Soilmaster Select Substrate

[matpat]

I recently set up a 75g planted tank using Soilmaster Select Charcoal colored substrate. I thought I would share some pics during the substrate set up.

The Soilmaster was $13 for a 50lb bag. 50lbs was plenty to make a 3-4" depth in a 75g tank. Soilmaster Select is used mainly as a sports field conditioner. It is a soil conditioner similar to Turface or Shultz Aquatic Plant Soil but comes in a charcoal color and has a high iron content and CEC. The addition of mulm and peat will quickly get bacteria going in the substrate.

The tank in the pictures was setup on the 6th of November. A friend, Rob, set up a 75g on the 4th or 5th using the same procedure. Rob added some of 3M's black "T" Grade Color Quartz Sand on top of his Soilmaster for a nice black look.

In setting up a planted tank, a dusting of dry peat is used as the bottom layer in CO2 injected tanks. Notice you can still see the orange warning label and the glass through the peat. Up to an inch of presoaked peat can be used in non CO2 enriched tanks.


Then, I placed some Soilmaster on top of the dry peat to keep the peat from floating and then added some mulm from my other tanks. The dark lines are from the mulm addition.


The rest of the Soilmaster was then added and roughly graded from low in the front to high in the back.


Next, the tank was partially filled. I took my time filling since I did not rinse the Soilmaster prior to putting it in the tank. Since the Soilmaster seems to be hydroscopic, the initial 5g of fill water was fertilized with KNO3, and KH2PO4 prior to adding it to the tank. I was my hopes that the Soilmaster would absorb some of the fertilizers mixed in the water.


Upon filling, I thought the water would be cloudier than this but it wasn't too bad. Those of you who have used Flourite know how bad that stuff is even after rinsing many, many times. There is a small Anubias barteri v. nana and Hygrophila difformis (Water Wisteria) in there for perspective on the water cloudiness.


Since it wasn't very cloudy, I filled the tank and added the plants. These are mostly fast growers with the exception of the Java Ferns and will be removed within the next month or two. They will simply grow to fast and require weekly and sometimes twice weekly trimming.



Here are some pics of the tank on the 13th. It initially had 120w of T-12 lights over it. Those were removed and three Shoplights were added on the 13th to increase the light level over the tank. It now has six T-8 tubes over it for a total of 192 watts of light. These are not overdriven yet and depending on plant growth, they may not be overdriven.


Sorry for the crappy pics, but it is an initial set up and the plants and 'scape will change soon enough. I don't know how long I can stand to trim all of these fast growers

Hopefully this will be of help if anyone decides to set up a planted tank in the near future and wants to give the Soilmaster a try.

[AaronT]

Here's where to buy it: http://www.lesco.com/?PageID=27&ItemNumber=083365

[matpat]

Thanks Aaron, I should have added the link.

If you go to Lesco's home page and input your zip code, you will get the closest locations of their stores. You can then order it from the link Aaron provided. Lesco does not charge shipping from one store to another store in order to get the Soilmaster in stock but there may be a bit of a wait time. In our case (SWOAPE) it was about a week. A quick trip to the local Lesco and you will have 50lbs of substrate on hand for relatively cheap

[Rex Grigg]

If 50 lbs gives 3-4" in a 75 gallon tank this stuff must be pretty light.

And of course the "closest" store to me is about 500 miles away.

[matpat]

I thought it was going to be pretty light myself. Seems about the same as Eco Complete and much better than the Schultz Aquatic Palnt Soil and Flourite mix I have in my 55g. I think the smaller grain size may help a bit.

[Rex Grigg]

Has to be lighter than Eco-Complete as you need 144 lbs to get 3" in a 75 gallon according to the Substrate Calculator.

[matpat]

Maybe it is lighter, but it holds plants just as well. The smaller grain size probably helps somewhat also. It is smaller than most of the Eco particles but larger then the "T" grade of 3M's Color Quartz. I'll see if I can get some pics up for comparison.

[milalic]

Will this be a good substrate if I only wanted to grow plants?

[Wasserpest]

I love these sequences, empty tank --> fully grown. Always amazing change. Thanks for sharing!

[Jerm]

Um... no fish? Fish safe water? hehe fishes

[Oqsy]

there's a fish in the last pic... top left. looks like a gourami perhaps, maybe a cichlid.



Oqsy

[AaronT]

Originally Posted by Jerm

Um... no fish? Fish safe water? hehe fishes

Yes it is safe for fish. This is essentially the same product as Shultz Aquatic Plant Soil.

[matpat]

Actually there's a dozen dwarf gouramis in there, 6 males and 6 females and also 6 Otos. If there are any problems with the Gourami's, I have another 75g I can move half of the males into.

One of the males has already built a bubble nest and is a bit aggressive towards the others when they get near his territory but that is it so far.

Here's a few pics of the male gouramis



Not the best quality pics, but I only have a camcorder to take pics. I've tried to get a few pics of the grains size difference in the Eco Complete, Soilmaster, and 3M sand but they don't come out too well. I will see about borrowing a cam and getting a better pic over the weekend.

[Jerm]

Are they dwarf blues?
OOO nearest store near me is in Malta NY... 139.9 miles away, joy.
So how is the Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil for aquariums? Nice cheap alternative?

[matpat]

They are all dwarfs.

The Shultz is good for planted tanks. It is the same stuff as Turface (Both manufactured by Profile) or Soilmaster. However, Soilmaster and Turface come in a gray color versus the reddish-orange of Shultz. Turface gray was very difficult for us to find here in Ohio. We needed to order it by the pallet (2,000lbs) in order to get anyone to ship it to us. Using Lesco, you should be able to order it by the 50lb bag.

If you have a local Plant/Fish club nearby you can try making a group order with them for the Soilmaster. We saved $3 a bag by ordering 1,000lbs of Soilmaster.

I had two 55g tanks with a mix of Shultz, Flourite, and Florbase and they did really well. Each tank had four 2x ODNO 6700K lamps over it. I only have one of those 55g tanks now.