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Dry start or not dry start

Keetchy

Member
Joined
8 Nov 2019
Messages
439
Location
Milton Keynes
The countdown begins. Trip to AG on Friday and then hardscaping starts this weekend.

So i had it in my head that I was going to dry start my carpet for 6-8 weeks because I thought it was much better to do so. But after following George Farmer's Aquascape 1200 Youtube videos, he doesn't drystart and it looks fairly easy to plant carpet with the tank filled up.

Is there a major benefit to dry starting?
 
Is there a major benefit to dry starting?

Depends on how much and carpet your doing, allows the carpet to be well established before flooding so you can plant less plants and save money and the carpet wont float up after flooding, plants will have lots of energy stored so the change to grow under water easier so less melt, during DSM no CO2 needed as 400ppm in air and can blast the light on full for 12hrs day without having any algae issues
upload_2019-12-31_16-57-27.png


My DSM here
 
Is there a major benefit to dry starting?

Absolutely, plants depend as much if not more on their roots as on the foilage for survival.
What they initially do not have when going from pot to aquarium substrate is a healthy developed root system.
A repotted plant always suffers a transplant shock, then on top of that it has foliage in emersed form but it gets flooded where this type of foliage can not survive.

Actually you are virtually multi shocking the crap out of that plant. :) That it still can work and that a plant still can survive this tells how resilient most plants actually are.

But still, giving a plant the time to go to these negative processes/stages in longer periods with consecutive intervals will benefit health and survival rate.

Another benefit is, it biologically matures the substrate faster and better. This because the nitrifying bacteria we need live symbiotically in the plant roots. They aid the plant but also have high oxygen demand.

Thus as Zues already cleared, the plant in its emersed form is in need of a lot of CO² to develop and get over the transplant shock and this it will get with a dry start. The bacteria maturing the substrate and aid the plant to develop need oxygen, this it will get with a dry start.

Bottom line, all tho not a necessity a dry start is always a win-win situation. :thumbup:
 
@Zeus. @zozo

Thank you guys. A lot of info fed my way there. And I will check out your link @Zeus.

I'll probably stick with my original plan then and fo ahead with the DSM. The other thing I'm worried about is the wood drying out. Will the wood dry out even if I keep the tank sealed with cling film and spray it daily?
 
@Zeus. Just had a quick read of that page you sent in the link and again I have another concern that I will definitely come across. And that's the mould. So did just leaving the tanks lids open a bit more fully resolve the mould issue you had?
 
@Zeus. Just had a quick read of that page you sent in the link and again I have another concern that I will definitely come across. And that's the mould. So did just leaving the tanks lids open a bit more fully resolve the mould issue you had?

Mould wasn't a problem till the later stage of the DSM and then it was easy to control as as the plants had good roots could leave the lids open for quite a few hours at first then overnight, although my DSM didnt have any steep slopes and no carpet in high places which are harder to keep moist which can lead the too much water.
 
Mould wasn't a problem till the later stage of the DSM and then it was easy to control as as the plants had good roots could leave the lids open for quite a few hours at first then overnight, although my DSM didnt have any steep slopes and no carpet in high places which are harder to keep moist which can lead the too much water.
Ah ok. I'll have to bare that in mind when I design the layout. Or when I get help from AG with the layout :lol:
 
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