Buffalo Dung

[arulnathan]

Hi,

Is it safe to mix Buffalo Dung with Soil and use it as a fertilizer to my plants. ( As My local fish dealer told me to use 50% Dung & 50 % soil mix together and then use it to the bottom of my tank and then cover this with 2 inches of gravel...and then plant the plants. He says co2 will be provided through soil) Does this sounds good..please let me know.

 

[craynerd]

CO2 throught the soil, i can`t see how that works, he obviously knows something i don`t.

I can understand why "Buffalo Dung" would be a good !!plant!! fertiliser, but whether it is safe to use in the aquarium, you would have to take your chances. I can`t get buffalo dung, but i can tell you one thing, i would not try using Horse manure in my tank!! Even if it did work, would it not colour and cause an oder in the water?

I can not say 100% since i have never used it and never seen reports of its use.

Personally i would stick to more conventional tried and tested substrate methods. But thats the beauty of thi hobby, its sometimes good to try different things, just do your research and make sure you are 100% happy with your findings.

Chris

 

[madcaow]

if buffalo manure is the same as ordinary cow manure i wouldnt use it.

you would have some gnarley looking/smelling water.

 

[unspoken930]

Well, i have horses and i know that once horse manure composts, it doesnt have the odor anymore, its just..... stuff. and it also dries out quite nicely so i guess if you got a bag of manure and you set it out in the sun for 2-3 days to let it completely dry out then put a small layer at the bottom and covered it up with twice as much gravel, you probably wouldnt have too much of a problem as long as you didnt disturb it while filling the tank, becuase it will float (my horse decided to take a poo in a river with me on him.... heh) and before adding any fish i would test the water for a few weeks to make sure it doesnt change the stats, and also to see about clarity and smell, though i doubt there would be any smell involved.

 

[arulnathan]

I think I will try to dry the dung first for a week and then mix it with soil and use it. (now days its raining this side..hope it dry's fast).

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Errr I wouldn't recommend it, if the dung is any were near fresh your going to find that its going to rot in your aquarium, this is going to give off ammonia something chronic and we know how toxic ammonia is.

Your local fish shop is right when he says the soil will produce Co2, its all to do with chemical reactions caused by the soil by bacteria's and decomposed carbonic acids.
Its not really Co2 that is produced its carbonic acids that the plants use as a source of carbon.

The soil should be either sterile or free from any chemicals, I think you can buy pond soil for Lily's ect that would do all that you want.

Be warned though, soil is generally used by experienced planted tank heads and it comes with its problems, very very rich in nutrients which un tamed can give you lots and lots of the dreaded algae, it tends to get pulled in to the water column when pulling out plants which again causes algae.

It sounds like you want to go down the low tech natural tank method, if you do, look for a book on Amazon call the "ecology of a planted aquarium" by Dian Walstad.

Hope this helps.


Graeme.

 

[arulnathan]

Yes ..I like to go for Low tech natural tank ....

I already have one tank (Not fully Gravel Tank) in which I use Plastic square boxes, filled with soil in the bottom and then covered it with gravel...and I am growing swords, Cabomba, some bulb variety plants in it from last 1 year...growth is average but plants don't die.

This is my old pic (Will post New pic...which has Crypts & Amazon)

Now would like to put the Soil/Gravel in the bottom and would like to experiment with this dung thing.... or else will go for soil based method.

Thanks for the book name...

 

[plantbrain]

I chased a buffalo around last night, trying hard, finally caught him today.

Manures in general work well for amendments. But so does soil.

To make such organic approaches work well in our tanks, you can do a couple of things.
Pre soak the mix in a shallow tray of water for 2-3 weeks.
Or, boil for 15 min.

Most spouses will never let you cook again with the boiling(you can bake it if it's wet) dung.......might even divorce you..........

What each of those processes does is convert most of the NH4/Organic NH4 into NO3.
NH4 will cause algae blooms easily.
NO3 will not.

This avoids that by oxidizing the NH4, either through heat(15min-1 hour) or through bacteria(2-3 weeks).
This is why new tanks that are started up often have issues.

Once the bacteria have converted it mostly to NO3, the tank starts to do better, but by then your plants are covered with algae.

Some folks fishless cycle without lights and then add the plants later and then turn the lights on.
The same can be done here also.

So there are 3 options.

I would not suggest more than 3 cm of soil mix.
Then 7-8 cm of capping sand.

As the tank is new still, adding as many plants to suck up any left over NH4 is the best thing you can do for a new tank, more plants = less algae.

This is true for a CO2 enriched high tech tank as well as the lowest tech tank.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[arulnathan]

Thanks Tom for the inputs...

Would like to know..Do I have to boil both soil & dung together or only the Dung ..for 15 minutes ....this looks quick to me...and also thinking of picking up a vessel from the local shop for this.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

I Assume that you are able to get your hands on Buffalo Dung?
Do they roam wild in the part of the world you are from?
Finding Buffalo dung in the UK would surely be like finding a Great White shark in the Thames!?
I dont know about my wife, but I wouldnt want to eat from the oven again if she cooked Dung in there, and imagine the smell of hot dung ??!!

Is this a serious post, or was it started on April 1st ?

Anyway if you are serious, let us know how it goes ...and good luck m8!

 

[unspoken930]

actually, tribes in africa burn elephant dung thats dried out and cook over it.... and from my knowlage (from watching nature shows and such) the american guide or w/e always is suprised becuase there is no odor involved, but thats because the dung is allowed to sit out over a period of time in the sun to kill all bacteria and "cure" it so to speak.

 

[plantbrain]

I'm not joking.

Look, you can let soak outside in water for 2-3 weeks, this is true for soil and dung/manures.
This is to mineralize the NH4.

Think about adding lots of NH4 to a new planted tank..........

That is what you do if you do not process the manure /soil prior and that is a source of start up issues in new tanks.

Soil/manure etc are good things to add if they have the NH4 fraction removed to some degree.
There is a good reason(NH4) for the many issues folks have had over the years with the lower tech substrates.

But.....others have put this issue together.
It's testable also, any hobbysist can do this, CO2 or not.
The other main issue, adding enough plant biomass from the intial planting stage.


Regards,
Tom Barr