# Mixing dirt today.



## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Mixing dirt today for a new substrate. 
Organic miracle grow, sand, clay from about a foot down in my yard and enough water to wet the whole lot. When dried this mess clumps and becomes rock hard. I usually keep some of this in a five gallon container and run it through a few courses of wet dry. I used what was left over from the last time and made some all total about a gallon and a half. I’ll be mixing that with some old fluorite and possibly some pea gravel to make enough to cover about four square feet at say about an inch deep. Topping that with play sand. 

Comments?


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## DogFish2.0 (Oct 7, 2011)

BruceF said:


> Mixing dirt today for a new substrate.
> Organic miracle grow, sand, clay from about a foot down in my yard and enough water to wet the whole lot. When dried this mess clumps and becomes rock hard. I usually keep some of this in a five gallon container and run it through a few courses of wet dry. I used what was left over from the last time and made some all total about a gallon and a half. I'll be mixing that with some old fluorite and possibly some pea gravel to make enough to cover about four square feet at say about an inch deep. Topping that with play sand.
> 
> Comments?


I'd offer the yard clay is the culprit in making the mix rock hard. The clay we want is Iron heavy clay, not all clay has Iron content that is sufficient. I use Powdered Red art clay from a pottery supplier.

If that was what I had to work with, I might cut it with a little sand vs. pea gravel. Run in through a few cycles. After each drying I screen mine. I picked some screen up on trash day. I made a frame from old wood scraps. My course shieve is through 1/4 screen, I found some rain gutter guard scrape that is that size. My final screening it through window fly screen.

Yes, it is more work. But, my MTS is like powder when I'm done.

That old fluorite you can put some in a baggies and smash it with a hammer to expose some 'fresh' surface area.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Around here the clay is usually bentonite which is high in iron but alkaline so the trees often suffer from chlorosis. So I’ll add the flourite and dose a bit of seachems iron. I did clean the clay at one point but other than a few roots there isn’t much debris at that depth. 
Except for the fact that I have the pea gravel and it is cheap I am not sure it helps anything all that much. I do think it helps keep the soil loose but honestly I have no idea.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Yum! Yum! Mud pies! 

Skip the pea gravel. The flourite might be chunky enough to help break up the clay. Actually, adding organic matter is better. Clay particles bind to the organic matter better than they bind to each other, so the end result is softer, not a hard packed material. 

I would use pool filter sand, if you want the sand cap. Play sand generally has too much fine material, and this seems to cloud the water every time you move a plants, or a fish digs. 
PFS is graded, no fines, so it does not cloud the water.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

There are several types of bentonite potassium (K), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), and aluminium (Al). You should check where you live and find out more specifically what type of bentonite you have in your area. You don't want to use sodium bentonite since the excess Na can cause problems for your plants.

**I forgot to mention that sodium can also cause chlorosis.

I'm not sure about the iron content in your bentonite, but trees don't get chlorosis from too much iron, they get it from the lack of iron. Either the clay in your area is so poor in iron that the trees are not able to absorb enough iron or the pH of the soil is too high which makes iron extremely insoluble. The solubility of iron is 100 ppm at a ph of 4, but drops to only 0.01 ppm at a ph of 6. At ph levels above 7.5, the amount of iron is often too low to sustain healthy plant growth.

Either way, I don't think the clay you have is good for aquatic plants. You will get the same problems in your tank that the trees have.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback. 
I ended up putting this soil into a grow out tank so I guess I will see how it goes. I don’t think the clay is high in sodium. I think it is high in calcium. I skipped the fluorite just because I want to use that somewhere else. I added enough potting soil I assume to neutralize the ph a bit at least. The tap water here is a little high as per ph but the mineral content is very good. I assume the dirt is similar bit I could be wrong. 
I’ll have to look into the pool filter sand but I don’t really know where to find it. I’ve been using the play sand for quite some time and I am used to it. I don’t usually keep many fish anyway. Definitely not fish that dig!
The mixture does seem to remain fairly fluid under water but I added the gravel just for the volume.


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