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Jacques' substrate"and set-up: Advice?



Hello All:

I'm in the throes of setting up a plant tank utilising some of 
what I've read both in the Krib and from the archives of this 
forum. Please note that I live in South Africa, where most of the 
wonderfull things you have access to simply do not exist.
 
Tank is a 50L type (about ten gallon I suppose), 30cm high by 
30cm deep by 60cm long.
 
I propose to use a three layer substrate: On the bottom 1cm of 
red  clay(ish) subsoil, covered by 2.5 to 3cm of 1/2 
garden soil, 1/2 vermiculite (topsoil here is a rather heavy 
clay) to which I'll add my own mixture of trace elements 
(equivalent to 1/2 teaspoon FTE with extra Mo and 
Chelated Fe as well as EDTA). I'll probably add about a cupfull 
of earthworm castings to this layer. This will be topped with 
2.5cm filtersand (grainsize 1-1.5mm).

Planting will be mainly Valisneria and what I suspect is Cryptocorine 
wendetii (spelling?), along with Java moss, Java fern, 
Lugwedia repens and Lemna minor. I've been experimenting with CO2 
injection  ala yeast reacter type but I haven't had much luck getting 
much CO2 ie I'm getting a bubble a day. Bad batch of yeast I suspect. 
Now for the really tricky bit. The tank's inhabitants will be 
Nothobrachius palmquisti, so the water will be moderately hard, ie 
local tap water, and will have a small amount of salt in it, about 
1/2 tsp per gallon I guess, to prevent velvet disease. I'll also be 
fertilising with a water column fertiliser containing Mg, Nitrate 
and K. Lighting will be a single suspended 20watt Triton (Purchaced 
from nearest stockist: CapeTown: a mere 860km away as the crow flies) 
with a reflecter. No aeration or filtration, although I might add one 
as a simple mechanical scrubber which would also provide some water 
movement to break up leaf surface boundry layers. 

BTW I'm a botanist working on Sugar Cane. 

Jacques Gerber
Botany Department 
Rhodes University
Grahamstown
6139
South Africa