Mulm

[Blinky]

I cleaned out my canister filter tubes and hoses today with a brush (yuck!) and flushed everything into a bucket so I could collect the mulm. I've read so many times that it's beneficial to plants to place a layer of mulm beneath the gravel; is there any benefit to drying it out and keeping it for future use? If not, does anyone have a creative method of getting some under the substrate without spreading it all over the tank?

 

[anonapersona]

dry or damp

I've got some dry and I've used it damp also. Put that bucket in the garage for a month or so and it will dry out and peel up in flakes. I've got a pint of that here somewhere.

To use it wet, let it settle and carefully pour off the clear water. Then toss a few handfuls of peat moss in to soak it up. If you are starting a new tank, put that in first.

If it is an established tank, new but needing some added help in the gravel, then make icecubes out of the thickened mulm, with or without the peat added. Shove the mulmsicles in the gravel where needed.

 

[Blinky]

Mulmsickles! Brilliant! Thanks for the great idea
I actually strained the water through a coffee filter and scraped the goop off into a sandwich baggie, but it's still pretty wet - it would be easy to mold into pellets and freeze into DIY root tabs
Both my tanks are established; I've got flourite in the 65g but the 10g has regular gravel with peat underneath. It's planted with crypts, and I was thinking they'd probably appreciate some compost around their roots - mulmsickles sound great!
The only question I have is will the cold affect either plants or fish negatively? I wouldn't want to shock the plants' roots.

 

[djlen]

Blinky, it doesn't take a lot of mulm to start up a tank, even of 65 gals.
For instance, if you had a clear bucket and siphoned, say 6" of water into it and squeezed out your filter pads from the cannister, you would probably get at least 3" of mulm to settle in the bottom of the bucket. This would be more than enough to start up a 65 - 100 gal. tank.......easily.
Why save it when you will always have a supply on hand? Just curious..............

Len

 

[Blinky]

Good point
This is the first time since getting the canister that I've cleaned all the lines out, and there was so much mulm I couldn't bring myself to throw it away if it could possibly be useful! I figured maybe I could give some of it to the crypts in my 10g now, and if there was any benefit to saving it, I'd start doing so until I had a good sized portion, in case *ahem* I get another tank - I figured it would take a thick layer, I guess not .

 

[Aderynglas]

Blinky if you have a garden then your plants there will appreciate any tank water and mulm just as much - If you haven't got a gardden you could make some gardener very happy

 

[dagunk]

If you have that much mulm in your filter, trust me, you have plenty on the bottom of your tank. No filter is even close to being so efficient you're not going to have it on the bottom. I second the "house plant/garden" use of the mulm from your filter. that's what I used to do (before I got a Python).

 

[Blinky]

Now there's a thought, thanks guys! I've got one houseplant that actually needs to be repotted - I guess it might apreciate some mulm since it's basically compost. Who knew this gunk had so many uses?