Pinkmummy79
Member
I'm changing over my high tech 260 to a soil based tank in 3-4 weeks when my last bottle of c02 runs dry.
So, I've been trying to mineralise my 35 litres of top soil outside doing the usual wet/dry cycles for over a month now and due to the weather i'm only on my 2nd drying cycle. I'm just not going to do it this way in time so need to look at baking the soil.
Just to make sure i'm going to do everything correct I have a few questions
Do I bake it completely, so it's completely dry and dusty? or just until it reaches certain temperature but retails certain moisture? I baked a test portion last night at 170 and it's turned to dust, is this right?
I'll need to screen off the stones etc after it's all done, this will also take out the larger organic pieces within the soil, is this ok to do so, not wanting to remove organic matter?
I really want to do this right and take my time over the next few weeks so i'm fully prepared for the change over, i'll need to get some Potash and Dolomite to sprinkle on the base of the tank, and some powdered Clay to mix with the MTS.
Any tips would be gratefully received, i'm probably over thinkng this and should just bake it, and jobs done but I don't want to ruin it before I start if that makes sense.
So, I've been trying to mineralise my 35 litres of top soil outside doing the usual wet/dry cycles for over a month now and due to the weather i'm only on my 2nd drying cycle. I'm just not going to do it this way in time so need to look at baking the soil.
Just to make sure i'm going to do everything correct I have a few questions
Do I bake it completely, so it's completely dry and dusty? or just until it reaches certain temperature but retails certain moisture? I baked a test portion last night at 170 and it's turned to dust, is this right?
I'll need to screen off the stones etc after it's all done, this will also take out the larger organic pieces within the soil, is this ok to do so, not wanting to remove organic matter?
I really want to do this right and take my time over the next few weeks so i'm fully prepared for the change over, i'll need to get some Potash and Dolomite to sprinkle on the base of the tank, and some powdered Clay to mix with the MTS.
Any tips would be gratefully received, i'm probably over thinkng this and should just bake it, and jobs done but I don't want to ruin it before I start if that makes sense.
