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Using Oil-Dri for cheap substrate?

24K views 107 replies 31 participants last post by  Mizuhuman 
#1 ·
I am going to set up a couple very low-tech 10 gallons in my basement to hold some extra plants and I was looking for a cheap substrate. I want to try something different though for these tanks. I have heard that kitty litter works well, but is there a difference between that and Oil-Dri?

I also need to add some to my emersed tank so it is not just mud sitting in the open.
 
#70 ·
Its been roughly 6 weeks so I thought I post another picture. Scroll up a few postings to see the original picture just after planting.

I actually stopped the test in the corner of the tank and did the entire tank in STS. I've gotten more growth in these 6 weeks than in 6 months with Flourite. Fertilization is with aquariumplants.com root tabs CO2 too. Lighting is 25 umols

There was a Sword in the background of the first pic. I pulled it up and replanted with a smaller one and its now happily sending leaves out.

There's no sign or crumbling or disintegration of the STS. I really like this stuff.
 

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#74 ·
There are a lot of organizations that try to give preference to businesses owned by women, minorities, disabled, etc.

I believe some government organizations may be required to contract a certain % to such businesses, but I'm not sure.

I've also heard (can't remember the source) that with the use of various shell corporations and what not, this distinction has become nearly meaningless in some areas/by some definitions.
 
#75 ·
Okay I just bought a 40 lbs bag of the SafeTSorb. I have begun to rinse small amounts using a strainer and laying it out on a big piece of cardboard to dry. Could I use Seachem's Equilibrium (poweder) and mix it with some water in a bucket and then add the cleaned STS to it to "charge" it. I thought since it restores minerals and balances GH it would be good to do. Is this okay to do or should I just mix some aragonite in it?
 
#76 ·
I bought a bag based upon this thread and was happy with the color, shape, and size of the substrate. I am unhappy at how much time I have spent and water used washing it.

I have washed it numerous times including in a sieve bucket until it was clean. I did two scoops, the water cleared after several minutes of flushing, put it into another bucket, added water to it and it turned brown once again.

Any hints?
 
#79 ·
I wonder if different bags have different amounts of dustiness? I used Safe-T-Sorb.

I did have quite a slurry of muddy water when I set mine up. I was ready for it, and 'rinsed the substrate in the tank'. It only needed 2 changes of water. First one (6" deep) was a muddy mess. Second one (also about 6" deep) was noticeably cleaner, though still muddy. I filled both of these stirring the material as much as I could. Deliberately MAKING a mess. Then draining.
The third fill was done slowly. I put the Safe-T-Sorb bag in the tank and filled by running the water slowly over it. Sure, it was a bit cloudy, but nothing that I would not have put fish in. It was a lot clearer a few hours later, and really clean the next day. I ran the filters for a few days, then cleaned them. Lots of silt.
I re-scaped, again clouding the water, and did a water change, but the water was not really too bad. However, I had been deliberately messy again (I think I missed out on making mud pies as a child) so I took that opportunity to get rid of some more dust. There was not much left.
 
#80 ·
Thank you for the suggestions.

This is what I did:

1. Put around 25 pounds in a rubbermaid tub and ran the hose into the substrate, flushed for 10 minutes, moved it and repeated it 3 more times for a 40 minute flush. The water was clear so I moved it into the tank.
2. I filled the tank (38 gallon) and disturbed the substrate, drained 20 gallons and replaced.
3. Repeated for the next week and though I could see through the tank now it still looked like weak tea.
4. Drained the entire tank and removed the substrate.
5. Washed the substrate in a sieve bucket with a mesh bottom with a garden hose on jet, poured the cleaned substrate into a bucket, filled the bucket up and the water was brown once again. I did two handfuls per washing of around 5 minutes each.

I may try back into the tank once and if not try a different substrate.

I did not use a sponge filter though because there was too much suspended sediment that it would not have done much good so I may try that.


Thanks again.
 
