# Mineralising soil substrate



## daniel19831123 (15 Jun 2011)

Just came across this article during my aimless wander in the internet cyberspace and it struck me as a very economical way of planning for substrate in theoretically a very large tank say 100-150 gallon. Has anybody tried this method? If someone here had tried it, any idea if water column dosing is needed. The author claimed that he doesn't dose the tank except for the odd K+ supplement. I'm not sure if this is applicable to high tech setup though. I do like the idea of having to not dose the water column as frequently and just setup the CO2 and lighting right as it's always a disaster when I go on a 2 week holiday.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/?p=vB52554


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## plantbrain (16 Jun 2011)

Plenty of folks have used the method, but you really do not need to do the mineralization step.

Just like with ADA, the 1st month you do frequent large water changes(2-3 x a week), and it'll mineralize all on it's own, and then the bacterial layers will be established well.

Worm castings is a another method, yes, both can be used in high tech set ups with CO2.

Eg:
http://www.aquahobby.com/tanks/e_tank0311b.php


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## daniel19831123 (16 Jun 2011)

The author claimed that he never dose the tank. I've read through all the post but I wasn't sure if this applies to the high tech setup. I would assume that the soil part would be very similar to aquasoil or any other substrate product such as florabase. So water column fertilisation will still be required? If not, then how long will the topsoil in the substrate level last? A year ? Two years? Thanks tom for the explanation.

Dan


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## Alastair (3 Jul 2011)

Funnily enough, I was looking at a 100 gallon mineralised soil tank journal over on the plantedtank.net. He ran high light and co2 and stated that he only ever doses a sprinkle of potassium on water change day and his growth was amazing.


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## daniel19831123 (3 Jul 2011)

Makes you start wondering why people pay so much for product such as AS amazonia when you can make it from digging it out of your back garden. lol.


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## plantbrain (4 Jul 2011)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> The author claimed that he never dose the tank. I've read through all the post but I wasn't sure if this applies to the high tech setup. I would assume that the soil part would be very similar to aquasoil or any other substrate product such as florabase. So water column fertilisation will still be required? If not, then how long will the topsoil in the substrate level last? A year ? Two years? Thanks tom for the explanation.
> 
> Dan



Which author?
the Worm or the MTS?

In Both cases......the tanks will do better if you dose the water column and in BOTH cases they still do add ferts, Traces and K+ etc..........fish food etc.......You are not getting away without dosing really............and by adding ferts like NO3/PO4, the life span will only........be increased for the sediment. 

It's not easier or harder to dose the water column some.
Need is a highly relative term......I do not NEED CO2 for example.........but it sure helps,


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## plantbrain (4 Jul 2011)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> Makes you start wondering why people pay so much for product such as AS amazonia when you can make it from digging it out of your back garden. lol.



It makes less mess and is consistent, you also do not require a sand cap, you have a nice single type homogeneous sediment.


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## dw1305 (4 Jul 2011)

Hi all,
You can construct your own substrate, by changing the proportion of the ingredients you can create growing media that have whole range of differing nutrient status. 

If you look at the major constituents of natural aquatic sediments, you have sediments that range from totally inert (quartz rich bed-rock, cobbles, pebbles, gravels or sands) through to fine sediments that have high CEC, lots of organic matter and are nutrient rich in both total and available nutrients. These conditions are described by different terms "_oligotrophic_" = nutrient poor, "_mesotrophic_" = some nutrients & "_eutrophic_" = nutrient rich, but really they all grade together along a continuum with these 3 loci as convenient pigeon-holes. There are other factors that effect the plant is the substrate. Coarse substrates will normally be in either areas of high flow (upland streams, Rio Tapajos etc), or where the sediment supply in the water shed is very limited (Lake Malawi etc), oligotrophic sediments will usually be aerobic all the way through the sediment, but their base status can range from fully saturated with carbonates, to extremely base poor. Thick layers of fine sediments in eutrophic lowland depositional basins will have  high "Redox" potential, which will also effect nutrient availability.  

Personally I like my substrate on the oligotrophic side of mesotrophic and base poor, as I keep fish from base poor waters. This equates to a largely coarse silica sand substrate, with the addition of a slow release carbon-source (I use fairly robust dead leaves, Loquat, Oak, _Camellia_ etc)  and some clays (with  a high CEC, but low in calcium carbonate) these can be either calcined (like cat litter or Seramis) or in their native state . This media layer will be largely aerobic, and I will aim to keep it as little disturbed as possible. You can think of this as the orchid, bromeliad, fern, succulent or alpine growing approach, it is aimed at growing plants with low potential growth rates in nutrient poor conditions.

If I wanted to create a more nutrient and base rich media, I would still have the same basic ingredients, but I would play with the proportions and grain size. The silica sand can become a finer grade, and I'd use one with some calcium carbonate content, I'd also lower the proportion used. The organic matter and clay constituent would form a larger proportion of the mix, and I would probably add them already naturally combined as a "brown earth" or "calcareous brown earth" soil,  usually sourced from "mole hills". I would still try not to disturb the sediment, but in this case the substrate will show a stratification in to zones which are aerated (near the surface and in the rhizosphere), a fluctuating zone which may be either aerobic or anaerobic and an anaerobic, anoxic zone. This substrate will also produce CO2 from the oxidisation of the organic matter in the aerobic zone. This is aimed at growing plants with higher potential growth rates (Tomatoes, amenity turf, Dahlias etc) in conditions which are closer to optimal.

If you don't want to muck about making your own mix, you can just use 100% calcined clay, and add Osmocote as your fertiliser source, this should have the advantage of allowing you to replicate the mix used, and due to the high CEC & AEC and stable physical nature of the substrate it can be re-charged with nutrients via the water column. 

All these substrates will become nutrient depleted over time if nutrients aren't added, the rate at which that depletion occurs will depend upon how tightly the nutrients are bound in the substrate and how much of them there were at the start. The other factor that will effect this is the potential growth rate of the plants used, "hungry", fast growing plants with access to aerial, or enhanced dissolved levels of, CO2 will deplete the substrate more quickly. 

The factor limiting plant growth will usually be the level of one of the macro-nutrients, and in the majority it will be nitrogen that is the limiting nutrient.

cheers Darrel


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## Mxx (9 Sep 2011)

They'll sell you expensive substrates because you'll buy them. I'm switching to MTS from now on and am about to prepare some myself soon. But will boil it instead of going through the lengthy mineralization.


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## Mxx (10 Sep 2011)

Does anyone sell prepared MTS though?


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## He-Man (11 Sep 2011)

Wow thankyou for an excellent read and sharing your knowledge


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