I'm looking at making up my own underlay soil mix, and am planning on using either worm castings, or a mix of composted manure and mineral garden soil, or possibly all three together. I'd be boiling the mix for 15 minutes (outdoors) once I add the other ingredients so I'm not worried about the ammonia/etc as that should immediately mineralize it. I'm also thinking of adding a little sand to give it a little weight, 15% green powdered clay to flocculate it. And following the boiling I'll let the entire mix evaporate to a fairly solid mud form, or possibly an altogether dry form which I can then use as powder.
I'll add a sprinking of Dolomite Lime, Potash, fritted trace elements, and Micronized Iron as well. before I'd put the MTS down in the tank, unless I should keep it in the mix instead? Does that all seem like it would work? I was also considering adding some peat, but don't want it tinging the water I guess, and it can overeact with the iron. And then I'll cap that with something similar to 3M ColorQuartz Sand. However, I was worried that using composted manure would add too much sulfur and risk problematic Hydrogen Sulfide production?
And though I know they're not considered necessary now in terms of keeping plant roots warm, I'm still thinking I'll use substrate heating cable to keep a little flow in the substrate to try and keep allelochemicals flushing out, but would that flush out the nutrients as well, and make them available to algae instead of the plants?
The only nutrients I'd plan to dose in the water column would be Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium.
I based the plan in no small part on this article, though I varied from its advice as well - http://home.infinet.net/teban/substrat.htm
I'll add a sprinking of Dolomite Lime, Potash, fritted trace elements, and Micronized Iron as well. before I'd put the MTS down in the tank, unless I should keep it in the mix instead? Does that all seem like it would work? I was also considering adding some peat, but don't want it tinging the water I guess, and it can overeact with the iron. And then I'll cap that with something similar to 3M ColorQuartz Sand. However, I was worried that using composted manure would add too much sulfur and risk problematic Hydrogen Sulfide production?
And though I know they're not considered necessary now in terms of keeping plant roots warm, I'm still thinking I'll use substrate heating cable to keep a little flow in the substrate to try and keep allelochemicals flushing out, but would that flush out the nutrients as well, and make them available to algae instead of the plants?
The only nutrients I'd plan to dose in the water column would be Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium.
I based the plan in no small part on this article, though I varied from its advice as well - http://home.infinet.net/teban/substrat.htm