#82 ·
Mine seemed really dusty and after somewhat rinsing just put it into the tank. By accident I ended up rinsing in the tank .. twice. Even after the final fill I ended up moving some stuff around but didn't drain again. Several hours later the water was fairy clear. The next day it was totally clear.

Since then I've kicked some up moving plants or something but it clears up in a few minutes. Again, never cloudy for as long as yours has been.

Just wonder if you got a "bad" ... really dusty bag. You bought the green/white bag right?
 
#83 ·
Yes I bought the green and white bag and it was the only type that TS sold. It was a 40# bag on sale for $4.50.

When I removed the substrate from the tank it went into my sieve bucket and after a few pounds was collected I quit, swirled it in the water and then poured the dirty water into the yard. Once I left it sitting over night and when I poured the 5 gallons of water off there was 1/4 to 1/2 of fines that had settled in the bucket.

I believe that I just have a dirty bag and will rinse it again outside with the garden hose and then use a sponge filter to polish the rest off.

Thanks again.
 
#85 ·
I see that I left the word "inch" after 1/4 to 1/2 in my post above. Opps.

Sow: Thank you for the suggestion and I wish it was the issue.

I really do think it is my bag. I rinsed the bucket of substrate with the garden hose for 20+ minutes last night, threw it back into the tank, and have been running coarse filter sponges since last night.

I can now see through the tank front to back but not side to side yet.

And the only reason why I keep doing this is I think that it looks nice too.

Thanks again.
 
#87 ·
LOL .. I didn't even notice that but I read it as "inch".

It seems I remember reading that someone else had a really dusty bag. Someone suggested that the more it got rinsed the smaller the particles became and the more "dust" it would make. Sounded reasonable to me at the time but don't know if that's fact. Just wondering if that could be happening to you.

Mine did take at least 24 hrs .. maybe closer to 36 hrs to totally clear up. It was nice & clear on the final fill but I couldn't tell I didn't have the plants in the right spot until the tank was full and then my driftwood decided it wanted to float even though I tested it before I drained the tank. So made a huge mess moving stuff around. I couldn't even see in the tank much less through it. I barely could see my fish and one is 6". LOL It seemed to be taking a long time to totally clear. I remember wondering if I'd made a mistake using it. But the next day when I looked it was a whole lot better and by that evening was totally clear. But I was running 2 #3 hydro sponges so that might have helped.

Give it a day or 2 to settle .. hopefully it does & will clear up.

I use this stuff a lot in my shop, as I'm a mechanic, it works great there, but there is no way is use it in a tank.
Works great in a tank. It's been discussed that it's basically the same stuff as some expensive aquarium substrate (can't remember the name of) that has just been re-badged and price jacked up.
 
#88 ·
Good news: it has finally cleared up and I can see into the tank for a change. I threw my driftwood into the tank to start that process (though I have been soaking this entire time outside the tank) and was moving some of the substrate around. It made a small cloud but settled quickly. From your statement above I too started wondering if the more I did with it the more it would break down so that could make sense.

This will be a low light tank for my 6 yo son in his room and plan on doing just moss attached to the driftwood and maybe something in the substrate. I have one piece of driftwood that I plan on suspending in the water column so that it looks like a root wad suspended from the bank and to allow the fish to swim under and through the “roots”.


The important thing is he is as excited as I am.
 
#89 ·
This will be a low light tank for my 6 yo son in his room.
Plan on doing just moss attached to the driftwood and maybe something in the substrate.
Try anubias. They can grow without substrate in a sunny window. If you can't find any in Pet Stores try Ebay when it gets warmer.

