Best way to mix substrate

[Loveall]

K I got the sand salt water and we should I mix it all in the tank or in a bucket

[NLindsey921]

In my case it was easier to mix it in a bucket and then transfer is but you cancreall do it either way.

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[mool]

If the tank is empty, pour it all in and stir it up with your clean hands. That's what I've always done. Be sure the water is de-chlorinated.

[Rawrgeous]

I say do it in the tank like Mool said if it's emptier. Easier on your back- less containers- less mess. That being said, it truly doesn't matter. As long as you can make a castle with it, and reach to the bottom without it collapsing, you're good.

[CrabbyMommy2017]

I am new to crabbing, but this is the way that I did it. I have a 55 gallon tank setup and the amounts that I used ended up being exactly perfect.

First I obtained three compressed bricks of Eco Earth coconut fiber. On the package label it tells you that the bricks only take 30 to 40 minutes to completely decompress in the amount of water instructed to use. This is a complete lie! LOL. I used a 5 gallon bucket and decompressed one brick at a time using the exact amount of water instructed on the package. I had to leave each brick sitting overnight and also stab at it and poke at it until it completely decompressed the next morning. This left the Eco Earth very saturated. Each morning when the brick completely decompressed I used a very large plastic tote to transfer the prepared Eco Earth into. Then I used the same first 5 gallon bucket on the next brick. This took a total of three days to do.

After I had all three Eco Earth bricks completely decompressed and in the larger plastic tote, there was a lot of excess water. I of course used dechlorinated water. Forgot to mention that in the beginning. Once I had all three Eco Earth bricks completely decompressed and all mixed together in the larger tote, I mixed them all three together very thoroughly using a large kitchen knife. I suppose you could use something different, but the large kitchen knife worked well and I wasn't terribly worried about dulling the blade.

Next I purchased a bag of play sand from Home Depot. I carefully inspected all of the bags of play sand on the pallet to make sure that I got one that looked good. I've heard that it's important to get your bag of play sand from somewhere in the middle of the pallet so that it is not as much exposed to the weather.

Once I purchased my bag of play sand, I dumped it directly down into the very large plastic tote containing the prepared Eco Earth.

The Next Step really wore me out! I mixed everything together using my arms and hands. I wanted to make sure that everything was mixed completely evenly. This mixing process took me about an hour or so to make sure that there were no pockets of Eco Earth not containing play sand.

I didn't add any extra water after seeing how soupy the Eco Earth mixture was after preparation. After mixing the two ingredients very thoroughly, my mixture came out to be exactly Sandcastle consistency. Another lucky coincidence was that doing it in this way actually gave me exactly six inches of substrate for my 55 gallon tank with none left over.

I'm sure there are other ways that you can do this. This was my first time ever mixing substrate and I guess I just got lucky with the consistency and the amount coming out exactly perfect.