# Any Experience With these Two TopSoils?



## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

I am in the planning stages of setting up my 5 gallon Experimental Natural Planted Hex Tank. Right now, I have a choice of two top soils. One is a *Home Depot Brand* named *Green Leaf*. I was really curious to test this one at an aquatic level as a coworker suggested this one to me for potted terrestrial plants. She swears that she has used this as the sole potting media and has never found a substrate that could grow plants as well or revive ailing plants.

The other one is *President's Choice Black Earth TopSoil.* I know(through a google search) that some prominent members on the EI Natural tank forum here, use this with success.

I would love to test these side by side on two seperate tanks, but heck I have no more space in my house to add any additional tanks. My House is already beginning to resemble a local fish store wiht all the tanks, so I have to make a decision to use one of the TopSoils only. Of course it is difficult to determine what exactly is in these soils as complete ingredients are not listed and there is no nutrient listing.

In both cases the 1 inch layer of top soil will be capped with some schultz aquatic soil as I have tons of this lying around.

Do you EI Naturalists recommend just airing the soil for a week or two before using it, or is it a better idea or has anyone found greater benefits by boiling the soil for a few minutes or soaking it in water for a couple of weeks before using it?

Thanks for any suggestions or recommendations.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Homer_Simpson said:


> Do you EI Naturalists recommend just airing the soil for a week or two before using it, or is it a better idea or has anyone found greater benefits by boiling the soil for a few minutes or soaking it in water for a couple of weeks before using it?
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions or recommendations.


I think that you could do any one of these things and still get what you want (good plant growth and a healthy tank). Personally, I would do the easiest, which is just to set the tank up the same day as you add plants and fish.

Probably more critical is having enough healthy plants and light for your setup.

You'll probably have to tinker with this tank no matter what soil or procedure your try. We're dealing with an ecosystem, not an "off-the-shelf" product. You'll have complex interactions between soil, your tapwater, soil bacteria, plants, etc. Hard to predict, but your general plan sounds good.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

dwalstad said:


> I think that you could do any one of these things and still get what you want (good plant growth and a healthy tank). Personally, I would do the easiest, which is just to set the tank up the same day as you add plants and fish.
> 
> Probably more critical is having enough healthy plants and light for your setup.
> 
> You'll probably have to tinker with this tank no matter what soil or procedure your try. We're dealing with an ecosystem, not an "off-the-shelf" product. You'll have complex interactions between soil, your tapwater, soil bacteria, plants, etc. Hard to predict, but your general plan sounds good.


Many thanks for your input Diana, It is much appreciated  Ongoing tinkering with the setup does not bother me, heck it cannot be any worse than the amount of tinkering that I am currently attempting with my 10 gallon high tech anti-algae tank in order to try achieve that "magical" optimal balance that eveyone one speaks of. The purpose of this experimental setup is to test it side by side against Tom Barr's non C02 low maintenance tank approach
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/433-non-co2-methods.html

Yeah, I know, this may be more like comparing apples and oranges but both concepts share the concept of plant growth under minimal maintenance conditions(i.e, limited water changes). To this end, I will be interested in which method gives me the best mileage over the long term. With all the debates, confilicting views and differences in peoples' experiences, I have come to the conclusion that it is best for one to experiment on their own and find what works best for them in order to cut through the confusion and conflicting ideas.

On a related topic, what are your views on the use of such things as the use of leonardite/humic acids in planted aquariums or even using leonardite/humic acids in topsoil to further enhance the compostion of the soil for a natural planted tank. 
http://www.healthyhomemall.com/about-humic-acids.asp

Many thanks.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

I used the President's Choice Black Earth Topsoil in my 10g and the plants are growing like weeds in there!

As for airing out the soil, some do and some don't. I aired out the soil for almost two weeks and I still ended up with ammonia on the third day of setting up the tank yet other people don't bother to air out/soak the soil. They just take it right from the bag and they've had no problems.

All I recommend is to add a lot of floating plants to the tank after you set it up. I don't think I would've ended up with ammonia and nitrites if I had a lot more floaters in the tank when I had first set it up.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

Thanks for the advise Red Rose. My 10 gallon high tech anti-algae experimental tank is due for a major trim with the egera densa and cardamine growing like weeds. It is getting to the point that these two are growing so quickly that they are choking out the surface. Unfortunately, I will pretty much be restricted to using the Egera Densa and cardamine as floaters. There is not much of a selection available of floating plants in my city and an on-line supplier of decent floating plants requires a minimum $25 purchase which means that at $3.00/scoop I would be stuck with a ton of floating plants that I could not even cram into all my tanks.


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