I got some ferns Malaysia and Taiwan, which had no shipment cost, and they arrived in great condition. Fern from aquatic magic was the size of 2 ferns
 
#99 ·
My original experience with a substrate that removes carbonates was in 29 gallon tanks with a Fluval 204 canister, and not much substrate or decor. I was calling the volume 30 gallons. I also had SMS in several other tanks from 10 gallons to 45 gallons. Varying amounts of non-water stuff taking up the room in the tank.
At the same time I was running a Lake Tanganyikan tank of about 60 gallons (Sump + tank, but there was a lot of rock in this one. Actual volume was closer to 50 gallons). I needed to prepare the water for water changes by raising the GH and KH of the tap water. I would mix a garbage can full and use it for several tanks with hard water fish.

Soil Master Select as the substrate in the 29 gallon tanks would remove the carbonates, per API liquid test and dip stick test (Probably Jungle, but there are several companies that make them). As near as I could tell the KH was 0 degrees (0 ppm on the dip stick test)

When I added 2 teaspoons of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda to the 29 gallon tanks these tests would both show 2 dKH. I realize the dip stick does not have a "35 ppm" color, so this is interpolating between the colors. It was really close to the 40 ppm shade of green.

I run SMS in many tanks of different sizes, and multiply or divide the dose to get the results I want depending on the size of the tank.
I got the same results when I was preparing the water for the Lake Tang. tank. 30 gallons of new water, starting with tap water KH 4 degrees. Add 2 tablespoon and the KH would rise to 16 degrees.

Then I set up an 88 gallon tank with Safe T Sorb. I found it also dropped the KH to what I called 0 degrees.
I added varying amounts of baking soda and tested the results. I found the math holds true:

1 teaspoon of baking soda added to 30 gallons of water raises the KH by 2 German degrees of hardness.
I also altered the test by mixing 50/50 distilled and tank water then multiplying the results by 2. I was measuring the water to fill the test tube using a syringe with markings to .5ml.

You can multiply or divide this recipe to suit any size tank, any desired change in KH.
However, if I was going to attempt a much larger change I would probably work it part way, then test again. I was not measuring the baking soda by weight, which is the more accurate way to do this sort of thing. I know when I got a bit careless mixing water for the hard water tanks the KH did not exactly match the tank.
 
#100 · (Edited)
STS API KH Test False Alarm... Sheesh...

Thanks for your time, Roy and Diana.

Finally, I realized that I mistook to the instructions on the API test kit. I was accidentally expecting the water to turn from yellow to blue, instead of blue to yellow... Oops. This is pretty ridiculous especially considering I have run this test quite a few times... User error. Maybe it's having two kids under 2 that is sapping my intellect. Anyway, Now it all makes sense. The KH in the STS water is zero, hence why I am never seeing any blue in the test liquid. The STS is extracting the KH as would be expected...

Now I added a small bag of crushed coral to the filter in the STS tank. I am thinking that this carbonate buffer will "feed" the STS until it eventually stops pulling it out of the water...

Great stuff, BTW, STS. I followed your advice and went through W.W. Granger to get a bag locally in Portland. Thanks for the tip! Very easy to work with, looks great, cleared up fast, and so economical...

Here is a pic of the STS tank:

 
#102 ·
Is the use of cat litter give the same results when it comes to KH/GH dropping?

Jnad

According to my research, any of the high CEC clay-based substrates, i.e. kitty litter, Safe T Sorb, Turface, or otherwise chemical absorbing materials will initially lower the KH/GH by leeching it out of the water. Eventually, the material reaches an equilibrium wherein it stops absorbing KH/GH and matches the KH/GH of the water column…

Of course, the pay off of this initial KH withdrawal side effect, is the long term CEC benefit of the material storing nutrients for the plants to use over time.

I am currently buffering my new Safe T Sorb tank with crushed coral and will be testing to see how long it takes for the STS to stop absorbing the KH. I am considering adding baking soda to expedite this process as well.
 
#105 ·
Hi Mizuhuman,

Definitely use a filter to speed up the clearing process. Here is a 20 gallon I set up the first of the month.

Rinsed 5X per gallon of substrate in bucket; After filling


After 24 hours using Marineland C-220 with polishing pad
 
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