# Mineralized Topsoil mix questions



## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

I use the cheapest TopSoil I can find at HomeDepot $1.27 for 40#s, sometimes on sale for 87cents.

I rinse in a 5gl bucket it because it usually is full of wood chips & rocks. I rinse stir, pour off the foam & wood bits, seeds & any thing else that floats up. Next I continue to stir and break up any clay lumps I find in the bucket with my hands. Next I remove and rocks & stones. The rinsing & washing will reduce a 40# bag down to about 30#s. 

I do this before the drying process.

I dry mine of a plastic tarp:



After it dries, I wet it with a hose or rain. Then start another cycle. Continue cycles until it's like a fine powder.


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

DogFish said:


> I use the cheapest TopSoil I can find at HomeDepot $1.27 for 40#s, sometimes on sale for 87cents.
> 
> I rinse in a 5gl bucket it because it usually is full of wood chips & rocks. I rinse stir, pour off the foam & wood bits, seeds & any thing else that floats up. Next I continue to stir and break up any clay lumps I find in the bucket with my hands. Next I remove and rocks & stones. The rinsing & washing will reduce a 40# bag down to about 30#s.
> 
> ...


Ok thanks for that info!


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

The people at the garden store likely won't know or understand what it is you are trying to do. By mineralizing the soil you are hoping to mimic the nutrient rich silt found in lakes and rivers. 

Muriate of Potash = Potassium Chloride. Please do not attempt to substitue potassium sulfate. While dosing either one in the water column is completely fine I worry about putting to much sulfate in the substrate where anaerobic pockets could easily cause hydrogen sulfide gases to form.

Dolomite is just Mg and Ca. Dolomitic lime is crushed limestone with some dolomite in it and will wreak havoc on your pH. You won't find dolomite in a garden center. If you can't find it it's not the end of the world to not use it. The two most important additives are the clay and potassium.

Top Soil in this instance = dirt. You don't want added fertilizers, peat, humics, etc...just plain old dirt like you would find if you dug up some healthy sod. 

The rinsing phase of the mineralizing is not washing away nutrients. It's allowing any possible herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, etc... to be washed out. The air drying phase is when the mineralizing is taking place.


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

AaronT said:


> The people at the garden store likely won't know or understand what it is you are trying to do. By mineralizing the soil you are hoping to mimic the nutrient rich silt found in lakes and rivers.
> 
> Muriate of Potash = Potassium Chloride. Please do not attempt to substitue potassium sulfate. While dosing either one in the water column is completely fine I worry about putting to much sulfate in the substrate where anaerobic pockets could easily cause hydrogen sulfide gases to form.
> 
> ...


Ok thanks for the info. 
I guess what I got is useless for the aquarium. I will call around tomorrow and see what I can find. 
Thanks

Any suggestions on what to use for a substatute of dolomite? And Muraite of potash if anything?


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Muraite of potash & RED Potters Clay

I get my Muraite of Potash from Amazon. I get my Red Potters Clay in 20# bags from a Local Pottery Supply house.

But, I make large batches each summer, some for myself some to sell to friends here. 

You can post WTB ad here looking for MTS supplies there are few people that sell small quantities.

I have Hard water I don't put a lot of emphasis on Dolomite. I add Chicken Grit as a substitute. Chicken grit is typically Crushed Oyster shell, some mixes have limestone in them.

You can substitute Hard Wood Ash for Muraite of potash.


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## aquabruce (May 10, 2012)

If you want to use dolomite you might have better luck checking pottery or ceramic suppliers.


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## Aquaticz (Dec 26, 2009)

Muriatic of potash is actually potassium chloride which can be found at Home Depot (in what I believe is crystallized form) it is used as a water softener. I put some in a paper bag and wrapped it up before smashing with a hammer to make it power. I was also wondering if I could have put some in water so it would be soluble then let evaporation take place.Wouldn't the potassium chlorite be the major component only thing left especially if you used distilled water to do so? 

PS I now have two dirt tanks and I am not sold on it yet. One has been set up for almost two months and the other 2 weeks later. The older one is a 55 gallon set up. I came very close to starting over as I do not like to wait two months for a tank to settle down. I still may do so. I wound up stuffing the tank with fast growers so now it looks like a weed collection. Yes I save money but not time mineralizing. Not sure I would do it again when aqua soil is like magic! The cost verses the time to do the dirt IMHO may be worth every penny. Lots of people are trying dirt tanks. Whats your opinion?


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

I'm still just wondering if I should get a store bought aqua soil like Eco-complete or up aqua soil. For the amount of work this is I may as well just buy somthing.


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## PeterN1986 (Jun 15, 2011)

Eco is inert, but is a great option to have it cap the mineralized soil.


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

PeterN1986 said:


> Eco is inert, but is a great option to have it cap the mineralized soil.


Would Activ-Floura be a good one instead of doing a MTS?


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

bcbishop said:


> I'm still just wondering if I should get a store bought aqua soil like Eco-complete or up aqua soil. For the amount of work this is I may as well just buy somthing.


MTS is not about being cheap, it's about crafting your own substrate to meet you individual needs. In can or can not be inexpensive as one chooses based on how you 'build' it. 

Pre made substrates, like fast food offer convince.


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## bcbishop (Dec 7, 2013)

DogFish said:


> MTS is not about being cheap, it's about crafting your own substrate to meet you individual needs. In can or can not be inexpensive as one chooses based on how you 'build' it.
> 
> Pre made substrates, like fast food offer convince.


Yes I understand that and would love to do a MTS but I cannot find dolomite and Muraite of potash anywhere. Even topsoil is hard to find this time of year.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

bcbishop said:


> Yes I understand that and would love to do a MTS but I cannot find dolomite and Muraite of potash anywhere. Even topsoil is hard to find this time of year.


Not to mention the Sun. :hihi:


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Dolomite is a mix of magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate. Both of those will raise the KH of the water - the carbonate does that. You need some magnesium, but it doesn't matter if it is accompanied by calcium, so whatever the store sells as dolomite or dolomitic lime should work fine - dolomite is often called dolomitic lime. (If I am off base on this I'm sure someone will say so!)

"Topsoil" contains loam and humus. Humas is very likely to have lots of ammonium compounds in it, or to breakdown when wet, releasing ammonia. Too much ammonia isn't at all good, so mineralizing the topsoil - converting the ammonia compounds to nitrate compounds - is a good idea. Nitrates are not a gas, so they remain in the mineralized topsoil after it is dried out. If we did too many washing cycles, dumping out the wash water each time, we could deplete a lot of the nitrates. But, we normally only do 2-3 washing cycles. If we were growing terrestrial plants the ammonia compounds wouldn't be a problem, and would help the plants, so that is why a gardening store would tell you what they did.


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