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DataGuru I sincerely hope you don't take this the wrong way, because I don't mean it the wrong way, but we would still be in the 50's if we all thought that way
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Well I hope you do not take this the wrong way, and I don't mean anything personal by it, but thats ridiculous. This forum is mostly about using the principals around Diana Walstads book, and the book was not written in the 50s.
Aaron, you have an interesting looking tank, but you have been plagued with algae from the start, and it doesn't look like its ever gotten better. You are adding fertilizer to the water and adding C02. There is nothing "el natural" about your tank. You are using clay and soil. I guess thats why you are calling it natural?
The whole idea of a "natural" tank is to use a soil based substrate to provide minerals, and fish waste to provide NPK, and bacteria in the substrate to provide C02, add nothing to the water column, and do very little water changes. I don't believe you are doing any of those things, right?
The soil you used could be providing NPK and trace minerals. If it contained a large amount of organic material such as manure and compost, it could be releasing large amounts of ammonia. The clay you added adds a source of oxidized iron and silicate to the mix. Oxidized iron will not be used by the plants until it gets into solution. That would require some kind of organic acid or chealate. The silicates would be the cause of some algae problems.
You could have accomplished the same thing with a fired clay gravel instead of messy raw clay. I would speculate if you had used a clay gravel, and soil that was aerated to release ammonia, and a trace amount of peat, you would not have had the algae problems. Get rid of your C02, and then you would have a "El natural" tank, more or less.