So if the only comment you can come up with is something along the lines of "Global Warming is Fake News!" or "We're running out of time to reverse climate change." then please go away now. Find a different thread to comment that on.
Also this is going to be taking form from my mind as I type it out so apologies if it gets really long and appears to ramble.
In general I am a supporter of the more regenerative agriculture movement. Diversity, animal impact, perennials, large root systems, that sort of things. I try and increase root mass so that I can improve my water infiltration, I try to improve my residue so that I can keep moisture in the soil and gradually be increasing my humus. To varying degrees these are things that, as farmers, anyone here will have a decent understanding of and depending on our differing goals, try to utilize and manipulate as we can. However for the most part we live in an arid environment - at least us prairie folk do. This brittle landscape we're on can skew our anecdotal perceptions. What books tell us happens, we like to assume is happening (Like great, speedy OM growth.) While we may be holding steady on OM, sometimes increasing it, it would almost be impossible for us to grow it like books and many social media icons do. Fast OM growth and break down really likes moisture and well... we don't really have that kind of moisture.
Now this is the part that some of you are really going to have to restrain yourself.... But I have faith you can do it!
Regenerative focus really likes to utilize cycles. Like the Carbon cycle; the Water cycle; even to a point the Nitrogen cycle although it's not used as a real promoter of the regen idea. However to sit and watch our land year after year, these cycles are not that easy to visualize. Well... except the water cycle. It's pretty easy to see how broken that one is a lot of the time. And personally I just can't understand how people can feel so confident in their opinions (well I can, it's human nature after all, but I digress), how can people feel so confident when they give off the appearance that they only have a half baked understanding of these cycles. To be able to see them at work, easily, visibly, and where they can be noticeably altered by us is very interesting to me.
So, onto my new hobby!
In a surprise twist that shouldn't have been that surprising after all, this is like a little world example of the importance of these cycles.
I like green and plants. Not to the point that living where it was green year round was appealing, that was like living in a worm hole, but some form of plant life during winter is enjoyable to me. Alas, I kind of suck at house plants. I've been working to improve on this over the years and I am getting better, but there are still randomly established, "easy" plants that fall victim to me every year. Anyway, last winter I started thinking that I would like to try my hand at aquatic plants. If I was successful, maybe I could even successfully keep fish alive that aren't just my stock trough cleaning goldfish.
So I started doing some research, and like most people, started applying knowledge I had from elsewhere to what I was learning. In this case, agriculture and growing plants to setting up an aquarium. The aquarium and fish keeping hobby is an odd one though and most people just responded with this correlation of knowledge as "That's not how it works, no way, you're doomed." Luckily, I found people that had other experiences and backed up a lot of what I was trying to translate to aquatic. One issue that was still highlighted though, was creating an anaerobic environment in the soil of the tank. In my above ground mind, this is solved with plant roots and soil dwelling flora and fauna but even in this select sub hobby of a picky hobby this wasn't anything ever considered as acceptable. Then today I was watching a short Youtube clip and Father Fish said exactly that. (Yes, there's a guy who calls himself Father Fish) "You don't need to worry about aeration, the plant roots are going to do that." I'm going to shed my training wheels and leading strings and just go with my gut from now on. Except my tank is already set up so this is knowledge for future use Hah
The main goals with planted tanks is to get it working together as it's own little ecosystem. This is called "cycling", you want the tank to cycle. Mainly this is focusing on the Nitrogen cycle. The soil and decaying matter (and eventually any livestock) produce ammonia which then turns to nitrite and on to nitrate yada yada we ag peeps know this. Well ammonia kills flora and nitrite kills flora, and in very small amounts, while nitrate is also toxic but can be handled by fish and invertebrates in higher levels. This is going to be a very simplified summation but more or less, you put soil in the tank, you put water in the tank, you put plants in the tank, your tank starts to cycle. Nitrifying bacteria are going to start to develop and you will probably see a bacterial bloom. Nitrifying bacteria are helping convert the ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate. In a non planted tank this is accomplished with filters full of bacteria and regular water changes to keep levels safe for livestock. However, do you know what else absolutely loves ammonia and nitrite and nitrate? Bet you do.
The plants!
The plants work with the bacteria and keep your water N conditions more stable (The larger your aquarium the more stable it will be) so your fishies don't get ammonia or nitrite poisoning and die! This is a cycle we use in ag and we can see the positive and negative effects of it, however it's very, very easy to see the effects quickly in a small, closed, ecosystem of an aquarium.
But there's one other cycle at play in my new hobby tank. (Again, I ask for you to practice restraint here, I'm going to say the trigger word.) The Carbon cycle!
