# Ace Hardware's organic topsoil. Has anyone used it before?



## will5 (Oct 26, 2005)

OK got two big 40lb bags for free this past spring. So i used one bag on my lawn doing patch work. As i was spreading it i noticed it had a clay like balls that be shaped. So today i put some in the oven to bake for an hour to release the NH4 into nitrate. I went to sift through it after cooling and found "rocks" and so i rinsed them off only to find they were they clay ball that had been partly dried. The balls were brown in color and went back to pre-baked state with a little water added.

So i have some in an old ice mountain water bottle to see if i got out all the NH4 and just to see how it would do under water.

So has anyone ever used this topsoil before? 

I think this is going to be a great soil to use as a substrate. At least that's my hope anyway.


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## will5 (Oct 26, 2005)

Also i would like to know if i wanted to change over to a high light soil with sand mixed in Co2 could i just swap out the substrate and add the soil n sand mix, then cap and add the fish back in? I will be reusing the hang on back filter and everything else that is in the tank now.

These are the fish that are in the tank now. Oh and this is a 29 gallon tank.

5 Red line Rasboras
4 serpae tetras
3 yo yo's
2 A. Caucatoides - triple red 
1 Albino bristle nose pleco


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Just out of curiosity, why would you bake your soil before using it in your tank? I'm not sure how that will help. Actually, baking your soil before you use it in your NPT is not a good idea. Baking the soil will kill a lot (if not all) of the beneficial bacteria in the soil, bacteria that you want in the soil.

-ricardo


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## will5 (Oct 26, 2005)

flagg said:


> Just out of curiosity, why would you bake your soil before using it in your tank? I'm not sure how that will help. Actually, baking your soil before you use it in your NPT is not a good idea. Baking the soil will kill a lot (if not all) of the beneficial bacteria in the soil, bacteria that you want in the soil.
> 
> -ricardo


Well this was posted by Tom Barr 


> I wash the delta soil I use and it's a nice clay like material, the Organic material is fine......if you allow the soil to fully oxidize the OM and NH4.
> 
> You can boil the soil(10 minutes), you can soak in a shallow tray for 3 weeks etc, you can bake in a shallow pan for 1 hour at 450F.
> 
> ...


Here is the link to read more about it.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/substrate/50187-soil-substrate.html

Turns out baking it like he said did not get the NH4 out. :-? Maybe i did it wrong.

So today i decide to try boiling it which he says would also so work.

So if this way does not work i am going to let it dry and wet it again and doing this a couple of time like i did with another type of soil i got from the lady next door. The last stuff worked great in a couple of pots but i don't know what it was or where to get it. I will keep posting on how things turn out.


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