by williemcd on Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:11 pmThis will be my first venture establishing a tank with this type of set up. My ultimate goal is to have a well planted tank for my eventual discus purchase that will be close to maintenance free. Yes it can be done as related to me on another forum.
To start out I had to sterilize the soil... Some recommend putting some in an old pillow case and boiling it.. That seemed way too messy for me... So I went to my gardening past and decided to just bake the stuff on a cookie sheet! Set the temp at 190 place a meat themometer in the deepest portion of the pile making sure the tip of the probe isn't touching the pan/tin. Heat for 30 minutes and allow to cool. If the soil gets over approx.. toxic results can occur. Keep doing batches until you've enough for at least a one inch covering of the tank. I went a bit overboard and went two inches. A .75 cubic foot bag picked up at your local home-improvement store did the trick for my 50 gallon tall so that same amount should do a typical 55 with a depth of just over the suggested one inch. Maybe all of $2.50. Now to keep all that down and from turning into a monster mud puddle I selected a light colored sand that is used in swimming pool filters. The grains of this sand are supposed to be just a perfect size (.45 - .55mm)to allow water and plant root penetration, any denser than that and the soil beneath will die... and become rancid..
I'll edit more as I go along.
To start out I had to sterilize the soil... Some recommend putting some in an old pillow case and boiling it.. That seemed way too messy for me... So I went to my gardening past and decided to just bake the stuff on a cookie sheet! Set the temp at 190 place a meat themometer in the deepest portion of the pile making sure the tip of the probe isn't touching the pan/tin. Heat for 30 minutes and allow to cool. If the soil gets over approx.. toxic results can occur. Keep doing batches until you've enough for at least a one inch covering of the tank. I went a bit overboard and went two inches. A .75 cubic foot bag picked up at your local home-improvement store did the trick for my 50 gallon tall so that same amount should do a typical 55 with a depth of just over the suggested one inch. Maybe all of $2.50. Now to keep all that down and from turning into a monster mud puddle I selected a light colored sand that is used in swimming pool filters. The grains of this sand are supposed to be just a perfect size (.45 - .55mm)to allow water and plant root penetration, any denser than that and the soil beneath will die... and become rancid..
I'll edit more as I go along.
Last edited by williemcd on Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
