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Permalink Reply by LED on August 6, 2014 at 3:34am

I have used multivitamin but its quite a high concentration.  I've used 1 multivitamin per 120 gallons of water which shouldnt harm any species in a fresh water tank.  best way to add miernals beside soil would be using dry fertilizers.  They are easily obtained and in mass quantity that can last for a year or longer if you have a 50 gallon tank or less. ( I have multiple tanks have i have 3 lbs of macro ferts and 1/2 lb of micro ferts and its lasted me for 2 years on going)

For a dirted planted tank i would suggest adding macro and micro ferts.  As for the ammount I cant say what it should be but i think you could safely add 1/10 to maybe 2/10 (1/5) amount of dry powder/crystals of macro and micro ferts under the dirt layer.  If this isnt clear then let me list the order of layers of substrates.

layers starting from bottom to top:

1 macro/micro ferts

2 dirt

3 cap

4 whatever sand/fine substrate for small rooting plants (ei carpeting plants like HM, HC, DHG, and other very small plants

hope this helps

ps if you need help finding dry ferts let me know via a reply here or mailing me.  if you reply here ill know and Ill also post how to get them.  Ill give you a few options and also depends on which country in which you live.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Talamantes on August 6, 2014 at 11:30pm

Thanks for being so detailed, actually just finished dirting my tank and I layered it as instructed, came out looking pretty awesome and my fish responded well to the change. Going to add the multivitamin, it's a liquid human kind, thanks for letting me know its harmless to my fish. I'm also wondering if you know a certain food that will really make their colors pop! I've been feeding them a couple different things, sun dried fresh water shrimp that I grind up, Bettamin; tropical medly (has fish meal, dried yeast, ground brown rice, shrimp meal, feeding out meal, fish oil, brine shrimp, krill, potato protein, algae meal, and a bunch of other shit) and peas, they love the peas! They have pretty good color but its not as great as I want (maybe its just their natural color).

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Permalink Reply by LED on August 7, 2014 at 10:36am

wait wait!  do not add any multivitamin to the water column yet.  with new dirt the water column will be flooded with nutrients... so much so that you will need to do water changes daily depending on how much dirt you put in.  Some do at least 50% water changes daily for the first week or two.   You can see how much tannins are in the water due to the dirt releasing DOC and other substances into the water column.  Because of this you will  NOT NEED multi vitamin yet.  You will not need them for months to come.

Another reason to not add the multivitamin is because you will be simply throwing it away with daily water changes for the first week or two.

One more major reason is that you will be flooding the tank with too many fertilizer which can cause large algae blooms, bacterial blooms and other mishaps

spirulina (algae) foods tend to make fauna colors stand out.  another is chlorella algae which is a common green water but not fun to look at when its in your tank.  Most decent brand foods have spirulina as the main ingredient due to its complete makeup of amino acids, and almost every mineral for living things to thrive.

Foods will only go so far, which then color based on genes come into play.  If you have an ugly fish, it will stay an ugly fish regardless of feeding.  Pretty fish can become a little more pretty with foods.  

Remember that color will change based on how good the water is, if they're startled, if they are relaxed, or with other fish that make them feel at home, and of course food.  Lots to think about =)  Maximising color would be to maximise fish husbandry skills.

Happy tanking

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Permalink Reply by Tom Talamantes on August 7, 2014 at 2:36pm

No worries, I haven't added it yet. I was just looking to make my red plants redder by adding the iron in the multivitamin but I'll hold off and see how they respond. Thanks LED, great info and advice. 

As for the fish I have 3 tanks. My big one which I just dirted following your layers (didn't add clay tho, heard its great for plants). It has a black angel fish, a green tiger barb (looks awesome btw), 3 ghost shrimp, 2 fantail goldfish, 2 plecos, two finned male betta and all my adult fancy guppies. They all have nice color but looking to make the color a little darker and more defined, it might be the light I'm using (have to buy some bulbs if you have a recommendation (heard pink bulbs are the way to go). I have a pretty decent sized drift wood in there and a smaller one with java moss tied onto it, also have a asian water fern, ludwigia repens, lobelia cardinalis, a couple bamboo and a nymphae rubra (water lily) that looks amazing in the center. Had some duck weed but it broke my filter so I took it all our once I redirted it and replaced the filter for free from walmalt (best thing about buying stuff from walmart is that its easy to return or replace things that break or fish that die). I'm waiting for my anubias nana and water wisteria to come in. I run a heater, air stone, and filter on this tank. Have the temp at 80 degrees and no fish or plants have died yet so I'm pretty psyched about that, and I will do the daily water change for a week to make sure it stays that way, thanks for the tip. 

In my smaller dirted tank (miraclegrow/sand/dirt mix with gravel layered on top) I was initially growing the plants that came in just because it was easier to moniter and keep a constant temperature, i still have a bunch of argentine swords in there as well as java moss and duck weed. I keep my cherry shrimp in there (8 of them), the guppy fry, and an assassin slug, as well as 2 pregnant guppies about to give birth. (I was using a breeder net but I didn't like it, took too much space and it seemed to stress out the fish inside causing to abort). I have a heater, air stone, and water pump in that one.

My third tank is for my soft shell turtle. Just soft sand on the bottom with a ton of duck weed and bamboo floating around. The turtle loves the duck weed and also have a common goldfish and a white tetra (my black tetra died) that also feed on the duck weed. I also give them peas, shrimp, and pellets. I had my third pleco in there but I took it out and put it in my big tank, seemed less active and didn't want it to die. No filter, air stone, or water pump in there, Just a led light on top.

I've been having fish tanks for a while now and I started watching dustin's fish tanks and I was like "Damn those plants look pretty sick" so i picked that up and it's been really fun. I only run low tech tanks because my wife doesn't like me spending so much money on them although she is starting to get into it as well. Once I get some more practice in and save up some money I want to get a 220 high tech tank and also a salt water aquarium. Having fun with this now, please let me know if you have anymore tips on tank care, always interested in learning new things from experienced tankers rather than learning the hard way and having fish and plants die on me. Thanks again LED

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