Well, the start of it, at least.

A 1″ layer of 50/50 garden soil and Organic Choice potting soil (both soaked/leached/rinsed over a period of 2+ weeks), and 25% plain clay cat litter, rinsed. I thinned it to below the trim right around the edges so it wouldn’t show.

Top layer is 1″ of Caribsea “Torpedo Beach” sand. I poured the water onto a plate so I wouldn’t disturb the sand, but it’s really quite nice to work with. Didn’t take much rinsing, either. I stuck a few sprigs of najas grass in, just to see what it was like to try to plant in this stuff, and it wasn’t bad. I’ll have to be careful with rooted plants, but bunch cuttings  should be relatively easy. I ordered the “real” plants today, and have a few I ordered last week coming later this week, along with the aquarium planting tools, and a bottle of SafeStart. The water test kit arrived today. It’ll be a challenge, getting all the plants I want into such a small tank, but it’s going to be a nice home for Cliffie, I think.