Storing old/used ADA Aquasoil?

[John N.]

I have a tank that I'm shutting down due to a lack of time. Had a new internet project to work on...

I suppose just dry the substrate out and pack it up? How do you get rid of the mucky stuff that's ingrained in the aquasoil. Anyone have any tips for me on how to properly store this stuff.

-John N.

[Anti-Pjerrot]

I would just rinse it, let the water drip off and pack it in an airtight box and store it in the fridge. (To avoid mold and germs)

[John N.]

I'm not so sure I want to store 20 lbs of aquasoil in my fridge, but that's just me.

I think rinsing it would be pretty hard to do. I'm afraid of making it into mud.

-John N.

[Roy Deki]

I have always "re-used" my aquasoil. This is what I do.

While tearing down a scape I will gravel vac the aquasoil, this may take a few fills to do it adequately. This is to remove most of the mulm. I then remove the aquasoil and lay it out on a sheet of plastic (outside) and let the sun dry it out. I then just put it in 5 gallon buckets and secure the tops. This method has alway worked for me.

[epicfish]

Originally Posted by Roy Deki

I have always "re-used" my aquasoil. This is what I do.

While tearing down a scape I will gravel vac the aquasoil, this may take a few fills to do it adequately. This is to remove most of the mulm. I then remove the aquasoil and lay it out on a sheet of plastic (outside) and let the sun dry it out. I then just put it in 5 gallon buckets and secure the tops. This method has alway worked for me.

Ahh, during the winter months without too much sun, I baked my ADA AS and stored it exactly like you did...in 5 gallon buckets!

[John N.]

I'm going to try the sun dry and maybe if I get impatient I'll try baking it. Before I do , does anything interesting happen to it when you bake or sun dry it? I wonder if drying it out or baking it causes the aquasoil to loose it's compactness (for the lack of a better phrase).

-John N.

[Jdinh04]

I have about 10 or so lbs of the Aquasoil Amazonia. What I did was, I took like a regular plastic tubberware container, filled it up with the Aquasoil and pretty much let it sit out to dry. Every now and then I would shake the tubberware so that the bottom substrate gets moved up so that it can dry.

[epicfish]

Originally Posted by John N.

I'm going to try the sun dry and maybe if I get impatient I'll try baking it. Before I do , does anything interesting happen to it when you bake or sun dry it? I wonder if drying it out or baking it causes the aquasoil to loose it's compactness (for the lack of a better phrase).

-John N.

From what I've seen/done, keeping it a very low baking temperature will prevent anything "bad" from happening to it.

I accidentally baked it around 400 degrees before. The top layer turned black. I threw away that batch so I don't really know what the side effects are.

But now I'll leave it very warm, around 200*F, just enough to evaporate the water. I'll stir it up every 30 minutes or so until it's all dry.

[John N.]

We'll it looks like putting it into a bucket and letting it sun dry worked out perfectly as you guys said it would. For whatever reason I thought it was going to look like caked mud when dried. I'll take a snap shot of my drying aquasoil when I get a chance just for the record.

-John N.

[John N.]

As promised a few pictures.


No sun but it's drying.


Aquasoil almost dry!

Thanks again for all the help.

-John N.

[Jdinh04]

Thats the way to do it John! Thats exactly what mine looks like except my Aqusoil is mixed with big chunks of powersand.

[John N.]

Originally Posted by Jdinh04

Thats the way to do it John! Thats exactly what mine looks like except my Aqusoil is mixed with big chunks of powersand.

My Aquasoil should contain a couple of nasty snails and odd copepods in there. These vermin were part of the reason why the tank got shut down. I couldn't stand looking at them anymore.

-John N.

[Pat7676]

Whats a copepod?

[John N.]

Copepods are small little critters that like look insect larva. Found often in marine aquariums as food for corals. They live in freshwater as well, and are eaten by fish.

I was actually mistaken, and the things in my tank are called Amphipods. Here's a ugly shot of them from Darrell Stephens when he had this infestation. You can see them swarming the cucumber slices.



These Amphipods descimated my tank. They chewed the leaves of my jungle vals, and Java Fern to a pulp. Literaly nothing left but roots and rhizomes. When in a shrimp only tank they are nearly impossible to get rid of. But when you have fish, they'll quickly get eaten.

-John N.