pieces out of it add some handfulls from localy extracted laterite I collected myself and dump 5 cm of it in the tank wet it to turn into mud add 3-4 cm gravel on top and that was it there would be initial algae in this tanks for 2 months but once they stabilized they would go perfect with no problem whatsoever for 3 years. I have made 100's for myself and friends ALL of them had incredible success. I have used this approach with MH lots of times tons of light in some cases, also some tanks had CO2 and some did not I never used column ferts. This days I try masochistic experiments using a ton of ferts in the column.

AaronT · 11-17-2006, 09:17 AM

Here's a tank update as of this afternoon. I'm still having some green water issues, but the beard algae/ diatom algae has all cleared up. I also have some new inhabitants because the ones I added made more.

Scape Update:

Baby Niger Otto (Lil' Brudder):

Furcata Rainbow Fry (I found 3):

hooha · 12-19-2006, 07:52 AM

any updates?

Kelley · 12-20-2006, 10:48 AM

Aaron,
How frequently do you do water changes for this tank? I am considering using this method or a different soil-based method rather than the EI method that I use now for a shrimp-only tank. My tap water is very high in copper and I am having trouble keeping inverts. Do your shrimp do well in these tanks?

Thanks!

DataGuru · 12-20-2006, 12:04 PM

I have a 20 gallon NPT specifically for cherry shrimp. They seem to do well in my NPTs.

Kelley · 12-20-2006, 12:17 PM

Thanks for the tip, Betty.

AaronT · 12-20-2006, 12:42 PM

I keep cherries and amanos in this tank now and they both are doing fine. I do weekly water changes give or take a few days. I keep my tanks open top so I do a water change since I have to top them off anyhow. Otherwise, I might let them go 2-3 weeks before a change.

I just did a trim. I'll post a pic when it grows back in.