Substrate Maturation

Got you covered, @Burr740. They are $8.95 for a bag on Amazon.

If it only happens when you stir up the substrate, maybe it's scuds biting you? Those things will take a bite out of anything. Kinda like sea lice.

Lol I had some in the cart already picked out when the sword thing was happening. The substrate thing's no big deal plus every six months is a little different than once or twice a day

Scuds you say? Could be...
 
Lol I had some in the cart already picked out when the sword thing was happening. The substrate thing's no big deal plus every six months is a little different than once or twice a day

Scuds you say? Could be...
Just bought them and delivered, now my wife has no excuse to not do all the work!
 
Just bought them and delivered, now my wife has no excuse to not do all the work!
Hmm so who actually won the award for "your tank" ??.... you, or your wife? Now come on!, be honest!, I've seen the pics of her working remember..
 
They are $8.95 for a bag on Amazon.

Palpation gloves for cattle. 👍👍

Here's a trick to keep it from falling down / filling with water while you're using:

Clip it to your shirt up behind the shoulder with a bulldog clip.
Works way better than rubber band.

Ask me how I know 🐮 🐮 😅
 
Hmm so who actually won the award for "your tank" ??.... you, or your wife? Now come on!, be honest!, I've seen the pics of her working remember..
Layout was me, group effort with trimming, she does all the scraping and I handle filters and equipment cleaning, dosing and water changes are tag teamed.

Make no mistake, I just want to sit on the couch and direct 😆
 
I just started a new thread but i think a lot depends on the plant and water conditions. I've discovered that many plants grow extremely well without any effort or enriched substrate in blackwater but of course it comes down to plant species. In any event in this environment i'm finding that no real time is needed to 'mature' the substrate. I will note that over the past few years i've discovered that some substrate have properties that will cause ammonia pockets which will result in very nasty things to happen but others never have this issue. For lack of understanding i think the substrate has to 'breathe' to prevent these pockets but i'm not so sure. However i am sure that grain size does not seem to be the determining factor. I've had the worse time with caribsea substrate but no issues with (for example) pool filter sand or estes stoney river black substrate - i could reproduce the issue with caribsea moonlight in a few months but after years never had a problem with the other two - all three have similar grain size though moonlight might be a tiny bit smaller. However i've had similar issue with some of caribsea slight larger substrate. So far i've not had any issues in the blackwater tank so the low ph (which result in a different sort of bacteria population) might be playing a role - i just don't know enough. However planting the right plants result in very well (too well?) growth.
 
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