Soilmaster; Turface Alternatives - Page 7 - Substrates

James0816 · 04-08-2012, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael

I bought some Safe T Sorb this afternoon from Tractor Supply, and it is very similar in appearance to the photos that Seattle Aquarist posted. Mine was pretty dusty, but a small sample was easy to rinse.

There is a wide rang of particle size; from what I would describe as medium sand to 3-4 mm. The large particles are flat. Mixed particle size and flat particles do promote compaction. Has anyone had problems with this?

It will be a month or so before I can use it in a tank. Meanwhile, I will try it in potting soil for bonsai.

No problems with compaction at this point. I pull up a stem or rosette and it have very little resistance. The substrate easily falls from the roots too. Makes things much easier to scape.

Window7 · 04-10-2012, 06:15 PM

Have you use it as a cap for soil?

Michael · 04-19-2012, 05:41 PM

I became impatient to try the stuff, so I set up three Walstad bowls with it to propagate some plants. These bowls have about 3/4" of mineralized soil capped with 1" of Safe-T-Sorb.

So far so good. It has a nice dark color and was easy to plant in. The plants look good after one week.

aquatic tuna · 04-22-2012, 02:31 AM

I tried some ,too.... little rinsing compared to oil dri..nice color...I'm just using it in pots as a cap for MGOGPS.
plants like it so far.

snowball2020 · 05-24-2012, 07:43 AM

Hi Michael,

what are your results from using the material?

Did you ever got your hands on some Turface MVP? I'd like to know where you get it since I'm in Dallas as well. Many thanks

Michael · 05-24-2012, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowball2020

Hi Michael,

what are your results from using the material?

Did you ever got your hands on some Turface MVP? I'd like to know where you get it since I'm in Dallas as well. Many thanks

Hi Snowball, look for a PM from me about how the Turface became too much trouble to get.

The Safe-T-Sorb has worked very well in some small plant-only nano tanks. I am in the process of setting up a paludarium with STS and mineralized topsoil, and will follow that with a new planted tank for my shell-dwellers using the same substrate.

I'll report results--wish me luck!

--Michael

snowball2020 · 05-25-2012, 04:56 PM

I'd like the option to add fish later on, so is it safe?

Michael · 06-03-2012, 04:55 PM

I have now set up two tanks with STS, one a paludarium with only a small water area, and one a conventional planted tank. In both, the bottom layer is fine compost that I mineralized and mixed half and half with STS. The cap is 100% STS. The plaudarium is 2 weeks old, the other tank I set up today.

I had some serious misgivings during the set-ups. No matter how much I washed the STS, the rinse water always looked like mud! Then I realized that STS is probably like Flourite--if you wash it until the rinse water is clean, there won't be anything left, lol.

So I set the tanks up in the usual way. The paludarium water was a little tea-colored, probably from all the driftwood. The conventional tank is crystal clear, even though it's only 4 hours old.

I love the color of the STS, and the mix of particle sizes. It was easy to plant in, holding even small cuttings well.

Sometime this week, I will take water samples in to my good LFS for complete tests. I'm curious to see if the STS softens our hard tap water.

So far, I am very happy.

Window7 · 06-03-2012, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael

I had some serious misgivings during the set-ups. No matter how much I washed the STS, the rinse water always looked like mud! Then I realized that STS is probably like Flourite--if you wash it until the rinse water is clean, there won't be anything left, lol.

I have the same problem, no matter how many wash you give it a go the water will always go muddy.
This mean it will break down, time will tell when thought.
Just don't move anything in the tank then you should be fine.
Or the tank water will turn muddy.

James0816 · 06-05-2012, 10:18 AM

This is very interesting. I'm wondering then if there is different types/batches of it?

I have very little cloudiness during rinsing and none in the tank since. Even when I rescape, I get very little muck stirred up.

Hmmmmm....odd indeed.