Top soil

[HayleYoyo]

Hey everyone,
I have a planted tank, and I have been using root tabs.
My moss and stem plants are doing well, the rooted plants not great.
I was thinking of adding my root plants to containers filled with something like Stratum, then burring the container.
Rachelle O'leary does this, and seems to have success.
Here is my question. Can I use top soil? And I've heard stratum will cause huge increases in ammonia at first. Anyone have any advice?

[Filet_O_Fish]

Which root plants do you have?

Also, tell us about your setup:
Do you have CO2 injection?
Do you have a filter, aerator, etc?
If you have a heater, what is the temperature?
What is your Nitrate count?
Do you use lights and/ or natural light? What is the wattage, type, and distance to the plants?
What is the name and brand of the tabs? How often do you feed?

[th3budd]

Yes you can use top soil but you'll want to make sure it is capped with substrate or it will make a mess in the tank. Be sure NOT to use potting soil as it usually has undesirable additives (even if promoted as organic). You can purchase pure topsoil from Ritchie's Feed and Seed for about $3.00 for a large bag. I use it for dirted (Walstad) tanks.

[HayleYoyo]

I decided to go with Safe t Sorb instead