# What is the best dirt for a dirt tank?



## stan1973 (5 Nov 2011)

Hi As the title says, what is the best?

I'm about to try some experiments using amazon swords in plant pots in my tank. I've already tried organic miracle grow and they did well for a while but then later not so good. I haven't been able to find any more organic miracle grow to re-pot them so I'm going to try:

1. Levington Bonzia soil - it says on the packet that it can be used for aquatic plants.
2. Soil from my mums garden.

I might also add some laterite and a few beads of osmocote at the bottom of these.
I'll be covering the soil/compost with red fluorite gravel and sitting  them in my tank to see how they do.

What has anyone else tried and how successful was it?
I'd like to try adding some form of clay (not baked) as well but don't know what i can use, could I use the stuff they use for pottery? I think I might have read that it could be used somewhere?
I also saw some Westland soil for pond plants, i'm wondering if this is worth a try?


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## foxfish (5 Nov 2011)

I am using Levington Bonsai soil at the moment & growing plants in pots = not the best growth I have experienced but not bad either.


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## stan1973 (5 Nov 2011)

What gave you the best growth?


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## Alastair (6 Nov 2011)

Mineralised top soil seems to be big in the states, maybe worth looking into


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## stan1973 (6 Nov 2011)

Thanks

I'll see what I get with my mums garden soil then. I know the plants outside always seem to do better in that than in soil you buy from garden centers. I've bought soil for my planters outside and the plants hardly grow but do really well with soil from my mums garden especially if its mixed with compost off the compost heap.

is anybody using clay eg pottery clay?


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## foxfish (6 Nov 2011)

If you are really keen to go that way you might want to wade through this! http://home.infinet.net/teban/substrat.htm


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## stan1973 (22 Dec 2011)

stan1973 said:
			
		

> Hi As the title says, what is the best?
> 
> I'm about to try some experiments using amazon swords in plant pots in my tank. I've already tried organic miracle grow and they did well for a while but then later not so good. I haven't been able to find any more organic miracle grow to re-pot them so I'm going to try:
> 
> ...



Here's the results of my experiment, the amazon swords plants were pretty equal size to start with.
1 is on the left
2 is on the right
i've also been adding ferts to the water.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 183ed4e41c


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## foxfish (22 Dec 2011)

Wow that is interesting! The plants were grown alongside each other in the same tank?

However I have found that when planting  several plants of the same species in the same tank one might grow much faster anyway?
You might have to try your experiment with 10 of each.


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## Antipofish (22 Dec 2011)

stan1973 said:
			
		

> Thanks
> 
> I'll see what I get with my mums garden soil then. I know the plants outside always seem to do better in that than in soil you buy from garden centers. I've bought soil for my planters outside and the plants hardly grow but do really well with soil from my mums garden especially if its mixed with compost off the compost heap.
> 
> is anybody using clay eg pottery clay?



Hope you don't have cats that pee in your garden...


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## stan1973 (23 Dec 2011)

foxfish said:
			
		

> Wow that is interesting! The plants were grown alongside each other in the same tank?
> 
> However I have found that when planting  several plants of the same species in the same tank one might grow much faster anyway?
> You might have to try your experiment with 10 of each.



They have been in the tank for ages and were the same size till i re-potted them. The smaller one is greener though.


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