#for the % of nitrogen coming from poop in the plants' diet

[shittylifeprotips]

SLPT: Get free food and housing. All you have to do is find somewhere you want to live, poop there, and see if food comes to you.

Certain species of bats live inside of pitcher plants, which are normally carnivorous. In these cases, the bats get free meals of insects delivered right to them. The plants benefit from this even though the bats are consuming all their food. The bats' feces are rich in nutrients, including nitrogen, and the plants feed off of this instead of their normal diet of insects. If it works for bats, logically it should work for you. Give it a try!

[botanyshitposts]

ok I know im reblogging this post yet AGAIN but i just wanted to say that this mutualistic relationship came up on the awesome podcast In Defense Of Plants a few days ago in an interview with botanist Dr. Chris Thorogood, who studies nepenthes (this specific pitcher plant genus) and several parasitic plant families! he references that they hide there in the day and raise their babies there, then goes on to talk about mutualistic relationships in other pitcher plants, like the one (nepenthes lowii) that’s just a toilet for a giant rodent species lmao (original paper with data and things here if u wanna read more about this specifically):

you can listen to the episode here, the pitcher plant talk starts around the 20 minute mark! 

Me in my house welcoming you with excitement

[agrarianradfem]

(1/2) Um. I hope this doesn't come off as combative, but as an agricultural scientist, what is your view on a vegan lifestyle (not just diet) purely from an environmental and sustainability point of view (excluding the ethical and health concerns)? Also do you believe rural animal husbandry can supplement the demands of the animal industry in absence of factory farms (which I believe are known to treat animals pretty brutally)?

(2/2) And also, in absence of a purely vegan diet, would a vegetarian focused diet (not excluding milk, eggs, honey etc) be more environmentally friendly? (I read that statistic somewhere about animal industry being a major contributor to global warming?)Hey don’t worry! It’s not combative! I’m going to give what is really just a general overview of some of the arguments. This is not an endorsement of industrial agriculture (who tf would defend that?). Instead this is a end-goal vegan vs sustainable agriculture argument. Under a cut because it’s long: 

From an ecology of agriculture standpoint, a vegan lifestyle (and diet) make no sense. How can this be true, when we’ve been told every day for years that the best way to reduce our carbon footprint is to eat less meat? Because of the nature of nutrient cycling. Stay with me because this will get long. We all learned about the water cycle growing up, right? Precipitation -> Evaporation -> Condensation. Simple! But the other nutrient cycles are largely skipped over (in my experience).  First we have the nitrogen cycle: 

And the phosphorous cycle: 

If you notice, animals (in this case, cows fro simplicity) are present in both diagrams. Why? Because animals are required to close nutrient cycles - especially the phosphorous cycle! When a cow eats some grass, the grass sheds it’s roots to about the equivalent of the grass length above ground. These shed roots are immediately set upon by bacteria and fungi to break it down, turning the roots into available carbon and into a useable form of nitrogen. In addition, when a cow eats some grass, the cow processes through fermentation the cellulose, starches, and sugars in the grass and returns (via feces) bacteria rich, nutrient rich, water rich organic matter to the soil. It’s a short cut to what’s already happening underground! The cow also pees, giving urea and ammonia to the soil, not to mention water. As long as the soil isn’t disturbed (ex. plowed), then the fungi (mycorrhizae) in the soil can build a glomalin network. Why is this network important? “Mycorrhizae constitute a considerable sink of C [here C means carbon] into soil ecosystems, as plants allocate significant amounts of their photosynthates to their fungal partners (Finlay, 2008; van der Heijden et al., 2015).” This means that glomalin networks are carbon sinks! Additionally, the glomalin network stabilizes the soil and helps make nutrients bioavailable to plants. What does all this have to do with veganism?Veganism, especially a vegan lifestyle, seeks to remove animals from the land. No cows, no chickens, no sheep, no pigs, no goats. But without animals, you cannot nutrient cycle and are dependent on artificial nitrogen (a scientific byproduct of war) and mined phosphorus. Mining phosphorus is a harsh job and is environmentally disastrous. But even more concerning, is we are approaching ‘peak phosphorus’, where we cannot mine for any more. And we’ll have let it all run into the ocean where we cannot access it. Even more concerning, veganism is a diet founded upon annual crops - crops that grow in one season, then die. Annuals are the primary colonizers of disturbed soil. This is why fields are plowed for things like grains (which are annuals). Plowing releases huge amounts of carbon and nitrogen into the atmosphere that had been locked in the soil. Then the seeds are planted, the plants grow quickly (stripping minerals from the soil), harvested, and plowed under. The bare soil is then left exposed to the elements over winter, experiencing huge amounts of erosion. Even if you cover crop (the practice of sowing a winter annual like rye to hold the soil), you still have to plow the soil twice a year. Every time you plow, the glomalin network is destroyed, carbon and nitrogen are releases, and the soil becomes extra susceptible to erosion. As the soils are stripped of their minerals over and over, artificial and mined fertilizer is applied to the soil. There’s no way around this. Even leaving fields fallow, following a rotational planting schedule with nitrogen fixing legumes, and practicing no-till, you still have to add fertilizer. And in a vegan world, there are only bagged fertilizers to fulfill this need. Another common vegan argument is that too much total land space is taken up with agriculture and that more calories can be produced in a vegan world on less land. This is true, to a point. But humans, one, require more to survive than just calories. Humans require nutrients and a lot of them for optimum health. Rice, wheat, and corn (the most consumed foodstuffs) provide lots of calories, but not a lot of omega-3s (ESPECIALLY in comparison to the omega-6s), not much iron, not much choline, not much vitamin A or D or E, not adequate levels of B vitamins, etc. Soy too, though higher in protein, is not a nutrient dense food. Calorie dense, not nutrient dense. Additionally, crops like grains and broccoli and strawberries can only be grown in a few places. Places not too cold, not too hilly/mountainous, not too wet/dry, and not with soil that’s too rocky. That’s most of the world. You know what thrives on this marginal land? Animals. Cows, sheep, and goats are, between them, amazing adept at living off this marginal land and turning scrub plants into nutritious food and high quality clothing for people. A vegan lifestyle require artificial fibers, like polyester, or intensive cropping (like cotton) for clothing. But a sheep or a cow or a goat can produce 4 things over it’s life: clothing, meat, milk, and labor. That’s much more useful, not even including the nutrient cycling and marginal land maintenance! And synthetic fibers are accumulating in the bodies of fish. Synthetic fibers are not a neutral choice. So let’s talk about the negative environmental impacts of animals. Animals that are restricted to containment feeding operations are force fed huge amounts of corn and soybeans (as a sidenote - we only started feeding these to animals in large amounts once we had already overproduced huge amounts of grains, this is not what they should be eating and in fact it makes them sick and nutritionally less than they are naturally). These animals have their feces made into slurries that decomposed anaerobically or spread onto leech fields that cannot take the nutrient load so often (you can ‘burn’ a field of it’s microorganisms doing this) and so it becomes runoff. This is a shit system! No one is defending this! But take a cow off a feedlot and put it into a mob grazing/rotational grazing system (which mimics the natural evolutionary symbiotic relationship with grasses grazers have that created the huge topsoil deposit of the American prairie, for example) and the cows suddenly don’t have methane producing poop - birds (or chickens if you’re extra smart) come a couple days after the cows to eat the bug larva in the cow patties, spread it out, and add their nitrogen rich poop to the mix. Getting milk, beef, chicken, and eggs out of the same amount of land! All while storing carbon and building nutrient rich topsoil that grows nutrient rich grasses that become nutrient rich animal foods. Vitamins A and E and D are abundant. Choline is abundant. B vitamins are abundant. Iron is abundant. Vitamin K2 is abundant (not found in plant sources, vitamin K2 is what helps prevent your body from calcifying your arteries). DHA and EHA and omega-3s are abundant. Complete, easily digestible proteins are abundant. The ideal vegan world cannot compete with the ideal omnivorous world. It just can’t. It defies the laws of nature. A vegetarian diet is ‘better’ but is still largely a cop out. You want to eat eggs and drink milk, but in order to produce those foods, you have to continue to support animal populations so why not eat animals? Do we not eat them and instead let food go not towards sustaining human life and instead just be composted? This is how I view food: :

