Jimbo205

I hope this works!

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John N.

Looks like it worked!

Not to bad Jimbo, some healthy growth and plants you got there in the tank. May I ask why you have nearly half the tank filled with so much gravel?

-John N.

Jimbo205

To kill the plants and fish with.

My wife always asked the same question.

Some stupid thing I read somewhere (probably dumb Barron's - Plants for Your Aquarium Book) about using roughly 3 inches of substrate. The Seachem Onyx I have finally come to appreciate what it does for the KH of my water, with my tap water having good GH, but the gravel pieces are much larger than they should be. The batch I got. Oh well.

Also, I came back from a 7 day vacation with my engineer buddy feeding the fish. The guy warned me that he has killed a cactus. Although he has a great understanding of organic chemistry - I just need to get him an aquarium. Well, I told him feeding fish food about the size of a dime would be enough. Whoops! Well, the Mollies are fine. But my beautiful 4 Neons are missing.

I am very tempted to put the Mollies at the bottom of all the substrate to be fertilizer for my plants. I won't. But I am tempted. Plants don't eat plants. But Fish will and sometimes do eat fish. Stupid Fish.

Right now I like plants much better than fish.

If going to the LFS was not such a massive pain in the ass, I would trade in my huge Mollies for some tiny Neons or maybe some Raspboras.

Right now getting to the Local Fish Store with my 5 gallon bucket filled with my harvested Rotala Rotundifolia Green to exchange for some Seachem Excel is going to be a pain. Need to do it though. I am just in a grumpy mood tonight.

I now have my 10 gallon tank in front of the window. You should see the eclipse of light in the tank now in the daytime! I hope that Diana Walstad idea pays off!

LordSul

Thats going to be a great jungle in a few weeks, nice tank.

About the deep substrate bed, I've once heard that having that much substrate could eventually cause a very anaerobic environment at the bottom, producing toxic chemicals (H2S, and other sulphur compounds).
I dont know if it's entirely true, but it might be worth looking up fot it.

Jimbo205

LordSul, thank you.

You want to heard the weirdest? I just learned over the weekend that if you go fishing, and bury some fish in your dirt in your vegetable garden - the corn will grow SIGNIFICANTLY taller and better.

Lucky for my Mollies that I am not currently growing corn in my backyard Square Foot Garden! But what do you think? Euthanize them (freezer) and then bury them for fertilizer? Naah... I just don't want my fish to eat my other fish.... I am such a softie...

BUT, my very nice neighbor came by the house while I was working and dropped some of his catch from his fishing trip. Very nice gesture. I looked in the fridge. Bleech! Dead Fish! I can't crush the guy. I have no clue how to clean or skin fish. I can microwave, fry or broil.

Hunters, Fisherman and Biologists! What a different mindset! I guess I have to be in the mood to cut up a dead fish to cook and then eat it.

Any of you guys have experience with this?

Purrbox

My grandfather would put a fish under each of his tomato plants each year when he planted them. Ended up with wonderful plants that beat out everyone else in the area for health, size, and produce. I'm sure it would work for other plants like corn.

Jimbo205

If I do this, will animals try to dig it up? Or will it make the compost smell worse than normal?

Meanwhile my Local Fish Store, God bless them took the entire 5 gallon bucket of my harvested plants and will give me store credit for whatever. I pretty much just want Seachem Excel. Most other things if I want badly enough I will just pay for. Seachem Excel is the most useful, and I feel better knowing that they have a good supply. I just dropped of the container on the way to work, and this way they can process it when they have time or the specific staff person can process it the way they want to. Can't wait to eventually see what it looks like in their tanks. I gave them a ton.
Soon, I look forward to learning how to grow something different than Rotala Rotundifolia Green. Then I can learn some other stupid latin name. I do love the bright green color though.

Purrbox

I really don't know. Probably depends on the animals in your area and how deep you bury it. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away while I was a small child, so I don't know all the details and specifics of how he used the fish. I don't remember the garden having a fishy smell, so it's probably just a matter of burying it at the right depth.

Morbida

You do realize you have enough gravel in there for 3 or 4 ten gallon tanks? If that was a 55 gallon , yea I'd say 3 inches, but its only a little tiny ten like I have. You only need an inch , inch and a half in there.

Jimbo205

Now I know.

I found the criminal. Extremely aggressive Molly with Huge Fins. I finally had it when the small Black Molly with a gorgeous Lyretail was missing yesterday. Down to the last 2 and the aggressive one was one of them. Might explain why I have never found any more fry in such a long time, with all the attention he has been showing the females, I should have had tons of fry.

Well, he is now in a Betta Bowl with a plant. Not happy, but seems healthy. From the size of him I hope to exchange him at the Local Fish Store for 4-6 Neons or Raspboras. Now I just need to make time between work and family to get to the Store with the Criminal.

I hope to find him a happy home.

Other than a gravel bed 3X's the depth than is the norm, Does anyone have suggestions for growing the Dwarf Sag faster or as fast as the Rotala? I like my Java Fern and Rotala, but would love a carpet of Dwarf Sag in my tank.
My selection of plants locally are extremely limited. I like to find plants that I have had success with or could easily and expand upon that.

My Betta Bowl at the Office has an Anubias that I just plain absolutely love with the Dwarf Sag doing wonderfully.

Any suggestions on Plants?

With only one Molly left which I may transfer to my 27 Gallon Half Hex, I will be cutting back on my fish food feeding quite a bit. That should take care of the snail overpopulation I have been experiencing lately.

Some suggestions from the El Naturale forums have consequences that are unexpected. I took the suggestion of being generous with feeding fish food and never expected a snail explosion!