# collecting soil for mineralizing?



## ryan10517 (Apr 28, 2010)

well i bought a bag of "topsoil" at lowes the other day. When i flooded it with water, i noticed that about a good half or more of it is just pine mulch, and not much actual soil. Should i just keep using this and see what happens? (i removed a good amount of the mulch that floated). If not, i suppose i can go and buy a different brand. My question was, would I be able to collect my topsoil myself, because we live in the woods. I have access to land that i know has not been sprayed w/ fertilizer, pesticides, etc... Its where i collect leaf litter for poison dart frogs, so i know its safe. 

What do you guys think? Keep using what i got, buy a different bag, or go collect my own. I really don't want to be wasting my time trying to mineralize something thats not even topsoil. thanks in advance

Ryan


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

If you have access to good forest soil, I would use that.


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## ryan10517 (Apr 28, 2010)

alright thanks. I'll go collect some today if i have time. I live in central illinois, so our topsoil is nice, black, and nutrient rich. Appreciate the input  

Any idea whether or not i should try and sterilize it? Not sure that i want to bake 50 lbs of dirt in my oven haha


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## Reef2plants (Jan 24, 2011)

Dont worry about baking it. You may even destroy many good things. Just do the whole soak/dry gig a few times, sift the remains, and youre good to go.


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## bpb (Mar 23, 2011)

I did the EXACT same thing this week. Bought topsoil, rinsed and sifted, it was 50/50 pine bark and sand. So I said to heck with it and dug a hole in the yard. Now I have a beautiful red clay/gravel/sand mixture that I'm mineralizing, and it's free. I filled the hole back up with the pine bark crap I bought from walmart. 

Just rinse it and dry it 4 or 5 times. Pesticides or not, that will get rid of anything harmful. I've heard that pesticides rinse away really quickly and are rendered non-existant/harmless fairly quickly. If you rinse and dry for a few weeks you should be good to go.


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## B-9 (Apr 11, 2011)

I would just dig a hole in your yard, soak it and mix, drain, repeat.

you should end up with an almost clay like mud. Dry that out and use under your capper.

I tried this method once in the past, topped with turface, i didnt like the fact you cant easily move plants without disturbing the "mud"


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## Treetom (Jan 23, 2011)

I was going to mineralize but used straight store bought top soil with no additives in my Cherry shrimp tank. It has been up and running now a bit over a month and all is good. It is capped with kitty litter on 1/3 of the tank, and play sand on the other 2/3's of it. No algae outbreaks, no water coloration, no issues of any kind. You may want to try that. I also live in western central Illinois with great soil. I will try it some day, but not till it get's warmer.


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