We can feed more people well by being smart about what we grow where, setting up systems to make the most of the animal link in nutrient cycles, and using science to improve agriculture by studying more efficient ways to store carbon through rotational grazing, study the ways in which is prevent desertification through grazing (yes it can be done!), and how to make sure that humans everywhere have access to nutritious food. Sources: Defending Beef, Allan Savory and the Savory Institute, Righteous Porkchop, Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal, The Soil Will Save Us, Cows Save the Planet, The Third Plate, The Hungry World by Cullather, and The Land Institute.  

[deddyinfo]

7 Things You Can BURY in the GARDEN to Improve the Soil

7 Things You Can BURY in the GARDEN to Improve the Soil

Janay i’m mark from social eyesight me and i love to bury things in the garden it not only cures the environment by reducing waste and landfill it saves on buying fertilizer and other expensive additives to improve your soil so here are seven of the main things i like to bury in the garden

let’s get into it[ Music] number 1 swine as an animal carcass decomposes in the garden it turns into a rich fertilizer that can be utilized by your weeds the beginning system of your weeds in this case banana trees will literally “re going through” and suck out the nutrients it needs I’ve submerge my bazaar share of animals in the plot such as chickens doves toads fish heads

and now even a kangaroo at the end of last year Nina my wife was driving to work early in the morning went out of nowhere hop-skip a kangaroo right in front of a automobile she did everything she could to avoid it but unfortunately just like numerous Australians knowledge at least once in their life she concealed the kangaroo and it couldn’t be revitalized of course Nina rang me and she was a bit shaken so I drove out to check that she was okay and instead of leaving the animal on the road I took it back home and the one thing I had at the time which was a reusable supermarket pocket which I never reused after that I might supplement then I submerge the kangaroo in the pet cemetery and it came back to life no that fraction isn’t true I lay the kangaroo right here underneath the banana trees and since

then we’ve had a banana boom simply a few points to note when you do this make sure you dig a penetrating enough hole and treat with enough clay relevant to the size of the animal to prevent any bad fragrances and I recommend flooding further with a roadblock such as ball rock-and-rolls to stop wild puppies or other animals trying to dig it up also for gigantic animals this method works best with result trees or large flowers like bananas and of course I’m not saying you should fling off a perfectly health animal exactly to use it in the garden-variety but if the circumstances grow such as an age-old chicken stops off the perch well you might as well get

that one last-place employ out of it yes it is sad when swine get ill or come to a premature intention like young Skippy the kangaroo now but on a positive mention he did make good bananas number two is eggs as we know eggs are so versatile they can be used to establish mayonnaise cakes pasta hashed out to move more fowls or simply gobbled as is in many different ways but did you know that eggs likewise make an excellent

