miracle grow organic potting soil!

Im using this to dirt my 55g as of now im letting it soak in a bucket and im removing big chucks of wood to reduce tannins. Im gona take my time with it and try to wait two weeks. Im hoping by doing this i will lower the ammonia levels, because i dont have enough plants to "bare the load". Im trying to be patient, and i hope this works out. My current 55g has a number of fish. When the dirt is ready im gona have to keep this fish in a bucket . I really hope i dont lose any plants or fish.

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Comment by Jake the Dog on November 10, 2012 at 9:35am: I am in the exact same boat as you are, well almost. I am using Organic Miracle-Gro Potting Mix in my 55g. I used about .75" soil and I capped it with 3" so the dirt will not float or get dug up. I am reading a lot of posts on google that are saying Miracle Grow has killed their fish but I assume most of these people are not patient and add fish as soon as possible.

Look up the walstad method. This is basically what we are trying to achieve and what Dustin copies and has perfected. I think patience is key but I still have my doubts as well as my concerns for whether or not this dirt will kill my tank.

Next time I am going to just use an organic top soil. Its a lot cheaper than Miracle-Gro and it doesn't "Continually feed up to 2 months with natural fertilizers"

Comment by Derick cotten on November 10, 2012 at 5:07pm: Ya im gona try and let it soak and rinse for two weeks. And when im ready to to dirt. Ill prolly buy another fast growing plant. Also i added beneficial bacteria to the soil , i hope that speeds up the process.

Comment by Derick cotten on November 10, 2012 at 5:11pm: I dont plan on using more than an inch of soil . And ill use a 2 inch cap of sand and gravel. How long did you wait to put your fish in?

Comment by Derick cotten on November 10, 2012 at 6:09pm: * update on the soaking soil! After soaking it for a day ive i gave it a couple of rinses and took more pieces of wood out. Im gona continue this process for another week . Ive also trimmed my jungle all the way down, trying to encourage new thicker growth and also propagated my water wisteria. Im so planning on buying some other fast growing plants to help with the bio load.

Comment by Derick cotten on November 11, 2012 at 12:33am: I picked up some rotala indica . I think this is gona make a good addition.

Comment by Derick cotten on November 12, 2012 at 3:43am: * the soil has been soaking for three days now , i have done around a dozen water changes to it . I dont drain all the water to avoid losing too much good soil. Its starting to turn into a nice mud. Every now and then i sift thru it to pull out the bigger chucks of wood. So while im waiting on the soil ,i drew out my tank layout . Hopefully by the time i dirt it ill find my camera..

Comment by Howard on November 16, 2012 at 4:01am: My experience with Miracle Gro:

1. Soaked it for 2 days

2. Skimmed the woody bits from the top (there was a TON)

3. Soaked again for 3 days

4.. Drained

5. Grabbed handfuls of the Miracle Gro, squeezed as much water out as I could, then layered it into the tank in a .75 inch layer

6. Covered in 3 inch Eco-Complete cap

7. Planted immediately

8. Added in a used sponge and 1/2 cup of substrate from an established tank.

The ammonia spiked on the first day, reaching 1.0 ppm. I did a 30% water change then waited a couple days. Tested the water again and got .25 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites and nitrates. Got bored so I added 4 guppies. It's been about a week and a half and the water parameters are holding steady at .25/0/0. Guppies are doing GREAT and show no signs of stress whatsoever. I'm getting my water tested at a LFS tomorrow and if they give me the go ahead, I'm going to start (slowly) adding in some more delicate fish.

Not saying my way was the best way or even the right way, just FYI.

Comment by Derick cotten on November 16, 2012 at 5:07am: Nice im basically doing the same thing. Tomorrow is the big day!

Comment by Derick cotten on November 17, 2012 at 1:11am: Just dirted my tank i made a few mistakes but nothing too serious

Comment by Derick cotten on November 17, 2012 at 8:15pm: the water was cloudy but it cleared up in a few hours and i put the fish in right away everything looks great

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