what dirt does Dustin use?

I have used some unknown brand of organic potting soil and I have also used miracle-gro organic choice potting soil.

Dustin is always going on about dirting tanks, which I do but he never gets into detail of exactly what he uses, how he prepares it and so on. The potting soils I have used come with it seems 90 percent wood which I am not crazy about.

I am trying an experiment with a small amount of miracle grow I had left in a bag. I put it in a small tank, added water, broke it up and now I'm waiting for the denser parts to fall down and the water to mostly clear up. Then I will skim off the floaters and see how much is left, then drain extra water. Then most likely there won't be enough left on the bottom and I'll use a strainer on the floating bits I removed to just remove the largest bits and put the rest in the tank and cap it.

I am hoping Dustin sees this and can make a video with more detail on what he uses, and how he prepares it. Would also be nice to know his views on gravel size to cap with.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on October 22, 2013 at 8:39pm

Good luck on dustin seeing it. He gets on here maybe once a month but doesnt comment on n e hing or post n e thing.ull have better luck at www.fishtanktvpros.com were u pay to talk to him at times. The dirt he uses and how he prepares it ....he has like 10 vids on this. But w/e he uses miracle grow ORGANIC potting soil. U can use n e dirt so long it doesnt contain chemical ferillizers. If u know that chemical ferts were nevr used on ur lawn u can use that dirt. If u dont like the woodchips in ur dirt get a window screen or a similar thing and just sift the dirt to remove most o the wood. Wat u want o do next is "mineralize" ur dirt. Look up mineralizing dirt on google to find out how to do it. After that its just adding it to ur tank and capping it.
Newly dirted tanks require huge wcs first couple week to get rid of excess nutrients and or lots o plants like almost totally coverig urtank. If u dont wc or have lots of plans prepare for algae.
And gravel size he uses which he has a video of aswell is 3mm-5mm gravel but ucan use almost n e thing really not mich of a diff till u get o super small sand that compacts. Good luck with ur dirt tank if u have n e more question lots of ppl on this site have lots of experience and knowledge on all types of tanks so just post ur questions and some1 will answer it eventually.

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Permalink Reply by Darren Powell on October 22, 2013 at 10:42pm

thank you, the same soil recommended on my area's forums. I'll just have to sift through all his videos to see his techniques I guess

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Permalink Reply by Chris Baker on December 6, 2013 at 3:10am

Did you find what you were looking for Darren? Something to note as well, topsoil mineralizes much better than potting soil. Potting soil is filled with peat and other fillers, topsoil is just dirt.