Hi guys - I just purchased some imported organic potting soil to put in my tank (because I live in Hong Kong and haven't found a trusted local supplier). I was expecting it to be topsoil but when I got home, noticed that it was more of the compost variety.
Since I paid quite a lot for it I would still like to use it in my new tank, which is a 50 gallon and will have a deep substrate for aquascaping reasons (i.e. up to 12 inches in some parts). I understand there are two things to worry about: ammonia and methane. So I plan to soak the compost for 1 week and then dry it out to mineralise it. Unfortunately I don't have access to a big enough pot or oven to cook it. But I will also mix it in with ada amazonia (roughly 2 parts of ada to 1 part potting soil) and do a dry start for about a month before adding fish. I will also add rocks in the substrate to help build it up. But since it's an aquascape I will not be using any malaysian trumpet snails either or have any sort of fish that tends to dig.
My question is this enough, given the deep substrate?
Thanks everyone. This is my first post here. :-)
Since I paid quite a lot for it I would still like to use it in my new tank, which is a 50 gallon and will have a deep substrate for aquascaping reasons (i.e. up to 12 inches in some parts). I understand there are two things to worry about: ammonia and methane. So I plan to soak the compost for 1 week and then dry it out to mineralise it. Unfortunately I don't have access to a big enough pot or oven to cook it. But I will also mix it in with ada amazonia (roughly 2 parts of ada to 1 part potting soil) and do a dry start for about a month before adding fish. I will also add rocks in the substrate to help build it up. But since it's an aquascape I will not be using any malaysian trumpet snails either or have any sort of fish that tends to dig.
My question is this enough, given the deep substrate?
Thanks everyone. This is my first post here. :-)
