how long to soak soil? How thick soil and sand cap? About to start my build !

[KittenFishMom]

I hope to seal my glass "ponds" inplace and then 48+hours later, start adding soil cap with sand. and start planting and hardscaping.

@Streetwise, @Pepere, @Jawjagrrl, @Patrick_G and all you other Nerms who use soil in you tanks: How long should I soak my organic potting soil before I put it in the tank?

My tank is 48 inch left to right and 13.5 front to back. How  deep should the soil be? How deep should the sand cap be?

I wanted to slope the substrate surface low in front high in back. but in my other sand tank, the loach keep digging and flattening my slope. 

So I might let them win and skip the slope to begin with. What do you think?

Thanks so much for your help.

[Pepere]

I think in Diana Walsted book she recommends 24 hours going from memory.

I used Miracle Grow Organic Potting soil (MGOPS) exactly once.   By the time I had sieved the bag I ended up throwing roughly half of it away.

 

I decided Amazonia Aquasoil wasnt really that expensive once you factor in the waste of MGOPS.  And since I am only placing mesh bags of it in spots I am planning on having rooted plants the cost becomes rather minimal.

With Mesh Bags I fill them a little under half full.  On my recent build, a 29 gallon with Under Gravel Filtration I placed a half inch of rinsed Safe T Sorb, a fired clay product designed for absorbing spilled oil, on the UGF plates and positioned my mesh bags where I wanted them and then filled between the bags and covered over the bags about an inch of Safe T Sorb.  I then covered that with an inch of fine black gravel substrate.  I used an aquascape tool to bevel back the Safe T Sorb at the glass panels and fill that space with the black gravel for aesthetics.

It was incredibly easy to insert the stem plants into the substrate and not have them float to the surface.  Much easier than prior tanks with standard Aquarium Gravel.

Photo below is 2 weeks after initial build.

 

More plants arriving next week.

 

 

[Pepere]

So far I have been pleased with the Safe T Sorb.  It is a joy to plant into.

Interestingly I find the color of itself quite pleasant as well.  I could easily see using this as a final cap by itself.  On this tank I really wanted black though.

 

When I set up a 75 gallon tank in the next year or so though it may well be Safe T Sorb as substrate with mesh bags of aquasoil within.

[Streetwise]

I have mostly used organic topsoil from a local composter. I hand-sift to remove the larger pieces of wood, which might float. While I have sand layers in some of my older tanks, I prefer tumbled gravel. My current recipe is about 1.5” of soil and about 1” of gravel.

I don’t bother soaking. I lay down the soil, even it out, and then lay down the gravel. I poke the gravel bag full of holes, lay it out over the substrate, and slowly pour in the water. You could even temporarily put in all your wood to break up the flow.

I encourage you to use a lot of wood, tons of plants, and don’t remove any mulm after your setup phase.

Have fun!

[KittenFishMom]

@Streetwise The sand is one recommended by "Girl Talks Fish" in this video:

 

She says it is bigger and denser than average sand. It arrives Friday.

 

[KittenFishMom]

@Streetwise Thanks for the warning. I know not to gravel vac. I might hoover a bit here and there, but nothing at or under the surface.

[KittenFishMom]

OH, I am not a glass cleaner. I have loads of snails. I move extras to the yoyo loach tank often for snacking. I have flagfish on the way and am working on a scud colony. I may try shrimp, if the loaches are not apt to eat them. I have seen the adult corys dig in their sand up to their eyes, so I think I will need a scud colony to supply the tank. I want to start a daphnia colony soon to help if I get bacteria blooms, as well as for feeding. Remember, I hire the fish in the lake to control my seaweed around my dock. I like having nature do  the work, so I can enjoy nature.

If I could only find something that ate the cat fur that the cats shed all over the place. I have a mug that says "Cat hair is not only a fashion accessory, it is also a condiment." 

[KittenFishMom]

@Streetwise Most of the plants I have from the lake are in a form like hornwort and will drop leaves here and there if a fish sneezes. I plan on slowly replacing them with non-shedding plants as the other plants get bigger.  Given the amount of mess they make, I am apt to need to do a bit of tidying up as the tank comes up to speed.