Re: [GSAS-board] Steev, Text 3 or 3

["Susan Welenofsky" <welenofsky@comcast.net>]

I noticed from your picture that there was a lot of red clay mixed with the
gray. Is that the SMS? I have seven bags left of Turface.

Susan

-----Original Message-----
From: gsas-board-bounces@thekrib.com [mailto:gsas-board-bounces@thekrib.com]
On Behalf Of Paul Wallace
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:22 PM
To: GSAS board members and alumni
Subject: [GSAS-board] Steev, Text 3 or 3

Steev:

The draft text for the SMS article follows.  Please edit as it is a little
late and the coffee is wearing off.  Pictures will be sent in a separate
email.

Working with Soil Master Select (SMS) and Turface

In the past month a great deal of SMS or Turface is available through the
club as a great planted tank substrate.  These products are commonly
marketed as turf builders and baseball field treatments and are very
inexpensive.  The cool thing is that these substrates are available in BLACK
instead of the normal brown/red and work very well. While I would prefer
Aqua Soil (in black or brown) for a pure high tech planted tank like Luis, I
have a number of "fish tanks with plants" such as the clown and spanner
barbs in the attached images that like to dig (makes Aqua Soil chocolate
milk). This is what I have learned so far through 2 tank swaps:

* SMS is a lot like Fluorite (fired calcined clay) and can be treated as
such.  One method is the "wet wash" that uses lots of water (Fluorite mud
patties?) to remove the dirt.  Thankfully SMS does not appear to have
anywhere near as much prepackaged mud so the wet wash is certainly a good
idea.   The other method is a "dry sift" that is used to drive off the dust
caused by shipping.  My bag of SMS was VERY dusty (like the cat litter back
in the day) with smoke plumes.  Do the sifting outside and add the remainder
to an empty tank and slowly fill with water.  If you are still unsure, you
can try the "Cap" method with a dry base and washed ~1/2 top layer.   In any
case, the trick is to fill slowly without stirring up the gravel.

* A 50 lb bag of SMS is ~ 10 gal (two 5gal buckets) and one bag is enough
for 3X 20 long (30X12" footprint, 2"deep) or a 75 gal tank (48X18"
footprint, 3-4" deep).  Mixing can look really weird.

* These substrates are light (lighter than Fluorite) so care with planting
must be exercised.   Over the past few weeks the clay appears to have become
waterlogged.  The grain size is fairly small (note the use of oversize fish
to make the gravel smaller).  There are some red flakes which may be more
numerous in SMS than Turface.

* SMS should be treated as an "inert" substrate in that is lacks the fine
particles of Fluorite, secret sauce of Eco Complete, or Magic Sprinkle of
Aqua Soil.  Ideas on bulking up for great plant growth include a fine layer
of peat, a small quantity of molasses (to start the bacteria) or good old
root sticks under your stem feeders.  No shortage of ideas can be found at
www.plantedtank.net

If you are able to swap a tank over to SMS or Turface please post a
before/after picture to the forum (now accepting JPEG) or sign up for the
upcoming home show.  Thanks again Larry and Susan for finally sourcing this
material and offering to the club!



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