Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #167

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at yahoo_com>]

> Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 15:05:27 -0700
> From: Tauni Sandy <wuggamom at hotpop_com>
> Subject: Re: Modular substrate
> 
> On Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:53:22 -0700 Thomas Barr
> <tcbiii at earthlink_net> wrote:
> 
> >These pots can be cut at angles or down low for the
> foreground and come up
> >high to 5 inches (or higher set on the gravel) in the back
> giving a nice
> >maintainable slope.
> >
> 
> Are these plastic pots? 

Yes, thin plastic easy to cut. You buy 10 at a time for 2.99 or
so. you get 12x3(36 total)in a 55 gallon tank for example.

I have several clay pots and want to
> know how 
> to cut them. 

Hack saw can work or a metal band saw or use a special ceramic
saw blade also. It's easier to make special custom pots from
clay than to go through all this trouble and then you have
exactly what you want!

The tiny pots at the craft store don't leave a
> lot of 
> room for substrate and roots, while the bigger ones are 3-4
> inches 
> tall (and I don't want a substrate that deep).

Use those seedling trays then. Cheap and you can get a number of
sizes. If you look , you can find a number of plastic items that
fit the bill. If not, use some clay and start designing the
shapes you want. The end result will look nice.

 I have also
> picked up 
> some plastic trays, about 1.5 inches deep, to use for those
> plants 
> that generally use their roots to hold them down rather than
> really 
> absorbing a lot of nutrients.
> 
> In fact, I've been considering using no substrate in the tank
> at all 
> (or maybe just a thin one to hide the mulm a bit) and keeping
> all my 
> rooted plants in pots. 

Neil Frank has been doing this for years. Coconut shells are
also quite good for this and were popular in the past.
Toss some moss in the front instead of gravel.

I know I'd have to vacuum the rest of
> the 
> substrate, but keeping my plants in pots would make it so much
> easier 
> to catch my rapidly reproducing platies, since I could just
> remove 
> all the plants to a bucket beforehand. Does anyone have a tank
> like I 
> just described, and maybe some pictures I could see online?

Neil does.
Regards, 
Tom Barr

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