You know you shouldn’t do it. You know it’s going to cause you heartache. But you’re also wildly attracted and helpless to resisting it. That’s how I feel about including water sections in my builds.
No matter how many builds I make I’m still generally unable to create a water section that doesn’t saturate the substrate. Latest example:
I can’t figure out what’s saturating the substrate in my island 🏝️ build. The water level is within the filter foam drainage layer, below the substrate and not touching it at any point.
My leading thought is that the rock I’m using is so porous that it’s wicking all the water up into the substrate. But even when constructing I tried to account for this a bit – the rock is attached to spray foam to the filter foam, so theoretically there’s a spray foam barrier. Can rock be that good at wicking? Seems like a lot to me.
Any suggestions on fixing? One rec I saw on Dendroboard was just replacing all the spongey ABG mix substrate with Fluval stratum, as that drains much better.
by Caitboo
2 Comments
Also, the biophytums (mini palm trees) all lost a lot of leaves, I think due to transplant shock, but have since started putting out new growth.
Does that indicate that the substrate is OK even though it looks pretty saturated?
It looks like the sponge is wicking water into the substrate. It is better used as a base in the absence of standing water. It also looks like that might be dry live rock for saltwater aquariums? Which is a coral skeleton, not actual rock, it is very porous and holds a lot of water.
Egg crate makes a good elevated base, you just zip tie it together into a “stand” that is above the water level and secure mesh screen over it. You can spray foam a rock to the front.