No, the moon sand will be just a very thin layer to cover the cable heater, to aid in the distribution of heat..
Oh, I forgot the laterite!
After the moon sand there will be a 3/4" layer of bagged (not granular) laterite, then 3" of eco-complete..
As for the brown sugar, this is what he told me about how he cycles his tanks, edited for brevity:
Quote:
I start with the substrate. I do well planted freshwater tanks, and you already know about my substrate. Then put about six inches of water in the tank and start planting. I always buy more plants than I need, so I can pack the tank with plants initially to head off any algae. Then I start with dark brown sugar.
I start the cycling process with a pinch of dark brown sugar every day. The sucrose in the sugar is metabolized by the bacteria for its ammonia by taking an atom of Oxygen from it, making nitrite, and another to make nitrate. I do this for a month.
At the end of the month, I test. I always get zeros on Ammonia and Nitrite, and less than 5 ppm Nitrate. I also thin out the tank then to achieve the layout I'd planned.
I continue the brown sugar for the next two weeks, adding a larger pinch every day, then I start adding a few fishes, the number and size appropriate for the tank size. For the roughly equivalent 75 to my right, I started with six inch-long Ancistrus claro. I'd constructed areas for them when I initially built the tank, because I knew they were the loricariads I was going to keep.
I test after a week of them being in there. They were about an inch long when I got them, so there wasn't a peep of ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate had sunk to about 2 ppm, since the plants were using up the nitrate for their growth.
About two weeks after that, I added six Corydoras guapore. They, too were little guys at that point. The Ancistrus were more visible when the little corys came. Roughly two weeks after that, six more guapore joined the group. Tests were the same.
The bacteria that take atoms of Oxygen from Ammonia and Nitrate are present in every freshwater body of water. There's a colony in your tank as soon as you set it up, because the spores of the bacteria are in your tap water. We all drink them, as well as algae cells and all kinds of bacteria.
Three things. First, its inorganic ammonia in those bottles, meaning the bacteria have difficulty processing it, which is why you see so many questions with the readings they are getting. Two, using the ammonia is unpredictable; you don't know if you're using too much or too little. Too much, and it kills the bacteria, too little, and the bacteria, which are having trouble with the inorganic ammonia anyway, have up and down levels. Three, the bacteria are incapable of metabolizing ALL the inorganic ammonia, and since there's no hobby level test kit to properly measure inorganic ammonia, people don't understand why the fish die.
Using ammonia puts aquarium nutrient levels all over the place. No book I have ever read, and I've read hundreds of aquarium books, recommend using household ammonia to cycle a tank. I read about that brown sugar method in an old Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine ages and ages ago.
I have no idea who came up with it, but Ammonia is just another short cut.
The dark brown sugar is as close to unprocessed sugar as you can easily buy. Its an organic product, thus when the bacteria break down the sucrose for its Oxygen, its organic Ammonia that's produced, that they reduce to organic nitrite and organic nitrate.
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It's true that the fact that he plants so heavily is why he doesn't need to add sugar or ANYTHING to his tanks..
But like I say, he's been doing it a while, and has not had ONE fish die of anything but old age, and his tests shown rock solid conditions in all of his tanks..
I AM surprised that with all the research that I've done, not ONE other aquarist knows anything whatsoever of this method..