# Soil Brands: Which ones work? Which ones don't?



## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

It seems that people have lately been asking about the best type of potting soil to use in an NPT so I thought I’d post a little thread addressing the issue. The most common question I’ve seen asked is “What is the best commercial potting soil to use?” I think the best answer is that there isn’t a “best” one, at least not in terms of brands that may be better or worse than others. 

The problem w/ recommending a particular brand of soil is that often soils are regionally developed. Therefore Brand X that is sold at Home Depot near my house (Rockland County, New York) is going to be different than the same brand at a Home Depot in Arizona which will be different than Brand X sold in Alaska. So, while I may have a good experience with that particular brand here in NY, someone in UT might have a totally different experience, whether better or worse. For this reason, it’s not possible to say use this brand or that brand. What we need to look at is the composition of the soil.

So, what are we looking at when we examine a soil’s composition? The general guideline to followed is to choose a soil that does not contain added fertilizers (such as Miracle Gro brand soils) or added manure (such as many topsoils contain.) Doing this will help to avoid common problems such as excessive nutrients that can be harmful to fish (ammonia, nitrite) and promote excessive algae growth. If I remember correctly, Diana also recommends avoiding soils that have a high organic content. You can tell what your soil contains by looking at the back of the bag; all soils that I’ve seen include a list of ingredients. If it says that it contains fertilizers or manure, steer clear of them. They will release excess nutrients into the water which will either harm the fish or spur unwanted algae growth (or both!) It may even be possible to predict the reaction you’ll have when the soil is submerged. For example, I believe that using a soil with a lot of decayed wood products would probably lead to lots of tannins being released into the water, which can be beneficial to the aquarium so long as the water is mostly clear (ie, as long as the tannins aren’t blocking too much light (Whiskey did an interesting experiment in which he showed that strongly tannin-stained water greatly reduced the amount of light penetration into the tank (if I can find the thread, I’ll repost with a link)).)

If you have soft water you might consider using soils that are developed for cacti. These soils often contain bone meal and other products which will add calcium and other hard water nutrients to your tank’s water and will greatly help your plants. Alternatively, you can add cuttlebone (sold in pet stores, look in the bird aisle) or oyster grit (go to your local landscape/gardening center. There are other things you can add, but I forget what they are right now. Just mix them in with your soil before adding them to your tank.

When using soils also stay away from fluorite and other high-iron-containing substrates. Diana has commented that these can interact with the soil and lead to the release of harmful levels of iron, a situation we would certainly want to avoid. Small plain gravel works well. People have used pool filter media with success also. Basically, as long as the gravel is inert, it should be ok (I think, if someone else can comment on gravel that would be great, I wanted to focus exclusively on soil.)

Arguably, the single most important thing when choosing a soil is do to a bottle test before using it. Simply fill any largish jar with a layer of soil and a layer of gravel (if you’re contemplating using anything other than plain gravel, but aren’t sure of the effects, this would be particularly helpful) and fill it with water. Test the water for nitrite, nitrate, ammonia and iron (and anything else that suits your fancy) every couple of days. This will give you an idea of what will happen when you use the soil in your tank and you can adjust accordingly (for ex. if your soil releases a lot of nitrites during your bottle test, then you know to wait a while after setting up your tank before adding your fish. In my tanks, I have to wait a couple of months for the nitrites to be used up by the plants.) 

My last recommendation is to not spend a lot of money. Buy the cheapest soil you can afford, or better yet, use soil from your own back yard. (Obviously if you suspect the soil might be polluted or fertilize, then this would not be a good idea!) I think one of the reasons people choose this method is because you can save a lot of money on substrate. There’s no need to buy a fancy soil brand that’s expensive. I believe Diana has stated that she uses a generic brand from Wal-Mart.

So, just keep it simple and be patient whatever you do. In most cases, problems work out by themselves, or with the addition of lots of plants, especially emergent, fast-growing and surface ones.

Hope this provides some help to folks looking to start their first NPT.

-ricardo

PS If anybody has any comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Really interested in seeing where this goes!! Great info so far. Hopefully someone can elaborate further on how a co2 tank with soil will work in the short term and in the long term.