fertilizer for plants it’s true eggs contain calcium phosphorus magnesium nitrogen zinc copper and many other nutrients beneficial to plant growth you’ve probably heard about the benefits of eggshells in the plot but entire eggs are even better except who wants to waste whole eggs in the garden-variety well firstly you might find using eggs in this way cheaper then buying commercial fertilizer pound-for-pound however we tend to use eggs that have been soiled cracked or age-old I’ll take up and testify you a really good example real experience I left out duck to collect her eggs in the hope that she might be participating in them and hatch out some ducklings for us but she’s a little bit young and instead she’s compiled some of them but the majority of members of them ought to have sowed around by the chickens and she’s not sitting on them so instead what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna collect them all they’re all around the place one there three here one over there one

near where you are I’m gonna collect them up and use them in the garden-variety and the last one check them out look at how unclean some of these are just rolling around on the poop storey gardeners will often dig a excavation like this you know about 30 centimeters deep like a few eggs in interrupt them and then cover that fault over delightful and good pat it down then use a affix so they can identify where that defect is for later then come back in about several weeks maybe a month or two and then they know that they can plant a tomato capsicum or any vegetable certainly over the priorities in that and they don’t even need to use fertilizer personally I simply drivel them anywhere in the plot excavate a opening at random don’t even bother marking them and often I will only plant tomatoes straight

immediately over freshly seeded eggs into the garden and I’ve had good results with that number three animal trash or dungs one of the most common and natural ways to fertilize the plot is by using animal manures that have been left to break down and compost and get really old in a neat cool smudge like this under some Hessian for several months until they’ve broken down and then they can be applied into the garden you are eligible to submerge fresh manure in the garden you just can’t originate anything in that place for several weeks maybe months until it breaks down if you get managed business dung fertilizer it’s usually scattered on the surface around flowers but when we collect

our own excrements from animals the material is larger and less center often these kinds of excrement is best dug into the garden and combined with the clay basically buried into the garden berthed so that it does not clog burn or crust up meeting it better overall for the seeds my favorite manures are cow horse poultry but other shoot swine like sheep and even rabbits etc are good to cat and pup poop can be composted down but not embed instantly into the garden on purpose regardles I’m not a big love either way of feline and puppy debris it’s too close to human waste for me to use in the garden and I’d be worried about spreading nasty pathogens throughout the veggie patch but that’s just my view whereas farm animals have a enormously different compost compatibility because they eat little protein and have a more plant-based diet number four is kitchen scraps you may remember my video what happens when you submerge kitchen scraps in the plot well in this spot here is where the beginning of that video was and where I moved a batch of kitchen scraps in a gutter here and that awfully season I ripened a bumper cultivate of tomatoes so what we should do is dig this up and see if there’s anything left of those scraps that I put in there get in there I can start accompanying some eggshell that’s probably the last thing that would ever break down not basically nothing except for a few eggshells

but you have to remember this was buried a good 12 months ago and it’s not surprising to me that you won’t discovery any real fragments of anything except for a few calcium segments of eggshell which are a lot harder to break down but it gets still utilized by flowers believe it or not and they only need a little bit micronutrients to boost their own immune system and change better yes we also compost kitchen scraps in the usual way in a compost pile ora tumbler but this reductions out the middleman and I calculate is a marvelous practice to do it number five is coffee and

tea debris both coffee and tea are good to use in a plot either dug in sprinkled around or implanted altogether into the garden bed most people know about the benefits of used coffee feet and whether “youre using” your or get them from a neighbourhood cafe it’s all good honestly we use chocolate pods and precisely can’t chuck them into the garden however we do use two tea leaves have about twice as much nitrogen phosphorus and potassium than coffee grinds all these elements are key fertilizer parts for bushes tea also contains calcium magnesium cast-iron and zinc which all are good for seeds and help them to absorb nutrients they’re for submerge coffee and tea

trashes in the garden is worth the effort but do go easy on the beverage in the garden-variety because a little bit is good but too much in one spot might up the asipi of the grime and if that happens that can make it difficult for bushes to actually assimilate the nutrients so it has the opposite effect so I would recommend if you are going to add coffee anchors and tea leaves into the garden spread them around a bit number 6 is garden squander the first instinct of most gardeners is to compost this down and that is a top route to recycle but light-green litter like this can also be hid directly

into the garden berthed old floras and even weeds that have not gone to seed can be dug into the ground as a light-green excrement to rich the clay I even go one further and very larger green litter such as adheres and logs to create Hugo culture style grew beds that help to retain moisture and create a healthy environment for beneficial animals microbes and fungu digging in certain floras can even help to eradicate pests for example excavating in agricultural crops of marigolds to further reduce nematodes in the grime list seven are lice yes I know that insects are technically service animals I could have clothed them in number one nonetheless when I applied these lice into the garden they’re alive so I think it’s different

I also wanted lice to be last-place to make this one particularly important point one of the main reasons I embed all this stuff in our menu garden-variety is to feed our lice I analyse our entire garden-variety like it’s one big worm farm and now I’m gonna leant these foals back in so I don’t stress them out too much how do I use these insects in the plot well whenever I find a worm outside of the garden such as digging around the property I’ll collect them and inter them into the veggie patch but I’ve also found another way to grow and lent snakes and that’s through inoculation I buy some worm eggs and seed them into a collection of dung for them to hatch out and have a worm party this does two things it breaks down and directs the manure over to become better plant food and then when

