# Using potting soil as substrate



## thedood (May 30, 2015)

I am going to guess that will be some fine soil to use.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Welcome to the Planted Tank!
I wouldn't use that. There is a lot of stuff in there that may (or not) play havoc with your water chemistry and the future inhabitants. Aloe and Yucca sounds harmless enough, but you have no clue what wetting agents etc they have dumped in there. Most of those additions may work for terrestrial plants, but not meant for use in an aquarium. Soybean meal. Really?
While buying a bag of something seems like the most logical and simple thing, I would suggest to search this board for discussions about Mineralized Top Soil (MTS) and see if that is something you can do yourself. Perhaps you have a backyard or some other area with suitable soil which is already mostly mineralized.
If that doesn't work for you, I'd suggest some Miracle Gro or other fairly generic soil without too many additions.


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

Wasserpest said:


> I wouldn't use that. There is a lot of stuff in there that may (or not) play havoc with your water chemistry and the future inhabitants.
> While buying a bag of something seems like the most logical and simple thing, I would suggest to search this board for discussions about Mineralized Top Soil (MTS) and see if that is something you can do yourself. Perhaps you have a backyard or some other area with suitable soil which is already mostly mineralized.
> If that doesn't work for you, I'd suggest some Miracle Gro or other fairly generic soil without too many additions.


I'm curious what is in it that would cause an issue? I noticed no manure but it does have earthworm castings which are supposed to be good.

Edit: And my apologies to the op.


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## BioLume (Apr 14, 2016)

Okay thank you I appreciate it. I am anxious to get started but I won't rush it


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

@BioLume can you share where you get that? Again I apologize if my suggestion was bad. I may get some and try it in a plant only tank to see how it does.


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## BioLume (Apr 14, 2016)

It's from Home Depot. I've had it since February, and I've been using it in my pots on the patio. 


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## BioLume (Apr 14, 2016)

I just bucked down and bought Eco-complete. Since I'm a newb I want to start off on the best foot possible. 


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

thedood said:


> I'm curious what is in it that would cause an issue? I noticed no manure but it does have earthworm castings which are supposed to be good.
> 
> Edit: And my apologies to the op.


Agreed, earthworm castings are the soul of the soil. But soybean meal, fish bone meal, kelp meal, aloe vera, yucca extract may all foul up the water. If you do some research about "Pro Moisture Hydrate" you quickly get into marketing speak and grand claims. Again, all of this may be fine for terrestric plants, for planted tanks, maybe, maybe not. Lime stabilizes the pH in soil, but will raise water hardness, etc.



BioLume said:


> I just bucked down and bought Eco-complete. Since I'm a newb I want to start off on the best foot possible.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Great choice. You are in control to enrich this, either by adding fert sticks/capsules locally around root feeding plants, or by adding a layer of something underneath the EC. Over time, fish poop falling through the cracks will naturally enrich that substrate.


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