If you talk to many super hobbyists, they actually supply CO2 to their aquariums to support their plants, because what do plants need to function. Light and CO2. Again, we know this. I also know I'm poor and cheap so no way no how did I want to invest in a CO2 system and canisters that require constant refilling just to keep plants alive. Yeah I might be limiting myself to lesser high maintenance plants, oh well. In my mind they can grow in Nature without supplemental CO2, they can grow in my tank. I just need to know the carbon cycle. So the water is going to absorb some CO2 from the atmosphere, that's going to help. I also have some emergent and floating plants that are able to access CO2 directly from the atmosphere. Any livestock I have in the tank are also going to supply CO2 for the plants in the exact same relationship we have with the aboveground plants. We supply them with CO2, they supply us with Oxygen. There's also concerns, not so much in this method, but in tanks where CO2 is supplied, that lack of light can lead to too much CO2 in the water. Why? Because plants only use CO2 when they're photosynthesizing and they only photosynthesize when there's light. If there's too many critters producing CO2 in the tank and it's not being filtered out and the plants aren't photosynthesizing, then you can have issues.
My fish (and massive hoard of snails currently) require toxin free water with no ammonia or nitrite and very little nitrate, and they require oxygen. My plants require CO2 and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
See how this works. And you can literally see how it works. This isn't just a case of write it down and know it happens.
Now if I were to not plant my tank heavily enough/had too many animals in it, I would have to supply some sort of filtration and do regular water changes. The N cycle toxins would build up and the livestock would suffer. I would also have to supply some sort of oxygenation, be it an air stone or just a filter system that helps incorporate oxygen into the water. But if I let the system balance out and I don't push it, it will support itself. By also incorporating diversity it will more quickly start to produce its own requirements to flourish and be more stable.
Here's some photos that show this in action. Visual cues so to speak. Sometimes you might see some cloudiness (bacterial blooms), or some green tinge (algae bloom), and I've moved plants around as some have died and some have exploded.
Day 4
Day 7 - Here I added some water from a local dam. It brought with it some shrimps and snails and duckweed and all sorts of little tiny bug things.
Day 38
Day 54 - At this point it's stabilized enough I don't think I'll kill fish. The snails definitely haven't died, look how many are in the photo!
Day 59 - Today fish were added. Now pay attention to the plants, especially along the top of the tank. Up until now the Duckweed is just kind of hanging out around the Pothos roots and hasn't really done much, which I thought was odd for a plant people usually call ridiculously fast growing and warn it will take over a tank.
Bah, I can't add more photos. Nobody comment until I get the others posted Lol
Also this is going to be taking form from my mind as I type it out so apologies if it gets really long and appears to ramble.
In general I am a supporter of the more regenerative agriculture movement. Diversity, animal impact, perennials, large root systems, that sort of things. I try and increase root mass so that I can improve my water infiltration, I try to improve my residue so that I can keep moisture in the soil and gradually be increasing my humus. To varying degrees these are things that, as farmers, anyone here will have a decent understanding of and depending on our differing goals, try to utilize and manipulate as we can. However for the most part we live in an arid environment - at least us prairie folk do. This brittle landscape we're on can skew our anecdotal perceptions. What books tell us happens, we like to assume is happening (Like great, speedy OM growth.) While we may be holding steady on OM, sometimes increasing it, it would almost be impossible for us to grow it like books and many social media icons do. Fast OM growth and break down really likes moisture and well... we don't really have that kind of moisture.
Now this is the part that some of you are really going to have to restrain yourself.... But I have faith you can do it!
Regenerative focus really likes to utilize cycles. Like the Carbon cycle; the Water cycle; even to a point the Nitrogen cycle although it's not used as a real promoter of the regen idea. However to sit and watch our land year after year, these cycles are not that easy to visualize. Well... except the water cycle. It's pretty easy to see how broken that one is a lot of the time. And personally I just can't understand how people can feel so confident in their opinions (well I can, it's human nature after all, but I digress), how can people feel so confident when they give off the appearance that they only have a half baked understanding of these cycles. To be able to see them at work, easily, visibly, and where they can be noticeably altered by us is very interesting to me.
So, onto my new hobby!
In a surprise twist that shouldn't have been that surprising after all, this is like a little world example of the importance of these cycles.
I like green and plants. Not to the point that living where it was green year round was appealing, that was like living in a worm hole, but some form of plant life during winter is enjoyable to me. Alas, I kind of suck at house plants. I've been working to improve on this over the years and I am getting better, but there are still randomly established, "easy" plants that fall victim to me every year. Anyway, last winter I started thinking that I would like to try my hand at aquatic plants. If I was successful, maybe I could even successfully keep fish alive that aren't just my stock trough cleaning goldfish.