I go to use it in the garden it populates the bunks with extra lice now I’m not independent experts on insects thankfully and I do know that composting worms are often different to the insects that you get in the regular garden but there is a common belief out there that compost lice won’t survive into the regular garden-variety and that is simply wrong there are many different types of insects including different types of composting worms composting snakes will merrily live in the regular garden-variety as long as they have food and lay things in the garden

variety gives your snakes all the food they need for them to turn those pieces into better soil structure and nutrients for your seeds you don’t have to buy insects most of the time if you have a dung pile that’s open or a compost locality that’s open to the field you will attract snakes from around your belonging and they’ll multiply in those areas although if you do want to head start or if insects are scarce in your arena buying some lice or worm eggs and computing them to your compost compost pile

or garden bed could be worthwhile time remember to feed them one final point about embed things in the garden don’t overdo it don’t turn your plot berthed into a minefield of crumbling material because that won’t do your embeds better now as that cloth breaks down in mass generates gases and heat and that’s not helpful for your embeds swelling so hurl all your excess waste in here besides my top seven do you hide other things in the garden to reach your plants develop better if you do whack them down in the comments segment below so we can all read

and learn from them and don’t say your grandparents I’ve heard that one before if you liked this article

  Read More: Planting& Growing Flower Bulbs: How to Dig Store Tuberous Begonias

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[hella-free-space]

Jessica, this one’s for you! :)

i hope your son is enjoying his new fish <3 and glad your husband has found a job! hoping things continue to go well for you and your family <3

this post is a great starting point! :) there are probably a few things missing from the supplies list i included in that post (i really gotta update that post), so here’s a more accurate one! Since you already have your betta, this post might help you out more :) more under the ‘cut’/’read more’/’keep reading’! :)

Supplies

-2.5+ gallon tank the tank you have comes in a 1 and 2.5 gallon kit. The 1 gallon measurements are  7.5" x 7.5" x 10.25" and the 2.5 gallon measurements are  12.3" x 9.4" x 11.4". hopefully now you know which tank you have! the 1 gallon kit comes with a little bubbler (not a filter, just an aerator / air stone) and an under gravel filter (how effective under gravel filters are at holding a cycle is debated, but for now, don’t worry about that) and the 2.5 gallon kit comes with a filter (but it’s way too strong for a betta...it would have to be baffled). 

if you have the 1 gallon kit (it looks like you’ve got the air stone, so probably the 1 gallon) you can get a sponge filter! however, in a tank so small, a stable cycle is hard to keep :/ in my opinion, you’d be best off spending 10 dollars on a 10 gallon tank (even if it is sparsely decorated) (rn at petco the 1$/gallon sale is going on so 10 gallon tanks are just $10!) first, before getting a filter. why, you ask? well, because if you only have 1 betta, waste will build up muuuch slower in a 10 gallon than in a 1 gallon and you could honestly probably get away with not having any filtration for a while...since the bioload (how much waste is produced by a fish) of 1 betta is so small...as long as you do large weekly water changes (at least 50% 1x a week). also, any heater (even those small 7.5watt ones, which are the lowest watt ones i’ve found) will be unsafe for a 1 gallon, mostly because the risk is pretty high for overheating the tank :/ with a 2.5+ gallon one, you could get an adjustable heater! these ones are great and the price is just as great! only downside is that they have short cords (i own 3...but its not an issue since all of my tanks are pretty darn close to their outlets) :/ think of waste (ammonia, which is toxic) building up like this: you’ve got 1 gallon of water and 10 gallons of water. in this analogy, colored drops (like food coloring or something) will represent your fish’s waste. let’s say you put 5 drops of coloring (waste) into the 1 gallon tank and 5 drops into the 10 gallon tank. the 1 gallon will be a lot darker right? because in the 10 gallon the color will be way more diluted! same goes for waste. (this is also why ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are measure in “ppm” or parts-per-million. it’s a proportion instead of an exact measurement: like 1/2 (proportion) vs of .25 inches (exact measurement) if that makes sense) - water conditioner it removes chlorines (some also remove chloramines and heavy metals) from the water and makes the water safe for the fish

