When I'm setting up a new planted aquarium,
I often assemble the mix for the lower layer
separately. It might contain dry cat-litter
laterite and Flourite, sand, grit, fine gravel
and moistened peat moss. I set it in dry
by cupfuls among the rocks and shape it.
Then I spritz down the aquarium walls before
I add my upper layer of substrate, composed
of fine gravel, Flourite, and coarse builder's
sand. Then very gently I add water, full
of detritus siphoned out of a mature tank,
if I can get it, to cover by about an inch.
Then I plant in the shallow water.
The next step is an important one, which
nobody seems to follow: I siphon out all the water. Before I add even a grain of substrate,
I have first temporarily taped a short section
of rigid tubing into a convenient front corner,
about a coin's thickness above the bottom
glass. Once planting is completed, I use
the empty tube as a temporary well, from
which I slowly siphon every available drop
of silty water out of the aquarium. The drawn-off
water is the color of a cheap vanilla milkshake.
I spritz all the glass, plants, rocks and
wood, and the surface of the substrate repeatedly
and re-siphon, until all the surfaces are
clean and most of the silt has been drawn
down into the substrate, which is just where
I want it.
How to innoculate the new system? My next
step is to spread gravel, scraped carefully
off the surface of a clean, balanced, well-matured
aquarium's substrate, entirely covering the
surface with a very thin layer. This seeds
the new tank better than a teaspoonful in
a filter. Once the filter is running, perhaps
I will also be able to spare some gunk siphoned
out of a mature system. Dr. Erik Johnson
uses a koi pond filter to seed a new aquarium.
Look at Dr Johnson's clear and illustrated
directions at www.koivet.com.
Finally, I pull up plants lightly, so that
their crowns are not buried.
Now I refill the tank very gingerly, pouring
into a flat saucer that sits on a piece of
cardboard. The initial cloudiness is often
still fierce. I'm always disappointed and
cross about my own clumsiness. But I let
the whole thing settle for 48 hours or until
the water is clear, and then I gently siphon
over the surfaces, before even thinking about starting the filtration. By the way,
once some biofilm has begun to build up,
bacterial floc will bind the colloidal silt
in the laterite, and it won't cloud the water
any longer, even with some gentle disturbance.
But I don't mess with it for the first six
weeks. Even if some plants do come floating
to the surface, I repress the temptation
to replant them.
