AaronT

Great, I'm glad you were inspired. Please share your experiences with us along the way.

954baby

Thanks for posting. I want to try this with my next tank. I am using aquasoil now and already like it more then eco complete.

AaronT

I'm glad you enjoyed the article. I'm excited to see so many people trying it out.

oregon aqua

AaronT

Im trying to do this again after my last fiasco i think im closer but:

i have gotten some type of white type of fungus? growing on the dirt during the drying phase. Also i have gone three times drying and the soil feels......like fiber, is this the grainy texture? Or by grainy did you mean more like sand? I am started one more dunk in the water the smell is almost gone.
no picture of fungus because i clean it off but is this fungus going to cause problems?


On a side note if you remember i told you how bad it went last time and how the trees dumped pine nuts and cotton wood seeds in the dirt, well i dumper that mix and just let it sit, now their are like three trees that are growing out of it, 1 pine and 2 cotton woods LOL. the seeds never take off in the garden around here but seem to like the partly mineralized soil.

ingg

Shouldn't feel like fiber. Grainy as in sandy, is exactly correct.

Are you possibly using organic soil, potting soil, something like that? Fibrous is not what I think of when thinking of cheap topsoil, and cheap topsoil is what you should be mineralizing - the absolute cheapest bag you can find, the $1.50 kind of bag.

I've never seen any molding, but white mold makes sense with every high fiber content mix, it'd be the wood. Feeling like fiber sounds like there is an awfully high wood chip/pulp content in the topsoil you are using, which is why I ask what the beginning product was.


I sift the soil at the end, and remove all the little wood chips and such - what I end up with after sifting feels like ashes almost, super fine, dust.

AaronT

Mold suggests to me that there are still organics in the soil. Ingg is right that it should feel sandy, not fibrous. Fibrous probably means there are lots of leaves and possible peat in the mixture. Try sifting it to see how it comes out.

oregon aqua

does this mean i have to start over again? can i screen the wood out? This stuff was .75cents a bag i figured that was the "cheap" top soil as it cant get much cheaper. if this stuff is trash im grabbing the shovel and headed to the forest out back and getting that soil after all the next step in cheap top soil is free top soil lol. and i can screen it before i start AGAIN.



edit:OMG THIS STUFF DOESNT HAVE ANY SOIL IN IT DOES IT?????????? HAVE I BEEN PLAYING IN MANURE MUD AND WOOD? FOR NO REASON ???????AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The ingreadeints list just hit me no wonder this "TOP SOIL" is so cheap....... thiers no top soil in it. just poop and wood. so gross.

AaronT

Yup, that's what's known as a soilless mix. It's added to the dirt from your yard or wherever to add organic materials. You need the dirt part.

Do you have a yard or know someone with a yard that will let you dig a little bit of dirt out?

oregon aqua

theirs a forest behind my place. So sad! I will go get the shovel.

I try to look at the brighter side of things but all i see today is a wet pile of woody pooh. LOL

erijnal

I'm sorry oregon aqua, but your last two posts seriously made me laugh sooo hard. Especially the edit to your Ingredients post


That sucks man. The mineralized soil sounds really promising, but if I found out that the soil I was wetting and drying for the past week and a half was actually not soil.. I'd be pretty discouraged

Good luck!!!