# Established Walstad Soil Tank Suffering



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

3.5 years is a respectable run, mostly due to slower plant growth with Walstad. ADA recommends replacing their AquaSoil every 1 - 2 years.

With a 125g, you are stuck between two choices: either replace it or treat it as an innert substrate. With an innert substrate we are back to basics: a) appropriate plant choices b) consistent on-going fertilization. With my sand based, low light tanks I use root tabs for plants like swords and crypts (every 2 - 3 months) and water column fertilization for stems and floaters.

You can do much better then Flourish or API root tabs as they are mostly micros. DYI or forum purchased Osmocote+ based tabs are much cheaper and more nutrient comprehensive.


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## robsworld78 (Aug 14, 2014)

Thanks for the reply, I agree I had a good run, I would say I got 2 good years out of it. I should have done something long ago but now I'm basically forced to if I want a decent looking tank.

All these fertilizers confuse me, I don't really want to spend $$$ on overpriced product, I briefly looked around for DIY liquid ferts but quickly got lost. That or tabs are favorable as they sound easy to manage.

Do you have any recommendations for DIY liquid or a source of info that's easy to understand?  I don't think I want to go down the road of changing the substrate... I am thinking about getting something to lay overtop though as I've had quite a few carpets of algae in the last 6 months so it doesn't look as good now.

Here's 3 pics for reference, 1st is when I planted, 2nd was basically the peak and 3rd is today.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

The jungle look is my favorite also. Yours was a rather nice looking tank at its peak and I am positive you can bring it back.

Using DIY dry mix is the most economical and practical approach on the tank your size. You can get the 4 individual chemicals from Dry Fertilizer | Aquarium Fertilizer (or a similar website with shipping to Canada) and mix them yourself using this https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php. It walks you through the proportions and dosage. Or you can buy them already pre-mixed for slightly more $. Shoot for 1/3 dosage recommended for EI and adjust as you go based on the plant mass and light. 
About 25$USD in dry fertilizers will last you a year++.


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## babystarz (Sep 25, 2012)

robsworld78 said:


> Do you have any recommendations for DIY liquid or a source of info that's easy to understand?  I don't think I want to go down the road of changing the substrate... I am thinking about getting something to lay overtop though as I've had quite a few carpets of algae in the last 6 months so it doesn't look as good now.


I found this overwhelming too. I decided to start with NiclocG Thrive (Thrive 500ml | Premium Liquid Fertilizer | NilocG Aquatics) because it contains everything you need aside from carbon (which you can dose using CO2 or Flourish Excel as an alternative if you don't want to do CO2). NiclocG does offer several other options including DIY fertilizer packs in both liquid form and non-liquid (Liquid Fertilizer | Aquarium Fertilizer) but I started off with the pre-made stuff to take the guesswork out of it at first. I will eventually switch to their DIY offerings because they're more cost effective.

When I asked about Thrive no one had anything bad to say and my tank is looking fantastic so I'd recommend it too. If you have shrimp there is a shrimp-specific version of Thrive too.


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## robsworld78 (Aug 14, 2014)

OVT said:


> The jungle look is my favorite also. Yours was a rather nice looking tank at its peak and I am positive you can bring it back.
> 
> Using DIY dry mix is the most economical and practical approach on the tank your size. You can get the 4 individual chemicals from Dry Fertilizer | Aquarium Fertilizer (or a similar website with shipping to Canada) and mix them yourself using this https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php. It walks you through the proportions and dosage. Or you can buy them already pre-mixed for slightly more $. Shoot for 1/3 dosage recommended for EI and adjust as you go based on the plant mass and light.
> About 25$USD in dry fertilizers will last you a year++.


Thanks, this is perfect! I would love to bring to the tank back where it was, now it's at a point where I want to cover it when people come over haha...

I assume I would premix 4 containers? Are these the 4 chemicals, kno3, kh2po4, k2so4 and CSM+B?

That calculator is nice, do I select EI Daily? Would I dose all 4 everyday or 3x per week on alternating days between micros and macros?



babystarz said:


> I found this overwhelming too. I decided to start with NiclocG Thrive (Thrive 500ml | Premium Liquid Fertilizer | NilocG Aquatics) because it contains everything you need aside from carbon (which you can dose using CO2 or Flourish Excel as an alternative if you don't want to do CO2). NiclocG does offer several other options including DIY fertilizer packs in both liquid form and non-liquid (Liquid Fertilizer | Aquarium Fertilizer) but I started off with the pre-made stuff to take the guesswork out of it at first. I will eventually switch to their DIY offerings because they're more cost effective.
> 
> When I asked about Thrive no one had anything bad to say and my tank is looking fantastic so I'd recommend it too. If you have shrimp there is a shrimp-specific version of Thrive too.


Thanks for your suggestion, I think I'm going to start with the DIY and trust the calculator but nice to have something to fall back on. Mixing it myself will save a lot of shipping costs and my plants can't get much worse if I screw up.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Mix kno3, kh2po4, k2so4 in one container as per EI daily and then dose the tank from that container x3 per week. Dose CSM+B on the other 3 days. That should keep it simple. I don't use weighting scales but the measuring spoons. No need to agonize over 0.038 grams. Spoons are close enough.


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## thinBear (Dec 16, 2011)

One of the benefits for not mixing them is more flexibility. For example, one day if there are already plenty of nitrates available in tank then you can readjust the doasage or skip the N

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## robsworld78 (Aug 14, 2014)

Thanks, just discovered kno3 is a restricted item in Canada making it harder to find. I found a site in the US but they say be prepared to explain to customs why you are getting kno3, sounds like getting this will put me in a database somewhere lol...


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