Valley

A friend of mine set up an NPT and mistakenly got the organic choice garden soil instead of the potting soil. It's been set up for about 8 weeks now. I didn't realize until this weekend when I spotted the bag. She's having green water and brush algae big time. The tank is very lightly loaded (7 small fish in a 55g). The fish do not appear to be stressed but I didn't have my test kits to confirm. My question is... is this salvageable or would it just be better to tear it apart and start over?

vicky

Maybe the experts will weigh in, but as far as I have read, either Organic Choice is fine. How densely is it planted? How much light and for how long? How deep is the soil and what covers it? Perhaps some changes are in order, but I doubt starting over is the answer.

Jark

I have only used potting soil but I have seen posts of people using both. Both soils will have a break in period releasing nutrients fast. If the lights are too high or not enough plants, algae will step in. Before I set up my second planted tank I put the lights on the fish only tank for a week. Booom green soup. A blackout and water changes cleared it.

High light or low plant load might both be solved by fast growing floating plants. Salvinia and hornswort have kept algae down when I started my tank. You can remove them after things even out.

My oldest planted tank is only 5-6 months though. Others may have more advice

dwalstad

Either soil (Miracle Gro Organic Choice "Potting Mix" or MGOC "Garden Soil") has worked fine for me.

If your friend is having this many problems, it may be better to reconsider and re-evaluate. When algae takes hold like this, plants will have a very tough time getting established. That's because algae will remove all CO2 from the water and drive the pH up making CO2 even more unavailable for plants.

So many people think that an NPT depends on simply getting and using the right soil. But other factors (lighting, #plants, plant species, water hardness) are equally important.

aquabillpers

If Diane says that both the "Garden Soil" and "Potting Mix" works well for her, that's a pretty strong endorsement.

However, since I have managed to kill both hornwort and Java moss with ease, I suspect my thumb is a lot less green than is hers.

The MGOC Garden Soil seems to be quite rich. Scott's site states that it contains slow release fertilizers (mainly from chicken and bovine manures?) and recommends that gloves be used when handling it. The "Potting Mix" seems less rich and doesn't include the "wear gloves" warning.

If I used either I would at least expose them to the air for several days, or maybe soak them for a like period, changing the water several times.

As far as the aquarium in question is concerned, as Diana said, it is hard to recover from that much of an algae bloom. I would bite the bullet and restart the tank.

And maybe this time, the cheapest unenriched top soil that was available might be used, after soaking and/or air exposure.

Good luck!

Bill

Valley

It looked like 3/4" soil and 1/2" gravel. The tank was moderately planted but is now heavily planted. If I remember correctly she has 2.5 WPG. Close to that anyway. No idea of the schedule. We were moving her that day so there just wasn't time to do more than a passing observation.

It looked to me to be a major over abundance of nutrients. She had told me over the phone that she was having to scrub her plants every couple days. I thought she was just being picky... Ohhhhhh no. At least she's keeping them clean. When we moved the tank we obviously did about an 80-90% water change. I'm hoping that will help. We also added about 30 new plants and split some of the stems she already had.

So, what I'm understanding is that if she can get the algae under control she should be OK? There's nothing in the Garden Soil that's going to burn and kill all the plants and fish? And that if she can't get the algae under control soon it might be easier to just start over, and watch nutrients and light timing better.
Sound about right?

Tuiflies

+1

I think your best hope for salvaging the tank would be with lots of water changes, lots of floating plants and adding CO2 if you can.

boink

I would try getting some salvinia/duckweed in there. You could try running UV/diatom/charcoal depending what you have available to clear up the green water.