Soil types and Walstad..this is a long post.

Linden

Linden

A box of animals way off the ground
Jun 11, 2006
81
0
6
Minneapolis
I perused some past posts and have couple more questions about soil substrates. I just bought 75gal tank (4' x 18.5" x 21" high).

I have the Diana Walstad book, which advocates putting 1- 1.5" 'dirt/soil' as the bottom layer, 1.5" gravel as the top layer. Her stuff totally makes sense to me. (though I did have to skim over some of those painstakingly footnoted scientific sections). This new tank is close to a window with northeast exposure (almost no direct sun).

So, what kind of dirt/soil should I obtain? I am in an apt. in Minneapolis.The topsoil of my yard-dwelling friends here is pretty contaminated (arsenic, anyone?). So I should buy commercial or get some "clean" soil from my dad's garden up north?

I read posts for commercial aquatic soil - seems like most are made for ponds: Schultz aquatic soil, etc. I want to go with a 'dirt-like' product as opposed to a 'high tech' aquarium/pond product. Could I just go to Target or Kmart or HomeDepot and get 'potting soil'?

What do folks think of that, v.s....

Getting dirt from my dad's huge garden, which is organic and all that. He lives 200 miles north of here, the southern edge of the boreal forest. The soil is sandy - glacial drift, if anyone wants to know- and acidic (I assume). But, it has been cultivated with compost for years.

The question is: the tap water here has really high Ph and very low alkalinity. I add alot of buffer to make it 7.0 pH and still the kits are barely on the right side of 'buffer-up' after that. Would my dad's dirt (acidic) be just too incompatible with my local water (basic)? Like, will the substrate and water be 'competing' with each other so much as to make an unstable environment?

***************TMI
I would like to try her advice on only using the strip light that came with the tank package, plus the (meager) light that comes from my window. I am also thinking of getting another 2-3' light from the hardware store. I want to see I can cultivate emergents out of that remaining space.

Here are facts about my other tanks:
55-gal, small coarse gravel quarry rock, since 2002. Vallisineria growing crazy, along with anubia and java moss and ferns. It has two 4' hoods - one with 2 compact fluorescent ($50 apiece!) as well as the 'normal' bulb that came with the tank package. No huge fish. No other plants survived, although, once the Vallisineria took over, I didn't feel the need to try anymore.

10-gal, with large, 'coated' gravel, since 2001. This has the basic fluorescent bulb you get with these dealies. I have reddish crypts that are going like mad. The crypts I transfered to the big tank died. The Vallisineria in this tank grows OK, but I keep it down to favor the crypts. This tank has 5 rasboras, 4 khulis and a baby ancistrus.
 
If you get potting soil from a store, just make sure it's pure - no added fertilizers, anti-caking agents, etc. Personally I might be more apt to go with sphagnum peat than soil. It's more of a pure organic matter source and you know exactly what your getting.

I wouldn't personally go with soil. It's a pain to keep clean while keeping it from going all over the tank. Basically you can't gravel vac without making a mess. Whatever benefit it gives plants, while it is likely more than can be reached by way of root tabs and good water column fertilization, isn't enough to merit such a messy and hard to control practice.

I could be wrong of course. Just my opinion.
 
I'll second Echo's advice, depending on what your looking for in your tank. Walstads methods work but as Echo pointed out, there are drawbacks such as the gravel vaccuuming. Its also messy if you like to change your aquascape or have plants that need to be uprooted regularly because of growth habits. Other methods are just as effective and easier if your goal is to grow plants. If you are aware of the drawbacks and just want to try the method, go for it.

FYI, the Schultz aquatic plant soil is the same thing as Schultz Clay Soil conditioner (except more expensive) which is what I use in my tanks.
 
One of the principles of Walstad is to not do alot of gravel vacuuming. I don't know if I could live with that, but how about a 'gentle' vacuuming, just to get the dead plant goobies out of there? Would that bring up the soil and create a mud storm?

Not to sound like a eco-purist here, but it seems to me plain old muck is what plants like to grow in. Given that my water is so basic, the acidic peat moss seems like it would always be competing with the water, somehow. Or maybe it would be good??? Dang, this stuff is confusing.

At this point, I am still thinking of going "full Walstad," with store-bought, clean potting soil and quarry gravel on top. The DIY section of this site gave me advice on cheap filtering. It will be a while until I get the tank set up (structural questions and saving up $$ for the first salvo of plants), but I will try to document and start a new post when I do.

About water clouding: After I got my 55-gallon, I got a tub of powdered iron-rich dry clay (laeterite, or something like that). I added water to the clay and formed it into cat-turd shaped suppositories that I inserted into the plain gravel. Four years later, my blue botias will occasionally root around, dig up a pocket of clay and it's a clay storm that lasts nearly 16 hours. My beleaguered filters clean it out, but its still ugly. I am happy with my plant growth, however.

Thanks for all your help, everyone.
 
Your right about Walstad and gravel vaccuuming, don't know what I was thinking there. Normally, if needed you would just vaccuum any mulm off the surface of your substrate without actually pushing the vaccuum into the substrate.

My personal experience is pretty limited with natural substrates but I have tried peat before and my water is moderately hard. Peat appeared to be beneficial for plant growth in my tank. The water circulation through my peat substrate didn't seem to cause any significant changes in water parameters, but I was still doing large weekly water changes so effects would be limited.

From what I've read you do want to make sure the mud or soil you use is low in nutrients (as you already know). Good Luck
 
If you pre soak the soil in a shallow pan for 3=4 weeks in water, or boil it 10 minutes, or bake it for 1 hour at 400F, you can mineralize the NH4 to NO3.

This will prevent algae in the start up phase and make things grow well right away. Simple pre step that helps.

Pack the tank right from day one, use plenty of fast growing easy hardy plants.
Do not do water changes, add algae eaters right from the first week etc.
You might add Zeolite to the filter for the first month also.

Refrain from doing a water change though, this is key.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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