# How much doe's it take



## kareen (Jan 18, 2013)

How many 40lb bags of top soil doe's it take to do a 125gl for mineralizeing. Thanks


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## D9Vin (May 12, 2011)

It will vary according to the shape of your tank, but I usually just measure the bottom footprint of the tank and decide how deep I want my substrate, find the volume in cubic inches, then convert it to gallons (or more often pints because I have many pint glasses to measure with). For a big tank like that you could probably use a five gallon bucket.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Most soils like top soil are pretty heavy, but not as heavy as rock. 
Rock, sand = 100 lbs per cubic foot. 
Soil = 70 lbs?? per cubic foot
Organic matter (soil conditioner, mulch) 50 lbs per cubic foot if it is wet. 

Next...
125 gallon tank. Mine is 6' x 18", and lets work with 3" of substrate.
Convert it all to feet: 6 x 1.5 x .25" = 2.25 cubic feet. 
Use info above to figure out substrate:
2" of soil = about 1.5 cubic foot, so maybe 150 lbs? I would start with 3 bags, get 4 if you can work with that much. My value for the weight of the soil may be off. Test fill to be sure of how much you really need. Save the rest for the next tank. 
Cap with 1" fine gravel or sand = barely under 1 cubic foot. See how far 1 cubic foot will get you. Rock yards often sell sands and gravel by the cubic foot. Pool filter sand is sold in 40 or 50 lb bags, so are pretty close to .5 cubic foot. Save the leftovers for that other tank.


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## kareen (Jan 18, 2013)

Thank you for the info


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