Dirty advice

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Rumpolphoreskin

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
16
Location
Wisconsin
I let my organic potting soil soak for about 4-5 months before putting it in my tank.
I capped it with about 1.5 inches of (coal slag) black blasting compound/sand (btw I put an ounce of dish detergent into my second soak of the blasting sand and after several rinses it seems to be leaving no film/slick at the top of my tank).

Do date (about three weeks) I've yet to get an ammonia spike in the water.
The water doesn't seem as tannin stained as my first dirted tank, where I did not soak the potting soil near as long.

After about a week of no ammonia spike I put in a giant danio (neon eater) that I inherited from a biology experiment of my 17 y/o.
After a week the danio is showing no ill effects.

My question is did the long soak of the potting soil release the ammonia (I did bi-weekly to monthly rinses of the soil as I was conditioning it)?
 
Dirty Advice

I wondered about that but I need to point out I did not go through the MTS process of drying the soil between soaks.

All that ever got poured off was the stained (tannin stained?) water.
The soil was always wet and never left the bucket it was soaking in.

When I put it in the tank there was a definite manure smell to it.

:thanks:
 
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