River Loam - Aquarium Plants

bpimm · **River Loam -** 09-11-2008, 02:26 AM

Tom, in a thread on TPT you wrote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Barr

Originally Posted by plantbrain View Post
River loam is far more natural and more effective than topsoil, which is rarely organic. Need a river and decent clean place to collect it though.

It's already mineralized and has the bacteria.

Regards,
Tom Barr

I have a stream running across my land, I have probably 600' of stream on my place and the spring is about 100' off of my property. the land has a heavy cover of trees and loamy soil, there are areas that are flat and the sediments grow great Skunk cabbage. Would you put this sediment in the same class as river loam? Do you think it would work in a tank?

Most of my tanks have my native topsoil for the substrate. how would the stream silt differ from the topsoil?

I have been thinking of trying it in a tank for quite a while, just haven't done it yet.

Thanks
Brian

Tom Barr · 09-11-2008, 06:33 PM

Sounds like a decent source to me given the skunk Cabbage.
You ideally want about 10% organic matter.
Top soil is fine but less organic material is better, but you have to resupply it over time.

Regards,
Tom Barr

bpimm · 09-11-2008, 06:55 PM

Thanks Tom,

I have been going to try it for years just never got to it. My thoughts are it should be pretty much a well rinsed version of the topsoil as the spring is so close, it's not like it's been in a river for miles.

I have a tank I'm going to redo pretty soon, I think I'll try it.

Brian