- filter  – How sponge filters work + how to set them up – Pros + cons of sponge filters - heater (76-82F) i have three of these heaters and they’re great! the cords are really short tho, thats the big downside :T this post has a ton of other heater suggestions! - thermometer glass ones are my personal fave, and way more accurate than the sticker kind. i think theyre 1-2$ at walmart! - 1+ hide (caves, terra cotta pots, an ornament, just a place where they can hide out or chill in) - decor (lots of decor ideas listed below!) - silk/live plants (plastic isn’t the best idea since plastic plants can tear a betta’s delicate fins) – craft mesh “betta beds” (you can buy plastic craft mesh sheets at walmart for like 1-2$ and you get a few big sheets!) – dollar store flowers (remove wire, soak to make sure they don’t bleed) - pvc, terra cotta pot, mug, glass, jar hides (your cabinet, goodwill, dollar store) – dollar store betta tanks – diy decor – craiglist, facebook marketplace, offerup, letgo, etc. BE HUNTIN FOR THEM DEALS! – anacharis is pretty cheap: one bunch at petco is 2.99. the stuff grows like CRAZY and it makes a great floating plant! it’ll send of lots of runners and in no time your fish will have a big anacharis jungle to swim in! plants also use the nutrients in fish waste to grow. since anacharis grows pretty fast, it uses up lots of waste! i have it in my 10 gallon with little led light and it went from 8″ to 24″ in 2-3 weeks...that’s crazy imo. – petco and petsmart usually have plants and supplies for sale on their website but not in the store. if you show the cashier the online price, they’ll match it at the checkout so make sure to do some online window shopping before you go! – hobby lobby and micahaels have a ton of their floral stuffs on sale right now as well! just be sure to avoid glitter and remove any metal stems, etc. in the ‘diy decor’ link above, there’s a video that shows you how to make diy silk plants! you definitely DONT have to make plant weights tho...you can usually set silk plants on the bottom of the tank no problem, and there’s nothing wrong with floating plants either~ - quality food i like new life spectrum thera +a pellets (long name, i know, but i know u can buy them at petco!) or omega one pellets or the betta buffet flakes. frozen foods like blood worms and shrimp are also good additions to a betta’s diet :) hikari betta bio gold is an okay food (i know they sell it at walmart, so that’s why i wanted to mention it), but its got fillers. for now, whatever you have  for food will be okay :) just wanted to give you some options in case you want to change your food in the future. - test kit this kit is my favorite! the value is faaaantastic and the tests give more specific readings than the strips :p - lid bettas can be jumpers so lids are recommended. if your tank doesn’t come with a lid or is an odd shape and you can’t buy one, then craft mesh may be good option! it’s really cheap at walmart or craft stores and you can cut it with regular scissors. it’s basically plastic mesh…you can weigh it down or create a frame for it since it’s pretty light ^-^ - light if you don’t buy a kit that comes with a hood+light combo, or any light at all…you’ll probably need one! leds are a good choice :) i just bought 2 of these nicrew lights and they work amazingly! definitely bright enough for at least medium light plants and super white~ you can also buy clip-on LED with a gooseneck like this one (tho i’d be sure to check the measurements on lights as cheap as these!) or even a light from home depot~ for a tank that small, you could also use a desk lamp. with a desk lamp you could probably grow low-light plants like anacharis and anubias. when i had a little planted vase on my desk, i just went to goodwill and got one for $3 ^-^” - water change bucket honestly just really helpful to have...if you have one bucket (or any large container, tbh) you can empty old tank water into it and then after you’ve dumped that out, you can fill it with new tank water and add conditioner to prepare the water before adding it to the tank!

- siphon is optional, and for smaller tanks a turkey baster works! you can also just get some airline tubing and use that...same principle! siphons usually have a plastic tub attached to small rubber hose (same thing as airline hose) and they help to drain your tank when you take old water out of it during a water change.

What’s this cycle thing?

It’s the Nitrogen Cycle! 

All fish produce waste. Because all aquatic animals produce waste, they require (biological) filtration of some sort to process that waste.

Fish produce waste in the form of ammonia. Ammonia is toxic above 0ppm (parts per million). So you’ve got all this ammonia floating around in the water, right? and you’ve got water running through your filter…so these bacteria start growing all over your fish tank, wherever there’s water flow, but we want to concentrate on the bacteria that are growing in your filter media. This bacteria will be processing the waste that your fish or aquatic animal produces :)

So your fish produced some waste, and it’s floating around in the water as ammonia. The first bacteria (#1) that grows will ‘eat’ the ammonia and then ‘poop’ out nitrites.

Nitrites are also toxic to aquatic animals above 0ppm though :/ so then another bactiera (#2) grows and it ‘eats’ these nitrites that are floating around in the water and ‘poops’ out nitrates.

Nitrates are safe for fish (up to 20ppm)! :D Since there’s no bacteria that’s going to grow to eat these nitrates that are in the water, we have to physically remove them by doing a water change. A helpful post about water changes, how they work!

If you have live plants, they will use some of the ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrates in the water as nutrients :) Some plants will use more than others, as some plants are heavy root feeders, some are floaters, and some prefer to be somewhere in the water column. (note: live plants SHOULD NOT totally replace water changes! water changes are still necessary even for planted tanks :3)

To recap, “the cycle” aka “the nitrogen cycle” goes like this: Fish waste (ammonia) -> bacteria #1 -> nitrite -> bacteria #2 -> nitrate -> water change

Okay, so how do I make “the cycle” happen? How do I “cycle” my tank?

Note: knowing where you are in the nitrogen cycle (how much ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate is in the tank / being produced) requires a test kit.

Keep your water parameters .25ppm ammonia/.25ppm nitrites/20ppm nitrates or less :) In order to do this, you’ll have to do a ton of water changes, but your fish will thank you since ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish! Bettas are pretty hardy, and one of the only fish that you can perform a fish-in cycle with, so just be sure to keep those parameters as low as possible until your readings are 0 ammonia/0 nitrite/ x nitrates (these are the parameter readings for a cycled tank). After that, make sure your nitrates stay 20ppm or below, doing a water change whenever they reach 20ppm or higher. Also note that it’s important to continue to test ammonia and nitrite levels even if your tank is cycled, since sometimes parameters spike or a cycle crashes, and you wont know unless you’re checking for that!

Okay, but what about water changes??

This post

explains how to figure out how much water you need to change!