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## swannee54 (May 24, 2006)

I have good luck with organic compost my self in fact the best and most trouble free tank I have ever set up was with organic compost and sand, and had Panda cory's breeding like crazy.

with soil from my yard I seems to lack all the things nessecery for plants to floursh, so I am always trying to figure out what I am lacking and always adding whatever I seem to think that is, so I am about to set up another NPT and since my water source (tap water) has a very low PH 6.4 and no GH 1 drop and the test is over, I plan to use aquarium sea salt to bring the GH up to about 6dGH and hope that it doesn't bring the PH up to high.

sea salt seems to have any and all the nutrients you need and than some as you can see from the list 


Sodium, Na 10,770 
Magnesium, Mg 1,290 
Sulphur, S 905 
Calcium, Ca 412 
Potassium, K 380 
Bromine, Br 67 
Carbon, C 28 
Nitrogen, N 11.5 
Strontium, Sr 8 
Oxygen, O 6 
Boron, B 4.4 
Silicon, Si 2 
Fluorine, F 1.3 
Argon, Ar 0.43 
Lithium, Li 0.18 
Rubidium, Rb 0.12 
Phosphorus, P 0.06 
Iodine, I 0.06 
Barium, Ba 0.02 
Molybdenium, Mo 0.01
Arsenic, As 0.0037 
Uranium, U 0.0032 
Vanadium, V 0.0025 
Titanium, Ti 0.001 
Zinc, Zn 0.0005 
Nickel, Ni 0.00048 
Aluminium, Al 0.0004 
Cesium, Cs 0.0004 
Chromium, Cr 0.0003 
Antimony, Sb 0.00024 
Krypton, Kr 0.0002 
Selenium, Se 0.0002 
Neon, Ne 0.00012 
Manganese, Mn 0.0001 
Cadmium, Cd 0.0001 
Copper, Cu 0.0001 
Tungsten, W 0.0001 
Iron, Fe 0.000055 
Xenon, Xe 0.00005 
Zirconium, Zr 0.00003 
Bismuth, Bi 0.00002 
Niobium, Nb 0.00001 
Thallium, Tl 0.00001 
Thorium, Th 0.00001 
Hafnium, Hf 7 x 10-6 
Helium, He 6.8 x 10-6 
Beryllium, Be 5.6 x 10-6 
Germanium, Ge 5 x 10-6 
Gold, Au 4 x 10-6 
Rhenium, Re 4 x 10-6 
Cobalt, Co 3 x 10-6 
Lanthanum, La 3 x 10-6 
Neodymium, Nd 3 x 10-6 
Lead, Pb 2 x 10-6 
Silver, Ag 2 x 10-6 
Tantalum, Ta 2 x 10-6 
Gallium, Ga 2 x 10-6 
Yttrium, Y 1.3 x 10-6 
Mercury, Hg 1 x 10-6 
Cerium, Ce 1 x 10-6 
Dysprosium, Dy 9 x 10-7 
Erbium, Er 8 x 10-7 
Ytterbium, Yb 8 x 10-7 
Gadolinium, Gd 7 x 10-7 
Praseodymium, Pr 6 x 10-7 
Scandium, Sc 6 x 10-7 
Tin, Sn 6 x 10-7 
Holmium, Ho 2 x 10-7 
Lutetium, Lu 2 x 10-7 
Thulium, Tm 2 x 10-7 
Indium, In 1 x 10-7 
Trebium, Tb 1 x 10-7 
Palladium, Pd 5 x 10-8 
Samarium, Sm 5 x 10-8 
Tellurium, Te 1 x 10-8 
Europium, Eu 1 x 10-8 
Radium, Ra 7 x 10-11 
Protactinium, Pa 5 x 10-11 
Radon, Rn 6 x 10-16 

So I'll try some soil from the yard and a little sea salt and see what happens


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Got it.

:frusty: 


:smash: 


:hug:


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

swannee54 said:


> I have good luck with organic compost my self in fact the best and most trouble free tank I have ever set up was with organic compost and sand, and had Panda cory's breeding like crazy.


Is this a compost you made or one you bought? Do you know what the composition of the compost is?

-ricardo


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## swannee54 (May 24, 2006)

Hi flagg
The stuff was store bought, the bag boasted that it was australia owned and made, and said it was made of fruit and veggies right from the bin (dumpster) of local supermarkets.op2:

I did have to wait several weeks for the ammonia and nitrItes to level off, but I never had *any* algae, or never had to add anything to the tank


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I think a mix of compost and sand might work quite well as a bottom layer in aquariums.

Theoretically, compost is probably better and more pH neutral than decomposed wood chips, bark, peat moss, etc.

I'd like to hear more from others about using kitchen compost.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

*Kitchen Compost!?!?!????*

:faint: [smilie=r: :ear: :smokin: :happy: :yo: :kiss: 

Really!!!??????

I HAVE THAT!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, Square Foot Gardening and the Ecology of the Planted Aquarium is/are the same thing!!!!

I have worked for the last two years building up a compost supply! I even have my wife and kids helping me keep the kitchen vegetable scraps.

Now I just have to do the heavy labor of using a pitch fork to mix the kitchen scraps (decomposed in a barrel) with the bags of leaves behind the garage. 
With it being so wet here in Upstate New York, I am waiting for it all to dry out. (How do you get rid of the smell? Dried grass clippings? )


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