Natural Soil

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drobbyb

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Easley, South Carolina USA
I was talking to a friend of mine who used to have a planted tank. He used soil from his yard as a base substrate then capped it with gravel. My question is how do you get all of the debris or other nastiness out of it? Has anyone tried this?
 
I used this on a shrimp tank, although I used bagged compost without capping it, I wouldn't use the stuff in your yard as it's likely to have contaminant in it, use bagged compost or you could even use clay.
 
Cactus compost is supposed to work well and is cheaper than aquarium stuff. Any decent garden centre should supply it.
 
I have read of some people using John Innes number 3. Then capping with inert sand etc etc.
 
I think I'm going to give this a try. I need more substrate in my 30 gallon if I am going to plant it the way I want and I still have to buy more plants. This would be a cheaper way to do just that.

I searched the stores in my area and the only compost that is available here is cow manure compost or mushroom compost. The soil in my area is very heavy with clay, so much so that our dirt is red. I was hoping that it would be okay since clay is so highly acclaimed and it is so plentiful. There is also a lot of quartz in the soil.
 
I'm not a gardener so I didn't realize that John Innes no.3 was a mixture and not a bagged brand name. I believe I can make that. We have all the necessary materials available to make it in this area, so it's just a matter of gathering all of the materials. Do I need to add a separate fertilizer or do I just need the loam, peat and the sand?
 

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