Plants in moveable clay pots and placing in tank VS. planting in substrate

[RebeccaB]

Hi all.  I am wondering if anyone has ever tried putting plants in porous clay pots with soil (as in how pond plants are planted) and embedding them in the substrate of your tank.  Please refer to the following two articles for more information:

1. AQUATIC PLANTS IN MOVEABLE POTS http://www.aquabotanic.com/potplants.htm
2. WET PLANT LOGIC - Approaching 1 year http://wetplantlogic.com/wordpress/http:/wetplantlogic.com/wordpress/2008/05/10/approaching-1-year/

I am interested to hear your thoughts.  It seems like a neat idea if one is wanting to have a light sand substrate, but still want to pursue a planted tank.

[jetstream]

Soil is my favour substrate. In my own opinion, the plants that grow in clay pot with soil develop the best root system. But you need to be careful, otherwise it will gives you lots of algae fun! That's why peoples recommend demineralize the soil before you put it in your tank! Besides myself, I know there's at least 1 more club member  has soil in their planted tank. No algae, no fun! 

[OttawaFolkFestivum]

Rebecca - I did not read your links, but I have done the minearlized top soil with good results. I went straight from plain gravel to soil, so I have no personal comparisons with the commercial plant substrates.

If you are not familiar, the resource I used is
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/library/52554-how-mineralized-soil-substrate-aaron-talbot.html

The soaking / drying of the top soil takes some work, and now that it's winter it might be hard to do.

The most difficult part of this project was finding the materials. I was able to get Muriate of Potash from Ritchie Feed and Seed in Stittsville, and after a lot of looking found an amazing spot for raw clay - "Capital Pottery Supplies"; you can buy clay powder, and it's like $2 for more than I needed for my 55G. Instead of Dolomite I used Crushed coral since I had some lying around.

I have a lot of leftover Potash I can give you, and I have some leftover soil as well that you can try in a few pots.

I'm definitely going to try pots at some point - if you have bigger fish (discus, angels) than you can keep your tank a lot cleaner.

Anyway, glad to discuss further.

[Toss]

I have done soil in the tank with clay pot or the whole substrate. The rule of light and CO2 still apply. You just safe the fertilizer part cuz you supply enough already from the soil BUT after a while (long term), you will need to repot your plant (just like house plants) cuz most of the nutrients are gone. So, yes it is fun to try it but proceed with caution like jetstream said, you might end up with algae fun