Potting Soil?!

potting soil is too light and airy to act as a sufficient substrate for aquariums, and most potting soils these days come with SOME sort of terrestrial plant fertilizer in them, which is a BIG no-no for tanks. i do NOT recommend it.

if you must have some substrate, try java moss, or some other plant leaves for the hatchlings to grab onto.

you can use play sand...its cheap...but amanos babies also have to be in brackish water to develop...so you might want to keep that in mind as well... www.petshrimp.com that might help some

Whoa hold on folks, and don't panic Dwarf Puffers. Potting soil can be a very good substrate for a planted tank, you just have to make sure it doesn't have too much "junk" in it, organic or otherwise. Top soil might be better in that respect. Now that you've done it, you have to decide if you want to keep it that way. The gravel will help keep the soil down, and add some leverage for keeping the plants put.

Here are a few links that I found with a quick search on "potting soil" "substrate" that might help. I'm at work, so I can't get to my ever useful Walstad book at home.
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200303/msg00127.html

http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/detail.aspx?aid=3076&cid=58&search=

http://www.aquabotanic.com/diana_walstad_gallery.htm

http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/showthread.php?p=269302

What brand/type of soil did you use?

Also, here is another link that clawlan told me about with a little synopsis of the Walstad method, which is soil/potting soil friendly. Might provide some info for you.

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method

Ok gang. I don't know how many of you are terrestrial gardeners but I have a huge feeling that most of you aren't.

In most areas of the US anything bagged and sold as potting soil is going to be high in organic and/or have added fertilizers it in. In either case you put that soil in water and just watch the ammonia go through the roof.

If you look really hard you MIGHT find a potting soil that is not high in organics or have added fertilizers. But they are few and far between.

Rex Grigg said:

Ok gang. I don't know how many of you are terrestrial gardeners but I have a huge feeling that most of you aren't.

In most areas of the US anything bagged and sold as potting soil is going to be high in organic and/or have added fertilizers it in. In either case you put that soil in water and just watch the ammonia go through the roof.

If you look really hard you MIGHT find a potting soil that is not high in organics or have added fertilizers. But they are few and far between.

Click to expand...

That is why I suggested top soil if possible.

Our friend Dwarf Puffers is from the fine maritime province of Nova Scotia, not the U.S., maybe he has some cleaner options for potting soil.

I did a freshwater tank with a soil substrate a couple years ago. I found a bag at home depot that said it was just soil, no additives. I added in a bag of vermiculite for nutrients, a bag of course sand to prevent compacting, I think I mixed in some peat too. I used substrate heating, put the dirt down and a good layer of stone on top. As you might expect, doing anything that exposes the dirt layer to the water would cause a dirt storm.

Plant growth was amazing, however we initially got green water and massive amounts of algae because of the abundance of nutrients. A diatom filter cleaned up the water and lots of plants sucked up the nutrients. We could cut out gallons of plants each week, it was crazy.

When I moved, I hoped to move it with the substrate in place, but the movers insisted that was impossible. So I scooped it out and dumped it in an empty housing lot where it would be recycled back into the earth. I went for standard flourite and gravel for simplicity this time. I'm now obsessing in other ways now... building a 215gallon open-top aquarium with terrestrial plants behind it and suspended metal halide lighting.

Michael

Michael