Soil substrates

I saw some gardening soil at Lowe's for like $7 for 2 cu ft which is more than I'll need. Here is a link to the product. It looks to be more or less just compost from the ingredients. Spaghnum, peat, hardwood mulch, and depending on region some form of manure.

It seems to have a few little chunks of twigs and such in it that might want to float, but they should be weighed down by the heavier top layer of substrate. More than anything it reminds me of the soil that I commonly see when visiting Nebraska. It's a deep rich black color and really loose as opposed to the clumpy Indiana red clay we call soil. I did think it was odd that it says not for potted plants on it. Do you guys see any problem with using this as an inch or two under some sand/gravel substrate?

I picked a bag and figured if it won't work for a tank substrate that I'll just use it to mix into some plant beds. It just seemed like a lot less trouble than digging a hole in my yard and dealing with that. I've got enough trouble with the dogs doing it let alone me adding to the mess. If this stuff won't work is there some other commercial product that would fit the bill?

I use soil under my sand, I put a piece of fiberglass window screen between the soil and the sand to keep fish from digging down to the soil. I mix my own soil but a good potting soil that doesn't contain any raw bio matter should work well too. for every inch of soil you need about 4 inches of sand, at least that's what I use to prevent the nutrients from the soil from coming up too fast.

I currently use just regular gravel in my native tank.... dosing twice a week with seachem trace, iron, excel, and potassium.... I am also using the seachem root tabs.... have had great luck with it.... in my other tanks I am using three of the seachem planting gravels.... I prefer the dark the best for plants....

Just my two cents

I have two soil tanks - one is potting soil under gravel and the other is a mix of clay and topsoil under gravel. The clay and topsoil works *much* better than the potting soil does. The potting soil I used had a lot of wood mulch and the water is a deep tea color from the tannins. Doesn't seem to affect the fish, but it weirds out my coworkers. Also, it's a lot messier and gets stirred up a lot more during water changes, but that could also be caused by the gravel I used being fairly lightweight. The clay and topsoil tank doesn't have these problems at all. It sticks together a lot better. I only use like an inch of gravel over my topsoil mix.

I get plain old topsoil from Lowes for $2 (white bag, red writing, Garden Pro or something similar) for my raised beds and I think that would work well under an inert layer.

good potting soil that doesn't contain any raw bio matter

How would you define raw bio matter? I'm far from a soil expert, and I've never used it in one of my tanks.

The potting soil I used had a lot of wood mulch and the water is a deep tea color from the tannins.

That is a point I hadn't considered. I've already got a lot of driftwood in the tank, so I think I'm going to be fighting that battle anyhow. I'm not sure I want to add to it with my substrate.

How would you define raw bio matter? I'm far from a soil expert, and I've never used it in one of my tanks.
That is a point I hadn't considered. I've already got a lot of driftwood in the tank, so I think I'm going to be fighting that battle anyhow. I'm not sure I want to add to it with my substrate.

Things like rabbit pellets, cow manure, stuff that will rot.

Not all raw bio matter is bad. I would avoid matter that is high in nutrients, like manure. I would also avoid any packaged soil that claimed to contain compost. Mainly, because I don't know what was composted and it could be either high or low nutrient materials. Or both.

I do like adding biological material in the form of dried leaves under the soil. As they break down, they help form a great mulm layer under there, and I'm guessing add to the CO2 available to the plants. They also release nutrients slowly over time as they decompose. I've had very good luck with it.

I imagine this stuff would be a little too high in nutrients for me. Perhaps I'll see if I can't find some plain top soil.

Here is my recipe for aquarium soil to be Toped with fiber glass window screen and layered under sand four times as thick as the soil layer. I like black sand...

4 Pt. Peat Compost
1 part earth worm castings
1 part azzola
2 Pt. Red Clay
2 Pt. Oak Leaves (ground)
3 Pt. Lava Rock Flour
3 Pt. Ground charcoal, (cowboy charcoal, not briquettes)

this is by volume not weight.