You should do a water change at least 1x a week! You need to remove at least 50% of the tank’s water 2-3x a week for now (if you have the 1 gallon tank), and when you upgrade you can do it 1x a week. After you get a test kit / can monitor your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) you can figure out how much water to change and how often. You can remove the water via a cup (just scoop out the water) or a siphon (a ‘gravel vac’, tho most will be much too large for small tanks, airline tubing, a turkey baster, etc.). If you have a large container or totally clean (not used for chemicals, dirt, etc.) bucket then you can prepare your new water in that! add dechlorinator to the new water in the container, sitr well, then add it to the tank. make sure the temp matches. since you have no heater, let the water adjust to room temp (since the tank should also be room temp) by letting it sit out for a while before adding it to the tank. if you don’t have a container to make new water in, you should take out water from the tank, add dechlorinator to the tank, then add new water to the tank (preferably at room temp...as a sudden temperature fluctation can shock your betta. extreme temp shock will kind of paralyze your betta for a while so its important that the new water matches the tank temp within a few degrees). you can remove the fish if you’d like and then add him back after you’re done.

The order i think you should buy supplies in:

- water conditioner (you said you have some, but you wanted to get a better one) - 5+ gallon tank - filter - heater - thermometer (it’s pretty cheap, so you could probably buy it sooner rather than later) - decor  (1+ hide, silk/live plants, substrate (sand, gravel, etc.)) - test kit - lid - water change bucket - light - quality food

why this order? - your fish will die without water conditioner. it removes chlorine (some also remove chloramines and heavy metals) from the water, and your fish cannot live in chlorinated water. - a bigger tank means that you can safely heat the tank. a bigger tank also means that waste will be more diluted so as long as you keep up with large weekly water changes (of 50%+) then you can hold off on the filter for a little while. - filter after getting a bigger tank, best to find a filter and start fish-in cycling the tank! - bettas need heat to regulate body temperature (like reptiles!) and it’s an important basic necessity - you should get a thermometer as soon as you get your heater. even if you get an adjustable heater (which should come with an internal thermostat, so it knows when to turn off/on and keeps the tank from being too cold/hot), the heater may be off by 1-2F, meaning that you could set it to 78 but the tank’s actual temp is 76. it’s just good to have and only 1-2$ so you could probably get it around the same time you get your heater. - bettas need cover to feel safe / not be stressed: another important part of your fish’s overall health and wellbeing! hides, decor, plants, etc. bettas love space but they dont necessarily like open space. there’s cheap diy decor links throughout this post and below! - if you’re doing large weekly water changes, your ‘water parameters’ should be okay, but knowing what those parameters are is still important! so definitely make plans to get a test kit :) - i dont think that jumping happens that often, so foregoing a lid for a bit and getting more important items first is okay imo...but its still an important precautionary item to have, so i recommend still getting one! - a water change bucket will make your life so. much. easier. about $3-5 at home depot or walmart. usually they’re 5.5 gallon buckets! - you can put the tank in a well-light place in the room (NOT in direct sunlight tho) and be okay! if you want to get a light so you can see the tank better, go for it :) - i think that buying good quality food (if you dont already have it...usually protein should be 38%+ and the first few ingredients shouldn’t be “__ meal”s but whole ingredients) comes last since if you’ve got your fish you’ve probably also already got food...so your fish has food and that’s already covered! upgrading the quality or adding variety can wait until you’ve got all the other bases covered :)

Supply Suggestions: - first off, i always recommend checking letgo, offerup, facebook marketplace, craigslist, and/or other local classifieds or ‘for sale’ sites! also check out any thrift stores like goodwill! you might find some of your equipment or decor at super low prices!! i’ve gotten all of my equipment either on sale or second hand so there’s absolutely no shame in hunting for second hand deals! - seachem prime water conditioner lasts foreeever (it’s highly concentrated so you only need a few drops per gallon! i use a pin to poke a hole in the seal of a new bottle instead of totally removing the seal so that i can count how many drops i need!) and will neutralize ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for 24-48 hours in case of any parameter level spikes! if you can’t find prime, that’s okay! most liquid water conditioners will do just as well. i know that tetra makes some “betta+ water conditioner” or whatever but you don’t need a “betta-specific” water conditioner...most things labeled “for bettas!!!” are gimmicky and unnecessary and you can use the ‘regular’ product most likely :p - 10 gallon tank at petco, $10 - if space is an issue, consider a 12″ bubble bowl (3-5 gallons of water, depending on how much decor is in the bowl and how full of water it is). you can find them at some walmarts in the floral section and most hobby lobbys/michaels. at hobby lobby, you can present their 40% off coupon and it’ll probably be about $10 as well. a bubble bowl will probably not work with hang-on-back filter, tho, but they usually work great with sponge filters. - sponge filter from petsmart - sponge filter from amazon - pack of sponge filters from amazon - small hang-on-back (HOB) filter (azoo palm, also called azoo mignon) - thermometer - heater from amazon - terra cotta pot hide (craft section at walmart, $1 and no drainage hole which means your fish can’t get stuck in it! you don’t have to buy it at walmart, and it can have a drainage hole. just make sure the pot is actually terra cotta and not painted and if it has a hole, just bury the pot deeper into the substrate (gravel, sand, the stuff you’ve got on the bottom of the tank). - silk flowers from craft stores or the dollar store. hobby lobby gives a 40% off coupon and they’re always having sales on seasonal floral stuff so you could get a big bunch of silk greenery or stem(s) of silk flowers for cheap! - glassware hides (ceramic fully glazed/sealed mugs, glasses, glass bowls, glass mugs, etc.) can be found in your own kitchen or at local thrift stores, often for less than $1! if you need to disinfect something, DONT use soap, use hot water or hot water + vinegar instead! be sure to rinse extra well if using vinegar. - anacharis costs 2.99/bunch at petco. try to get the greenest looking one (sometimes the ends are or a stem or two is brown tbh but it gives new grown pretty fast!), and then prune / throw any any brown parts. if all of the edges of the leaves of a stem are brown, but the middle/stem is green, keep that stem til you see new stems branching off. when those new stems are 2+ inches, just snap them off and throw away the original stem. if the stem turns more brown and doesn’t give off new shoots, throw it away. if the stem is totally brown on one end but green on the other, cut off the brown part of the stem and keep the green. anacharis can be cut / snapped into pieces and then grow from the pieces! - craft mesh to make a lid with. i think it’s also called plastic craft canvas or something like that and you should be able to buy it at craft stores as well - you can also use craft mesh to make those betta hammocks i linked to in the ‘supplies list’s ‘decor’ section above. you cut out a strip and then tie the ends together with thread / fishing line or use zip ties. whatever you have available. - i gave lighting suggestions under the ‘supplies list’ section above

