# Prepping Miracle Gro Organic Choice potting soil for use



## PPulcher (Feb 4, 2004)

Hey gang, I've read quite a bit about this soil for use in the NPT tank. I purchased some from my local hardware store for use, and I found the soil to contain lots of small sticks and twigs and what look like bark fragments. The sticks etc. don't look "fresh," but I decided to screen them out. I'm curious to know if my hard work is requried or if it's okay to leave the material as is. Out of a large bag of the MGOC potting soil, I removed a 9X9X3" plastic container full of this material. Also during the screening, I found small rocks and even a piece of glass!


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

I poured mine straight from the bag into the aquarium to a depth of .75 inches. In hindsight, I wish I had wetted and dried it a couple of times, or left it soaking for a week and then drain it off before using (had a couple weeks of stress with the tannins leaching), but no major issues really (aside from those I caused myself). I capped it with a 50/50 by weight mix of sand and pea gravel the same depth.


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## JeffyFunk (Apr 6, 2006)

PPulcher said:


> I'm curious to know if my hard work is required or if it's okay to leave the material as is.


Ideally, you want to remove any uncomposted material such as the bark pieces that you found because the process of decomposition is oxygen intensive. In a planted aquarium, this would lead to a further lowering of the REDOX potential of the substrate which isn't necessarily a good thing. The rocks and glass you found would really have no effect on the substrate since they should be inert (The glass is definitely inert; the rock maybe).


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## PPulcher (Feb 4, 2004)

Looks like I'm on the right track. I wasn't particularly concerned about the rocks (small pebbles), but I didn't want the twigs/bark to make it into the tank. The glass was just weird, and it reminded me that I should be wearing gloves while mucking with this stuff.


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