[Prev][Next][Index]
Earthworm castings
Steve,
>> What does your dirt look like? Is it kinda
>> black or real sandy? Black is good. Clay would be better than sandy.
>> The black muck from a pond would also be good. You could use a nice
>> black potting soil too. Neil Frank uses peat in his tanks so it can't
>> be that bad if there's a bit in the potting soil. Problem is most
>> potting soils have alot of peat. The banks of rivers, lakes and ponds
>> is also a good place to prospect for black dirt.
Dirt I have plenty of. I'm in the middle of the corn belt in Southern
Minnesota. Soil is so rich and black and full of clay a nearby town is called
Blue Earth and is aptly named. Thought about using it, but figured I'd give
the casings a try. But I ain't waiting. <g> Tank has been down for two months
since I moved from Texas and that is too long.
I've used peat before. Spectacular growth, but just had too tough of a time
controling algae. My assumption is due to the amount of organics from the
decaying peat in the water column. Course, I freely admit I over did it and
would not make that mistake again. Also when I tore down the tank after only a
year, the decomposing peat (guess decomposing peat is redundant) had a most
interesting smell. Stuff stank. Not sure I want rotting peat in my substrata
again, but as I said plant growth was spectacular and this was a low tech tank.
Thanks for the response.
Doug
Doug