By request I am adding this for reference. I am sure I am not the first person to do this although I have not found it documented elsewhere.
Anyway, I would like to share with the group a simple method I have developed injecting a nutrient soil (in my case an aquatic compost) under a top layer of gravel/sand.
Like many of you, I expect, I have found myself in the position of having a tank running with an inert substrate and wanting to grow rooted plants in it. Some I have found do well with just water column dosing but some have still struggled despite me providing excellent water column levels of nutrients and doing my best with root tabs. So I found myself wishing I had set up the tank with a bottom nutrient layer of soil. However, the tank in question was a 500 litre, very established and hardscaped, planted tank with a lot of livestock. I just dreaded the thought of taking it down and redoing it with something like aquatic compost as a bottom layer. I tried putting aquasoil in mesh bags under areas of gravel. THis showed promise but I found it hard to plant things on top of it because I hit the bag quite early as the layer of gravel was not deep enough. Hence I got to further thinking how I might get the compost under the gravel without disturbing everything. I have developed a method of "injecting" it under the gravel which is working an absolute treat, with virtually no fouling of the water at all. It can be very locally placed for individual plants, so species which are fine with water column dosing can be left undisturbed.
I start off with cutting the end off a 10ml plastic syringe. The cut end is smoothed with abrasive paper.
The syringe is loaded up with a bolus of slightly damp aquatic compost. I usually use a whole syringe full.
Fingers are dipped in a mug or bowl of water to clean them and the outside of the syringe is cleaned with damp kitchen paper. All to reduce any fouling of the water column.
A finger is put over the end of the syringe to stop leakage. This is why a 10 ml syringe is the perfect size (for my fat fingers anyway).
The end of the syringe is inserted underneath the gravel to the bottom of the tank, the finger removed and the bolus of compost is injected . Then wiggle the syringe out of the gravel/sand to encourage the gravel/sand to seal the hole and the syringe is slowly removed.
As a basic principle of cleanly injecting a soil-type substance under sand/gravel it's incredibly simple and yet works extremely well. Can be a good root tab alternative too. Its also
surprising how quickly one can implant quite a significant amount of soil once you get into a rhythm.
Anyway, I would like to share with the group a simple method I have developed injecting a nutrient soil (in my case an aquatic compost) under a top layer of gravel/sand.
Like many of you, I expect, I have found myself in the position of having a tank running with an inert substrate and wanting to grow rooted plants in it. Some I have found do well with just water column dosing but some have still struggled despite me providing excellent water column levels of nutrients and doing my best with root tabs. So I found myself wishing I had set up the tank with a bottom nutrient layer of soil. However, the tank in question was a 500 litre, very established and hardscaped, planted tank with a lot of livestock. I just dreaded the thought of taking it down and redoing it with something like aquatic compost as a bottom layer. I tried putting aquasoil in mesh bags under areas of gravel. THis showed promise but I found it hard to plant things on top of it because I hit the bag quite early as the layer of gravel was not deep enough. Hence I got to further thinking how I might get the compost under the gravel without disturbing everything. I have developed a method of "injecting" it under the gravel which is working an absolute treat, with virtually no fouling of the water at all. It can be very locally placed for individual plants, so species which are fine with water column dosing can be left undisturbed.
I start off with cutting the end off a 10ml plastic syringe. The cut end is smoothed with abrasive paper.
The syringe is loaded up with a bolus of slightly damp aquatic compost. I usually use a whole syringe full.
Fingers are dipped in a mug or bowl of water to clean them and the outside of the syringe is cleaned with damp kitchen paper. All to reduce any fouling of the water column.
A finger is put over the end of the syringe to stop leakage. This is why a 10 ml syringe is the perfect size (for my fat fingers anyway).
The end of the syringe is inserted underneath the gravel to the bottom of the tank, the finger removed and the bolus of compost is injected . Then wiggle the syringe out of the gravel/sand to encourage the gravel/sand to seal the hole and the syringe is slowly removed.
As a basic principle of cleanly injecting a soil-type substance under sand/gravel it's incredibly simple and yet works extremely well. Can be a good root tab alternative too. Its also
surprising how quickly one can implant quite a significant amount of soil once you get into a rhythm.