So I started doing some research, and like most people, started applying knowledge I had from elsewhere to what I was learning. In this case, agriculture and growing plants to setting up an aquarium. The aquarium and fish keeping hobby is an odd one though and most people just responded with this correlation of knowledge as "That's not how it works, no way, you're doomed." Luckily, I found people that had other experiences and backed up a lot of what I was trying to translate to aquatic. One issue that was still highlighted though, was creating an anaerobic environment in the soil of the tank. In my above ground mind, this is solved with plant roots and soil dwelling flora and fauna but even in this select sub hobby of a picky hobby this wasn't anything ever considered as acceptable. Then today I was watching a short Youtube clip and Father Fish said exactly that. (Yes, there's a guy who calls himself Father Fish) "You don't need to worry about aeration, the plant roots are going to do that." I'm going to shed my training wheels and leading strings and just go with my gut from now on. Except my tank is already set up so this is knowledge for future use Hah
The main goals with planted tanks is to get it working together as it's own little ecosystem. This is called "cycling", you want the tank to cycle. Mainly this is focusing on the Nitrogen cycle. The soil and decaying matter (and eventually any livestock) produce ammonia which then turns to nitrite and on to nitrate yada yada we ag peeps know this. Well ammonia kills flora and nitrite kills flora, and in very small amounts, while nitrate is also toxic but can be handled by fish and invertebrates in higher levels. This is going to be a very simplified summation but more or less, you put soil in the tank, you put water in the tank, you put plants in the tank, your tank starts to cycle. Nitrifying bacteria are going to start to develop and you will probably see a bacterial bloom. Nitrifying bacteria are helping convert the ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate. In a non planted tank this is accomplished with filters full of bacteria and regular water changes to keep levels safe for livestock. However, do you know what else absolutely loves ammonia and nitrite and nitrate? Bet you do.
The plants!
The plants work with the bacteria and keep your water N conditions more stable (The larger your aquarium the more stable it will be) so your fishies don't get ammonia or nitrite poisoning and die! This is a cycle we use in ag and we can see the positive and negative effects of it, however it's very, very easy to see the effects quickly in a small, closed, ecosystem of an aquarium.
But there's one other cycle at play in my new hobby tank. (Again, I ask for you to practice restraint here, I'm going to say the trigger word.) The Carbon cycle!
If you talk to many super hobbyists, they actually supply CO2 to their aquariums to support their plants, because what do plants need to function. Light and CO2. Again, we know this. I also know I'm poor and cheap so no way no how did I want to invest in a CO2 system and canisters that require constant refilling just to keep plants alive. Yeah I might be limiting myself to lesser high maintenance plants, oh well. In my mind they can grow in Nature without supplemental CO2, they can grow in my tank. I just need to know the carbon cycle. So the water is going to absorb some CO2 from the atmosphere, that's going to help. I also have some emergent and floating plants that are able to access CO2 directly from the atmosphere. Any livestock I have in the tank are also going to supply CO2 for the plants in the exact same relationship we have with the aboveground plants. We supply them with CO2, they supply us with Oxygen. There's also concerns, not so much in this method, but in tanks where CO2 is supplied, that lack of light can lead to too much CO2 in the water. Why? Because plants only use CO2 when they're photosynthesizing and they only photosynthesize when there's light. If there's too many critters producing CO2 in the tank and it's not being filtered out and the plants aren't photosynthesizing, then you can have issues.
My fish (and massive hoard of snails currently) require toxin free water with no ammonia or nitrite and very little nitrate, and they require oxygen. My plants require CO2 and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
See how this works. And you can literally see how it works. This isn't just a case of write it down and know it happens.
Now if I were to not plant my tank heavily enough/had too many animals in it, I would have to supply some sort of filtration and do regular water changes. The N cycle toxins would build up and the livestock would suffer. I would also have to supply some sort of oxygenation, be it an air stone or just a filter system that helps incorporate oxygen into the water. But if I let the system balance out and I don't push it, it will support itself. By also incorporating diversity it will more quickly start to produce its own requirements to flourish and be more stable.
Here's some photos that show this in action. Visual cues so to speak. Sometimes you might see some cloudiness (bacterial blooms), or some green tinge (algae bloom), and I've moved plants around as some have died and some have exploded.
Day 4
Day 7 - Here I added some water from a local dam. It brought with it some shrimps and snails and duckweed and all sorts of little tiny bug things.
Day 38
Day 54 - At this point it's stabilized enough I don't think I'll kill fish. The snails definitely haven't died, look how many are in the photo!
Day 59 - Today fish were added. Now pay attention to the plants, especially along the top of the tank. Up until now the Duckweed is just kind of hanging out around the Pothos roots and hasn't really done much, which I thought was odd for a plant people usually call ridiculously fast growing and warn it will take over a tank.
Bah, I can't add more photos. Nobody comment until I get the others posted Lol
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