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Re: [APD] Soil and the Diana Factor -- or Don't do as I say,Do as I do?
Thaks for the clarifications and corrections, Phil. Some of
it is not entirely consistent with the book, but author's
change views toos ;-)
--- Phil Edwards <biotypical at hotmail_com> wrote:
> I have the pleasure of living not too far from Diana and
> having had her give
> a talk at a local club meeting. She gave us a wonderful
> explanation of what
> her method really entails and why things work the way
> they do. Since then
> I've had many discussions with her regarding how and why
> she does things.
> There have been a lot of "urban legends" floating around
> about Walstead
> aquariums and I'd like to get on my soapbox and clarify
> some of them.
>
> "Based on Walstad's excellent treatise, doesn't it take
> many years for the
> soil to be depleted?"
>
> Based on a few in-depth conversations with her about this
> she says that most
> potting mixes last about two to three years depending on
> conditions in the
> aquarium.
To me, that's not very long in aquarium terms. I would be
risking the mud clouds only for the sake of two years worth
of traces? TMG is looking better all the time ;-)
>
> "Aren't soils from diff places very diff?"
>
> I'd like to stress that soils aren't what she recommends.
> A nice, cheap,
> non-enhanced, potting mix is what she's talking about.
> The most important
> element of this is peat moss. It's needed to maintain a
> low pH in the
> substrate to keep the decomposition at a slow, steady,
> rate. It's from this
> that we get the DOC and trace elements for the aquarium.
> Soil such as most
> of us are thinking contains too many other elements and
> not enough peat to
> make a stable environment.
This is in the second edition? The first talks about soil
from the backyard.
> "As Ellen said, a coffee-can full isn't much. Actually,
> Walstad explicitly
> makes the point that you can use much more soil (on a
> volume basis) than
> you can many substrate additives, so even if it's a less
> concentrated
> source of a particular nutrient you still wind up with
> more."
Not if it's only going to last for a couple of years; the
amount is rather critical, it would seem.
>
The book:
>"As to the differences in soils, Walstad specifically
> recommends using
> topsoil from a well-drained area."
>
New view or 2nd edition [?] :
> Again, not soil, Potting
> Mix. True soil is has too many
> other things that
> can cause serious destablization in a system like this.
> When I asked her
> where she gets hers the words "cheap" and "Wal*Mart" are
> the ones that stick
> in my mind.
Scott H.
=====
S. Hieber
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