# Soil activator



## mthom211 (Sep 3, 2010)

I'm a new npt and I couldn't find a suitable soil
today so I came home with an organic compostmix without frets and a certified organic soil activator by naked farmer if you want to look it up. I don't know if I can use either of these so any help would be great. 

Matt


----------



## Jark (Feb 6, 2010)

Umm. I don't know about the soil you got. If it is compost it may have manure. That would be bad. Many organic products are "artificial fertilizer free" but may have a lot of poo in it. Miricle grow organic is low in manure and is what I use and it is sold at a lot of places. I wave seen it at walmart, home depot, the grocery store,... A lot of other organic soil mixes are full of manure and will result in too much nutrient release. 

What is the brand of soil did you get? Can you list the nutrient informations and ingredients from the bag?

I have my doubts about the soil activator as well. You need aquatic "microbes" and gardening microbial supplements might not do much for you. To get soil started in a tank the best thing is dirty sludge from another tank that has set up for a wile. I squeeze a dirty filter into new soil when I set up my tanks.

Sorry for any spelling errors I am posting from a phone. It likes to "correct" things to random nonsense.


----------



## mthom211 (Sep 3, 2010)

I'm using my phone to, the soil is made by brunnings and I'll get the nutrient levels this arvo. I don't care about the microbes very much. I'll run an established filter for a few weeks on the tank. It does look like it's full of carbon since it's very black. Looting soil in Australia isn't actually soil, it looks like heaps of little pieces of bark. I've had success with one type before but I can't seem to find it.


----------



## Jark (Feb 6, 2010)

The miracle grow organic is a lot of bark and wood litter too. Some people sift it using a strainer to remove the wood/bark. I just dumped it in. I did get a lot of brown tanins in the water though. Removing the bark could have cut down on this. From the website the soil seems fine. Some members have gotten manure by mistake and it ended in a slimy mess so I was just siding on caution. 

I don't know what to think about the activator I guess. You could try it out in a small tank or bowl. Set up a little experiment  !


----------



## mthom211 (Sep 3, 2010)

Heres the link: http://www.nakedfarmer.com.au/id31.html i got some "budget" potting mix today so i'll use that. Dad will be really angry if I don't use the activator and from everything I read it looks good. It stops ferts leaching from the soil so that could be of use in the tank. I'll set up an experiment, but I can't test on fish since mine are all expensive so I can only test it.


----------



## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Do set up an experiment, and don't put the organic activator in an aquarium with anything you are not prepared to lose.

The website does not give a list of ingredients, an analysis, or even a comprehensible explanation of what the "activator" is. The term "organic carbon" is meaningless. "Humic and fulvic acids" can mean almost any complex organic acid, which may or may not be normal or beneficial in an aquatic environment.


----------



## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

It sounds like they are intending to use the organic acids as chelating agents to bind nutrients in place. It could work or it could go terribly wrong. Small experiments in bowls pay off.


----------



## mthom211 (Sep 3, 2010)

I trien some in a little bowl for 24 hors. No nitrates or nitrite. I'll put a little fertiliser in to see how well it is at stopping nutrients from leaching. I'll try it with a feeder shrimp in a small tank later with a filter.


----------



## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

What does it do to pH?


----------



## mthom211 (Sep 3, 2010)

The ph from memmory was either 7.5 or 6.5 about what it comes out of the tap so it was stable after 24 hours. I put a few pinches in a 17 gallon npt with guppy fry and tannins and now the water is clear so I spose it will also stop tannins from leacing. I'm going to use it and if the test fish die I'll leave it for a while and try a couple of new ones and iff they die i'll take it out.


----------

