Soilmaster Select Substrate

[forddna]

I finally gave up on planting anything without weights in my SMS.

[scott53326]

You will always get a little cloudiness when you are inserting or taking plants out of SMS. I did rinse my SMS. I also used a siphon/gravel vac with the g/f's nylon stocking over the end to get a lot more dust out of it.

At this point(just a little over 1 month of using SMS) I don't think it is any cloudier than flourite.

-Scott

[inkslinger]

will i'm planing to redo my gravel to SMS just stop at Lesco Store who had 28 50lb bags of Charcoal Soilmaster Pro Choice Select for $13.43, i have a 110g tank {60x18x24}, should 2 bags be enough for 3 to 4 inchs or should i go with 3, there is 3 Lesco Store less than 10 mins away from where i live , the salesman said its not in demand but he has a custormer who use it for his pond every year so i didn't have to expland my use for a planted tank

[bastalker]

Originally Posted by inkslinger

will i'm planing to redo my gravel to SMS just stop at Lesco Store who had 28 50lb bags of Charcoal Soilmaster Pro Choice Select for $13.43, i have a 110g tank {60x18x24}, should 2 bags be enough for 3 to 4 inchs or should i go with 3?

2 bags will be plenty. I got the 2.5 to 4" slope in my 75G with one bag.

tc
Mark

[inkslinger]

will i finally rinse my 100 pounds of SMS { 2x50lb bags} and put it in my 110g tank, i hope your right about it being light because i use a tape measure an it looks to be around 5 to 6 inches in my 60Lx18W tank , will this pack down when it settles or should i take out 25 pounds out , i was thinking of adding some rocks to raise or slope the sides a bit, i will add some pics some time in another forum later the landscaping is going to take a bit yet.

[reybie]

Over time the slopes will flatten out if you have bottom dwellers.

[inkslinger]

yea reybie but its about 6 inches flat across now, shouldn't i take some out to drop it down to 4 , i think 75 lb or 80lb should be plentey

[reybie]

The shallowest part of my SMS is probably about 3 inches, I thought it wasn't deep enough but it actually worked. It was in the foreground so planting marsilea and some blyxa wasn't a problem at all.

[steak]

i tired to get that soilmaster....but my lesco said i could only order it by the pallet....not cool at all.

[inkslinger]

Originally Posted by inkslinger

yea reybie but its about 6 inches flat across now, shouldn't i take some out to drop it down to 4 , i think 75 lb or 80lb should be plentey

will i took out a 5 gallon bucket and filled it , it drop my Sub down to about 3.5 inches , i might add a little back in to raise one side alittle

[Khandurian]

Originally Posted by steak

i tired to get that soilmaster....but my lesco said i could only order it by the pallet....not cool at all.

If you wanna make a trip up here to Brevard County, I'll sell you the last bag I have.

[druxboyz]

i tried searching for SMS near los angeles and the only one i found was this.

080310 PRO'S CHOICE SOILMASTER SOIL CONDITIONER (RED) 50#

is this correct? I know its red and im willing to try a red substrate (i've had brown substrate for almost 2 yrs). I notice this item says "conditioner" while you guys have been saying "Select".

[mas77]

Originally Posted by druxboyz

i tried searching for SMS near los angeles and the only one i found was this.

080310 PRO'S CHOICE SOILMASTER SOIL CONDITIONER (RED) 50#

is this correct? I know its red and im willing to try a red substrate (i've had brown substrate for almost 2 yrs). I notice this item says "conditioner" while you guys have been saying "Select".

You need to look on the Lesco wed site. They are the manufacturers and I'm sure there are at least a few Lesco stores in the LA area.

[Rod Hay]

Originally Posted by mas77

You need to look on the Lesco wed site. They are the manufacturers .

Sorry, this is WRONG! I know this may seem just picky. However, as many folks read these threads, wrong information can sometimes be taken as 'gospel' and have a snowball effect.

Lesco is one distributor for Soilmaster products.

Oil Dri is the manufacturer:
http://www.oildri.com/index.html
If you want to read about the product at their website follow the links for agri/sport products.

Regular Soilmaster has a larger grain size.
Soilmaster Select is a little smaller, finer.
They both work very well. The Select looks a little better; probably works a little better with very fine foreground plants like HC.

[shwerm601]

Originally Posted by Rod Hay

Sorry, this is WRONG! I know this may seem just picky. However, as many folks read these threads, wrong information can sometimes be taken as 'gospel' and have a snowball effect.

Lesco is one distributor for Soilmaster products.

Oil Dri is the manufacturer:
http://www.oildri.com/index.html
If you want to read about the product at their website follow the links for agri/sport products.

Regular Soilmaster has a larger grain size.
Soilmaster Select is a little smaller, finer.
They both work very well. The Select looks a little better; probably works a little better with very fine foreground plants like HC.

The guy at lesco told me same thing, said the select is more refined so pieces are all roughly equal size where as regular soil master isn't as such.

I rinsed mine more then enough or so I thought, when I filled and had a cloudy tank but it settled out and I vacuumed gravel. Surprisingly, in my syphon you can such it up in but itll just fall back out. Seems to be pretty light, but it wont get sucked up on your syphon which makes it easy to clean. After putting half a tanks worth of water in.