i am a ra-tard.

ok i am taking a huge step. i am taking down my 300 gallon aquarium which is heavily planted to go dirty. i am tired of the up keep of chemicals and the constant bba battles that piss me off to no end. i have been scrolling the forums for clay advice, and because i seem to lack the quality intelligence of a man my age i need finite answers. i have purchased amaco mexican red clay, terra cotta. i saw in the forums that someone else had done the same and needed knowledge as if this was ok. it is the only red clay i can find in my phoenix area. i have checked twelve craft stores, and called countless others to find just the mexican red clay to no avail. some poeple seemed ok with terra cotta because it is assumed that it is dyed with iron oxide( rust, which is also used to coat black forest ham) and should be sufficent. the box says it is a grey molding clay dyed red. has anyone actually tried this and had any luck, or had luck only to find out that is was the dirt and nothing to do with the terra cotta clay making this type worthless? any advice that could possibly make me smarter would be appreciated by my wife who thinks my passion for fish is crazy. sorry if this has been answered before, but i have been searching the forums for days trying to get an answer. thanks for anyone who actually took time to read this, for i know it is long

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Permalink Reply by joey c on October 21, 2011 at 1:35am

i have been co2 injecting through my sump, pretty much right into the pump. my co2 levels were perfect, and i could increase that amount fairly easy. . but like i said, maybe too much water body to try this method with my sump. but if you do a sump right with a planted aquarium its magical. water changes are five minutes, you don't have to worry about the plants or fish. just drain and fill. i have an aquaclear 110 power head in my sump on a timer with a automatic pool filler that kicked in water when the sump got to low. so i basically did a about a 22% water change every day. without ever doing a water change. you wanted to do a bigger water change i would just put the hose going to the sump on a power head in the tank and once the water got low enough in the tank, the auto filler in the sump would fill the tank back up through the sump. easiest thing ever. where my algea came in was i wasnt there to dose the levels. i wonder now if i could have used a auto fish feeder for dosing? if it is dry ferts couldn't you just replace the food for ferts? might try it. thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by joey c on October 21, 2011 at 12:52am

yea just tied the two together, good man for starting this website.

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Permalink Reply by Cristina Green on October 21, 2011 at 4:45pm

I was looking at the same stuff in Michaels, Joey, and after doing some research it definitely did not seem the thing to use. The manufacturer recommends against it as well, as most craft store clays don't get bought up very quickly, so they put preservatives and anti-bacterials in them to preserve their freshness.

If you are able to find a clay studio in the area, perhaps they would sell you a chunk of their stuff. I tried a local high school and they were willing to, but they only have grey clay. So I ended up finding a clay art supply store only 30 minutes away from me. http://www.clayworkssupplies.com/moreInfo.cgi?i_group_id=Redart I bought 5 pounds of this powdered natural red art clay for just a few bucks. I also bought some pure iron oxide that I plan to experiment with and add to the clay in a test tank at a later date. I mixed the clay with water until there was enough water to make knead it until pliable. After it was nice and pliable, I make small balls with the clay that I laid out on a cookie sheet to dry. This took a while, but I liked the process and saving $$ so for me it was just fine.

I've only had a dirt tank now for just over 2 days, so I can't vouch for the efficacy of the clay (or the dirt!). I added it right before capping, by the way, so that it wouldn't get mushy too fast and disperse while i was mixing. After the dirt was nicely muddy, I sprinkled the clay balls evenly-ish over the surface and thepushed them into the dirt and then capped.

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Permalink Reply by joey c on October 22, 2011 at 12:49pm

thanks to all for the fast replies, and good nature of the content. i am excited to see a vast amount of people trying different methods in obtaining their ideal aqaurium.