Re using JBL Manado Substrate?

[Ryan Young]

Hi,
I was going to siphon out as much substrate as possible, empty my tank, add new substrate and re plant the tank one of my tanks but thought maybe I could re use the manado and buy some more of it to the existing lot to save on buying a whole lot of new substrate.
The only trouble is I have some soil/ dirt capped off at the bottom which is a real mess... Is it possible to separate most to all of the soil which will subsequently be mixed in with the substrate?
Let me know what you guys think!

Cheers Ryan

 

[alto]

If you pull it out, rinse & dry - or even just dry if it's too mucky to rinse ... once dry it's easy to work with again (& should separate fairly easily if that's your preference) - you may also be able to sell on the dried substrate.

Balance costs of new substrate vs time/effort of renewing old substrate.

I'm now committed to the Tropica Aquarium Soil Powder as after more than a year in tank & several re-scapes, it seems same as new ... after stripping out the old scape, I just clean in tank (Python), drain thoroughly & add rocks etc
- & I'm not very delicate with my hardscape trials 😉 so I was surprised at how well it has held up 😀

Most times you can re-use planted tank substrates though there is the occasional FAIL anecdote (from experienced scapers)

You could also strip down tank to substrate, give it a good clean (not something I'd do in tank without a Python type system - be sure to drain to garden etc & not someplace that may clog from the fine sediments) & then adjust amount/height (add root tabs etc if you think they're needed) & top with a fairly fine sand/gravel (Tropica website has many examples of sand/gravel over a nutrient rich base layer)

 

[Ryan Young]

Cheers alto, sounds like a plan, yeah dont think it would go down to great if I managed to clog up all the pipes in my place 😛