If you’ve never had fish before, these posts might also be helpful!

General Fishkeeping + Equipment: Fishkeeping 101 “Seeding” a tank Why do we do water changes? How much water do I change? Invest in a waterchange bucket Aquarium siphoning + vaccuuming Baffling a filter  Everything I’ve learned about filters and filter media

Decor + DIY: DIY Aquarium Decor An ask that lists some easy aquarium plants How to superglue plants to stuff Tidbits for Planted Tanks

Care Guides: A betta care guide: All about bettas! I bought a betta, now what do i do!? (fish-in cycling included!)

Other handy dandy posts (written by other awesome tumblrs): Fishless Cycling Masterpost There are a few different ways to cycle a tank and this post is insanely informative! How to do the thing (cycling) Cycle your tank! Handy Articles Master Post Getting the most out of aquarium plants Plants melt and that’s okay Big list of aquarium plants List of low-light aquarium plants Planted Tanks for Beginners and So Can You Comprehensive Planted Tank Guide Dollar Store Fish Tank “Cleaner Fish” Why They Don’t Exist & Your Aquarium Doesn’t Need One By Ren Brooks

endnote: i think i’ve covered most stuff? someone let me know if i forgot stuff, or leave a reblog/comment with links or extra info!! :)

[moys16]

Pooper Scooper Services New Jersey; Reasons To Pick Up Dog Poop

By Shirley Hall

There are misconceptions about cleaning up after a pet that ought to be addressed. If you are pet parent it goes without saying that that is your responsibility to ensure that the poop of your pooch is not left lying on the ground. There are key reasons why you would want to ensure poop scooping duties are taken seriously. When searching for reliable pooper scooper services New Jersey could offer you a decent number of dependable experts. It is common courtesy not to leave your pets poop lying around. There are no better ways of describing the rudeness behind opting not to clean after your furry friend. If you have ever stepped on dog poop in the past, then perhaps you know too well that this can ruin your day in all kinds of ways. Stepping on poop can ruin your day in more ways than one. Getting indoors with the soiled shoe could certainly turn your house into a spooky home. The worst part is if you enter your car, ready to get to work only to realize that there is a terrible lingering order coming from the floorboards. Any kind of mess can ruin your day, your good moods and your schedules. It is wrong to assume that dog poop is harmless or even just as natural as cow dung used to make fertilizer. This cannot be further from the truth. In fact, this kind of misconception cannot excuse you from picking up after your furry friend. Poop is not created equal. If it was, then so much money would not go into building sewer treatment plants for human waste. Dogs have digestive systems and dietary preferences that are very different from those of cows. Canines eat diets that are rich in protein and their waste is packed with nitrogen and phosphorus. In short, dog poop cannot by any means serve as fertilizer. If anything, it could burn your lawn and even contaminate local watersheds. There are disease-causing pathogens that are present in dog waste. These parasites and bacteria can put the health of dogs and humans at risk. Dog waste also contains E. Coli and salmonella and these are pathogens that carry various kinds of worms including Parvovirus, Campybacteriosis, Salmonellosis, Cryptosporidiosis, Coronavirus and Giardiasis. When such parasites enter the soil, they can remain there for years. You should clean after your pet because the poop will not get washed away and disappear sooner or later. In fact, the waste of dogs can take over a year to break down. In case you choose to stall and just wait, the parasites and bacteria in the poop will have plenty of time to get into the ground and contaminate the soil and local watersheds. If you are like most people, you will dislike duties related to poop scooping. This is perfectly okay as long as you choose to seek alternative assistance. Hiring experts to offer pooper scooper services would take a huge burden off your shoulders while ensuring the health of your pooch and loved ones.

