# Fertilizer balls that contains clay and compost?



## Pendulum (Oct 13, 2014)

Hello guys I am from hungary, and I recently found Diana Walstad's method. I like it very much, but I do not want to make a new aquarium with soil. So I was thinking what about adding "soil" now?

I used white clay, and i mixed it with my own compost(mature,decomposed, black-colored material)
After that I dried it with sunlight.

Here is a picture of some of them:









I have two aquariums: a 72 liter and a 9 liter.

I will test the balls in both of my aquariums.

Of course I will tell my experiences, but If you have too with this method, tell me please


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Good idea, it should work as long as you don't use too much manure. Please let us know. Did you have any problems with the clay balls coming apart when wet?


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## Pendulum (Oct 13, 2014)

Michael said:


> Good idea, it should work as long as you don't use too much manure. Please let us know. Did you have any problems with the clay balls coming apart when wet?


If I know well what does manure mean(animal waste product), I did not use any of it. My compost contains only plant materials(most of it comes from cutting the grass in the garden)

No, it is bone-like hard. While I was putting into the water, it did not fall apart.
I could easily push into my basalt "gravel".


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## serenityfate1 (Sep 4, 2014)

Wow nice, how did you dry the dirt till it hardened outside?
I usually fill up all my clay ball with goodies inside and the clay will wrap around it to prevent things to fall out when submersed


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## Pendulum (Oct 13, 2014)

serenityfate1 said:


> Wow nice, how did you dry the dirt till it hardened outside?
> I usually fill up all my clay ball with goodies inside and the clay will wrap around it to prevent things to fall out when submersed


I mixed it with white clay. White clay is very hard when dry.

I use clay only to prevent balls falling apart too.


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## Pendulum (Oct 13, 2014)

Test is over and succesfully.

In images:

The "test field" ( The plant is limnophila sessiliflora)









End of the test(nov 27 - Jan 16):



































Guess which one is the fertilized with the compost clay ball!


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks for following up! This is a good option for people like you who want to convert a gravel substrate to soil without tearing down the tank.


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