# MTS soil ingredients?



## szymon328 (Apr 9, 2011)

ive begun making my mts but im a little worried because the sticky on how to make it specifies not to use potting soil b/c it contains peat moss. so i bought the cheap topsoil as demanded by the sticky and i looked at the ingredients which are: peat, forest products, compost, ash, sand or native topsoil. the fact that peat is listed as an ingredient kind of threw me off. its the earthgro stuff at homedepot. can some one fill me in as to whether this soil will work or not?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

> peat, forest products, compost


These are the things you want to avoid in a tank. 
A little bit goes a long way. 
Peat moss in itself is not bad, but it does several things.The other materials might be bad, or do worse things.

Peat moss does not decompose very fast, so there is no worry there about too much ammonia or other byproducts. It may remove some minerals from the water. GH and KH may test lower in a tank with peat moss. It usually has tannins and can stain the water anywhere from yellow to brown. It often acidifies the water, especially if your KH is low. This can be very good, if you want such water. (I add peat moss to the filters of some of my tanks) 
I have used peat moss as a substrate. It is so light that any disturbance to the water makes the peat swirl around in the tank, then it settles on the plant leaves. If you then fan the water to dislodge the peat it does not settle, it swirls around again. :-(

Forest products are usually sawdust from the lumber industry. Almost always this is soft wood like redwood, fir, cedar, pine and similar woods. They might have been treated a bit, or composted, but usually not. These materials are not good in an aquarium. 

Compost... who knows what this is! Might be more 'forest products' that have been composted.
Organic matter that has not been fully composted is a source of CO2 in a Walstad style of tank. A little bit to get started is fine, then the falling leaves and other things in the tank take over the job of supplying CO2 (in a small way- they will never replace pressurized CO2 for a high tech set up)

If you have access to clean garden soil (no pesticides, no weed killers...) that is low in organic matter, this may be a good material to start with. 

If you have already opened the bag (and cannot take it back) you might test some in some water. Test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, GH, KH and pH. Let it sit for a few days and test again. Look also to see how much of the material floats. If you can see what it is, the material is too coarse to use in an aquarium.


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## szymon328 (Apr 9, 2011)

wow thats realy good info thank u  im not realy in a rush to get this done because the tank im going to use this on im not entirely ready to change it out yet. there is a soil/mulch place near me, its a county thing. if i was to go get topsoil from them would it be any better? im assuming i would have to ask them about its composition any way lol and yea i opened the bag, actualy three bags of top soil that i bought because my friend wants some for his 55 but it was $1.39 a bag so no worries. and thanks again for enlightening me


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## szymon328 (Apr 9, 2011)

any one?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Here is how to test soil, and what the results mean. 

1) You need a straight sided jar with a tight lid. A pint canning jar is good, a quart will work. 
2) Put a piece of masking tape on the side of the jar, vertically. 
3) Half fill the jar with the material you want to test. If it is soil that has clods, break up the clods. 
4) Mark on the masking tape where the top of the soil is. 
5) Add water and a drop or two of dishwasher detergent (not hand-dish washing stuff, it makes too many bubbles. The special detergent for newer washing machines would work, low bubble amount)
6) Shake... shake... shake... 
7) Shake... shake... shake... 
8) Put the jar on a level surface and start timing. Mark on the masking tape where you see the soil:
30 seconds
2 minutes
2 hours
Compare these levels with the whole and come up with a % of each. 
9) Let it sit overnight. 

How to interpret the results:
Anything that floats is organic matter. Bits of twigs, leaves, weeds... This sort of material can be sifted out, or netted out when you put the soil in water, but if there is too much you will have some work getting rid of most of it. 
The material that falls out of the water in 30 seconds is sand. It is good to have up to 50% sand or even a bit more. 
The material that falls out by 2 minutes is a soil particle size called silt. It is fine to have silt in the blend, up to about 30-40% is good.
The stuff that falls out by 2 hours is coarser clay. This is very good, but in moderation. Up to about 10% is fine. Maybe a bit more. 
Anything still suspended after 2 hours is colloidal clay. It is so fine that Brownian motion is keeping it suspended. It will do this in the tank, too, so if the water is any denser colored than just a bit, I would probably pass on this soil. Too much cloudy water in the tank. 
If the water was not too bad at 2 hours, and is a lot clearer overnight, then the colloidal clay seems to be settling out. If it in not more than a couple of % of the total, maybe this soil would work with a cap, and gentle water movement. Low plants to hold it down would be a good idea. 
If the water is tinted yellow to brown or almost any shade in between, but is clear-brown or clear-reddish or clear-yellow, not cloudy, then there is organic matter in there that is releasing tannins. This might be fine if you want this in your tank, but if the color is so deep you cannot see through the jar that is a lot of tannins. (I have used oak bark in a tank where it was like red wine- could not see into the tank for a month, but it eventually cleared up).


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## szymon328 (Apr 9, 2011)

wow that helps alot thanks  im going to do this the first chance i get


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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

Syzmon,

Are you going to be mixing the topsoil with clay? I would highly recommend doing so. I used Cedar Heights Red Art clay when doing my graduate research into aquatic plant substrates. It's great stuff, if a bit messy to work with outside of a tank. 

I've used mushroom compost from Home Depot in aquariums with success. You might look into using that. 

Peat moss isn't going to be a problem as long as it's got a matrix (like clay) to bind to. I never had a problem with it floating around in my study containers. Something to keep in mind; aquatic plants do best with <20% organic matter. In the treatments I used containing milled sphagnum I achieved about 4-5% organic matter via a 20% BY VOLUME ratio of sphagnum (right out of the bag) to clay powder. ie, 1 gal sphagnum to 4 gal Red Art clay powder. You'll probably want to go with at least a 40% by volume ratio of sphagnum to other, non-organic, components.

If you don't want to bother with all that just go with a 60/40 mix of mushroom compost to Turface under at least an inch of sand cap. That should do you nicely.

Cheers,
Phil


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## szymon328 (Apr 9, 2011)

yup i was going to use clay. basically my intentions are to follow the sticky on how to make mts to an exact. but ive been doing some more research and is it worth the time and looking for the correct soil? ive been reading up on the miracle grow organic potting mix and a few other things and that sounds alot easier than mts but is it as good? and care to fill me in on the mushroom compost? just trying to absorb as much info as possible


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