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[lefafta]

Pooper Scooper Services New Jersey; Misconceptions About Picking Up Dog Poop

By Shirley Hall

When counting the numerous pleasures of owning a dog, you are not likely to mention poop scooping. Because of the dislike of this duty, many pet owners have come up with numerous misguided beliefs that ought to be set straight. The rule of thumb is that if a particular pooch is yours, it is also your duty to clean the mess it leaves behind. If you have opted to seek pooper scooper services New Jersey has a decent number of top rated specialists you could depend on. The first reason to clean the mess of your pooch is because this is common courtesy. Ignoring the poop and leaving it on the ground among the rudest things you can do as a pet parent. In life, there are not so many things that are more horrifying that stepping on a pile of dog poop. This is regardless of whether the owner of the mess is your furry family member or not. Stepping on poop can ruin your day in more ways than one. Getting indoors with the soiled shoe could certainly turn your house into a spooky home. The worst part is if you enter your car, ready to get to work only to realize that there is a terrible lingering order coming from the floorboards. Any kind of mess can ruin your day, your good moods and your schedules. Dog poop is harmful. This is a fact that cannot be emphasized enough. It is wrong to assume that poop is created equal and dog waste is just as good as the fertilizer produced from cow dung. If this fact was true, then whole nations would not spend billions of dollars to create sewer treatment plants for human waste. Dogs have digestive systems and dietary preferences that are very different from those of cows. Canines eat diets that are rich in protein and their waste is packed with nitrogen and phosphorus. In short, dog poop cannot by any means serve as fertilizer. If anything, it could burn your lawn and even contaminate local watersheds. The waste of your canine contains disease causing parasites and bacteria. These microbes are harmful to not only humans, but also dogs. Dog poop often contains salmonella and E. Coli that often carry worms like Coronavirus, Cryptosporidiosis, Campybacteriosis, Parvovirus, Salmonellosis and Giardiasis. Such parasites can remain in the soil for years, posing even greater risk to canines and humans. Unlike cow dung, canine poop does not get washed away quickly. You can therefore not assume that your dogs mess will disappear within a few days. Canine waste tends to remain intact for around a year and this is why you cannot dodge the task of picking it. In case you choose to ignore it for as long as it takes, this will give the parasites and bacteria the time they need to find their way into the ground and pollute not just the soil, but also local watersheds. It is perfectly okay not to like the duties of picking poop. In this case, you can choose to seek professional assistance. The ideal experts will have the right tools and skills to offer outstanding services. This will ensure that the environment, your loved ones and your furry friend are protected.

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[ntrending]

Cleaner pig poop could reduce bacon's environmental burden

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/cleaner-pig-poop-could-reduce-bacons-environmental-burden/

Cleaner pig poop could reduce bacon's environmental burden

Scientists have been tinkering with the genes of plants and animals for years to cure diseases, make fruits and vegetables heartier or tastier, produce crops that are resistant to pests, drought, and other scourges, or prompt fish to grow faster.

In recent years, however, thanks in part to the ravages of climate change, some researchers who manipulate genes have assumed a new focus: saving the planet. Among other things, they are making grass more palatable for cows and designing climate-friendly cattle that expel less heat-trapping methane. And now they have turned to pigs.

Globally, people consume more pork than any other meat. But there is a big environmental downside to raising pigs. Pigs can’t make three important enzymes they need to digest the nitrogen and phosphorus in their feed. So they poop most of it out, which ends up polluting the air and water. Pig farmers could add these enzymes to pig grain, but that would cost more money, so scientists have come up with another way to fix the problem.

By tweaking the animals’ genes, they’ve made a new generation of transgenic pigs better able to digest these nutrients. They did it by transferring DNA fragments needed to make the required enzymes (β-glucanase, xylanase and phytase) through a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, a fancy name for cloning. “It’s a mature technology that’s been applied in reproduction of various animals for decades,” says Huaqiang Yang, a scientist at South China Agricultural University, and member of the research team.

The scientists selected the enzymes to be compatible with the microbial communities in the animals’ digestive tracts, and to allow the salivary glands to secrete them. This assures that digestion starts in the mouth, the scientists say, making the process more efficient.

“The aim of our study was to enhance the digestion of feed grain in pigs to see if it lowered the release of both phosphorus and nitrogen from their manure,” says Zhenfang Wu, senior author of the study, which appears in the journal eLife along with a companion article commenting on the research. Once the process was complete, they examined the pig manure and urine—“which was rather unpleasant work,” according to Yang—to measure levels of the excreted nutrients.

They found that the genetically engineered pigs were able to digest phosphorous, nitrogen, and other key nutrients, thereby excreting fewer dangerous pollutants. The ability to reduce these levels will “benefit the protection of water and soil at intensive pig production sites,” Yang says. Moreover, because the pigs took in more nutrients, they also grew faster.

Furthermore, the pigs appeared to suffer no harmful side effects. Their mood, behavior, reproductive capacity, blood physiology and natural biochemical processes remained unchanged. While pigs are not a major source of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions — especially when compared to cattle and sheep — curbing nitrous oxide emissions from pork will make a difference nonetheless.

Though nitrous oxide represents only about 6 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it traps 300 times as much heat as carbon dioxide, according to the EPA. And the volume of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere is increasing, as it seeps from farms, smokestacks, and tailpipes.

Yang says that while pig farmers sometimes add dietary supplements to pig feed, it would cost more in the long run than to update a pig’s DNA. Scientists compared transgenic pigs with non-transgenic pigs fed the same diet, but with supplementary enzymes. “We found they both had improved feed utilization at a similar level,” Yang says. However, “our pigs save the cost of using expensive dietary supplementation of multi-enzyme preparations.”

Some countries, including China, restrict or otherwise regulate the use of genetically modified pigs and other animals, but Wu hopes the rules will eventually loosen as the pigs prove safe and cost-effective. “Our findings indicate that these pigs are promising resources for improving feed efficiency and for reducing the carbon footprint of the pork industry,” Wu says.

Marlene Cimons writes for Nexus Media, a syndicated newswire covering climate, energy, policy, art and culture.

Written By Marlene Cimons