Re: Modular Substrate

[Jon Wright <Jon.Wright at DropShip_Org>]

Tauni -
	Answer to your questions. I use a Dremel tool or Drill with a masonry
bit and grind stone to cut my pots. I have never tried to cut one completely 
in half this way, though. For that I would try soaking the pot in water for
an hour or so and cutting it with a hacksaw.
	As for just having potted plants with no substrate, I seem to recall
that Vinny Kutty had done this a while back. Some of his shots were in Aquarium
Fish Magazine, but I don't know the specific issue(would have been early 90s). He
had Java Moss growing on the outside of the pots to hide the terra cotta. The pics
were really nice, but he was using 4 inch pots, so they did take up some space.
If you are interested, I will crawl my archives and see if I have any more infomation
on this.

 Jon

> 
> Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 15:05:27 -0700
> From: Tauni Sandy <wuggamom at hotpop_com>
> Subject: Re: Modular substrate
> 
> Are these plastic pots? I have several clay pots and want to know how 
> to cut them. 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). 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. 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?
> 
> Feedback, anyone?
> Thanks -
> Tauni
> 

-- 
Jon Wright
Jon.Wright at DropShip_org