Michael

James, what part of the country are you in? It is not unusual for there to be regional variations in products like this. It is especially true of bagged "topsoil".

James0816

I'm in VA. It is mined in Tennessee.

Newt

Perhaps its the difference between a kiln fired clay that has virtually all the moistured removed on a molecular level and a (naturally) dried clay that is loaded with moisture. The fired clay won't breakdown but a dried clay will turn to mud.

bosmahe1

My STS rinses clear faster than the last bag of Flourite that I bought. Even though I still have Fourite left, I am using STS from now on. Until, I find a reason not to anyway. It looks more natural than Flourite regular and the pieces are are smaller so, less for the BBA to hang onto. I am gradually, removing the Flourite and replacing it with the STS. I replace several handfuls at a time before, water changes. So far, I have noticed that my tank water drops in KH from 5 to 4 kdh. No change noticed in GH. The last time I was in Tractor Supply, the pile of 40 lb bags was no longer there. Maybe, it's a seasonal stocking thing. I now kind of wished that I bought a second bag just in case. I still have plenty left and I'm sure they will order some in for me if, needed.

Michael

So far I've set up three "real" tanks with STS. One is a paludarium in a very tall 20 gallon tank (the size and shape of two 10 gal stacked on top of one another). The second is a 15 gal tall "pure" plant tank; no stone, driftwood, or other hardscape, just substrate and plants. And the last is a 20 gal tall planted species tank for my Lamprologus ocellatus. All are between 6 and 8 weeks old. All of them have a bottom layer of 50% STS and 50% mineralized compost, capped with pure STS.

Plants range from easy to moderately difficult stem, rosette, and epiphyte types. Right now fauna are red cherry shrimp, Endler's livebearers, paradise fish, panda cories, and the Lamprologus (a.k.a. ocellated shell dweller).

Everything is doing very well! My only complaint is that the STS will cloud the water slightly when disturbed a great deal. This not a problem in the paludarium or the pure plant tank. If I move plants the floss in the filters takes care of the cloudiness overnight.

But the Lamprologus love to dig, and their tank stays slightly cloudy. You can still see everything in the tank quite clearly, but the water does not have the clarity of a contest entry. BTW, in that tank the mineralized compost substrate is confined to the back 1/3 of the tank which is heavily planted and protected from digging by large rocks. The fish stay in the front 2/3, where their shells are, and where they have about 2" of STS to dig in. If the cloudiness ever starts to bother me enough, I will siphon out the STS and replace it with sand.

STS gets a high rating for general planted tank use from me so far.

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi All,

So I finally got around to putting some of the Safe T Sorb #7941 in an aquarium last night; this is what it looks like with some stems from my emersed setup. This tank has no CO2 so it will interesting to see how the emersed stems do.

Apistogramma cacatoides 'Triple Red' in 10 gallon using Safe t sorb #7941


Here are my impressions compared with Soilmaster Select Charcoal (SMS):
Definitely more dusty; at least 5 rinses per bucket before adding to the tank.
Uneven particle size from sand particles to 4X SMS size; SMS was fairly uniform
About the same weight as SMS and Turface.
Nice color variation in the particles; much better than Kitty Litter. The colors shown in the picture are almost exactly the colors in my tank.
I will be taking water parameters in the morning and see what the effect if any it has on the tap water.

7/26/12 I tested my water in the Safe T Sorb aquarium today and it is typical of what I have seen with other Monmorillonite clay substrates. My tank had a PH of 6.0 and was <1.0 dKH and <4.0 dGH. My water is typically very soft and comes out of the tap with a 7.8 PH but after sitting for 24 hours drops down to about 7.0 PH. I set aside some tap water this afternoon and will test it tomorrow.

7/27/12 I tested our tap water that had been sitting out for 24 hours and it has a PH of 7.0 - 7.2, a 2.0 dKH and 6.0 dGH so it appears that the high CEC of the clay has reduced the levels down to what I took yesterday. I did add enough NaHCO2 (baking soda) to raise the dKH by 1.0 degree and enough Seachem Equilibrium to raise the dGH by 1.0 degree. I also fertilized with 1.0 ml of Seachem Comprehensive. The emersed stems I planted seem to be doing well with no melting, new leaves starting to emerge and the existing leaves turning towards the light.

Michael

Nice apistos!

To add a note on my Lamprologus tank--the cloudiness cleared and stayed that way. It may not have been the substrate, but rather some other new tank cloudiness. This is despite massive earth-moving by the fish.

Seattle_Aquarist

Added info to post #76 above.

BruceF

Just wanted to add this link if it is not here somewhere.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/14...bsorbant_40_lb

bosmahe1

Wow, free shipping from here.

If you have Tractor Supply near by, its cheaper. But, they don't ship.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/safe-t-...40-lb--0800989