# Dirted Tanks (the good and the bad?) - show me yours



## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

Well, I have had a dirted 75 up for a few months now and it seems to be doing ok. Sometimes it looks great, other times it looks like it could use some help. I have been thinking about it for a while now, about tearing it down and just going back to flourite. I need some inspiration.

Does anyone else have a dirted tank? I'd love to see pictures of yours. 
What are some good things about them and what are the bad? 
What type of dirt do you use, and to cap it?


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

I have a 10 gallon dirted tank thats capped with Black Blasting sand from menards. I have pics through my signature links. 

To me, good thing about dirted tanks are: 

- It's cheap
- Less ferts (occasionally dose minute doses though)
- Seems to grow plants well


The bad:

- Felt like forever while it was cycling(ammonia spikes, under control now btw)
- Random gas bubbles that pop up
- Have to be careful about removing heavily rooted plants (or just chop them right at the base)


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

I have a 3, 5 and 25 all dirt with sand or gravel caps. All with potting soil of some sort (see signature for pictures) 

I think they are much more forgiving than sand only substrate as far as fert dosing frequency. Plants seem to develop much more full root structures with dirt 

As far as keeping the mess down, being patient and gentle wiggling plants lose helps, as dose clipping at substrate to remove. For non attend, remove and inch or so and cut the roots, no harm done esp since most of the time they get trimmed anyways


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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

Is it better to cap the dirt with sand? I have gravel on top of the dirt now and it's actually kind of a pain. Though I'd be worried about the sand being kicked up a lot and making the water cloudy? I'm looking to set up another 75. I really like the look of the black sand on top of the dirt. Is it hard to keep without it kicking everywhere though? I do have a parrot fish in the tank, would be worried about him kicking up the sand constantly.


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## The Big Buddha (Jul 30, 2012)

If you are the type who needs to rescape every 5 mins, dirt is not for you. If you have heavy diggers as fish, dirt may not be for you either.
My only regret is not dirting all my tanks. They just seem to do so much better than the ones with only sand.

.


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## thanatopsian (Dec 11, 2016)

this is my first aquascape and it was dirt with a sand cap. I recently rescaped this tank... I'll post a pick of the new layout when I get home!

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## Punkypears (Dec 20, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Is it better to cap the dirt with sand? I have gravel on top of the dirt now and it's actually kind of a pain. Though I'd be worried about the sand being kicked up a lot and making the water cloudy? I'm looking to set up another 75. I really like the look of the black sand on top of the dirt. Is it hard to keep without it kicking everywhere though? I do have a parrot fish in the tank, would be worried about him kicking up the sand constantly.


As long as you rinse the sand it will be fine.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I swapped this tank to mg capped with blasting sand and it looked like this six months later.











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## mik778866 (Aug 22, 2014)

My dirted tank with pool filter sand cap


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

I also just replanted this tank, using the same soil, as you can see I've not actually finished the job. Plus I've got a bucket full of leopard vals, baby tear, wisteria & more. While it is still very much the same layout I've put in some different plants to fill out other areas. I probably should have done a little research to see if I needed to replace the mgopm but I didn't. I did drop a few O+ root tabs in key areas around the tank, such as under the line of crypts I put in across the back left. I'll see how things go and supplement fertz as needed. 











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## PhilthyMcnasty (Oct 16, 2011)

This was my 29 gallon that was dirted. The plants really did great with it but it was a major pain in the butt if you wanted to removed plants because of the long roots. I had to tear down the take because someone ended using the algae magnet and scratch the front glass up.









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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

Wow you guys have some beautiful tanks here! I love seeing pictures of them, it's actually really inspiring. Since Petco is having their $1/gallon sale, I plan to get either a 75g or 55g. As per suggestions and things I've been reading I'll probably end up dirting and capping with the black blasting sand. I love the way the black substrate looks against all those lovely green plants! 

I know what you mean about the dirt being a pain to move things around in. I've had a dirt tank up for a while and every time I try to move something around, the tank gets super clouded with dirt. I usually end up getting an algae bloom right after that happens too, not sure if there's a correlation there or not. 

Now my last question though.. I have a parrot fish. Do they dig? He's only maybe 2 inches long. I've never noticed him dig in this tank, because I was thinking the gravel might be a little too tough for him to move around. Hoping that's not an issue with the blasting sand, since I'd love to see his bright orange colour against the jet black sand.

Bump:


> this is my first aquascape and it was dirt with a sand cap. I recently rescaped this tank... I'll post a pick of the new layout when I get home!


You have a beautiful tank! I do have to ask though, how do you get the dwarf grass to grow and carpet the way yours has?
I've tried planting dwarf grass more than once and I usually just end up loosing the grass since it won't stay down in the substrate and it just ends up dying..



> I also just replanted this tank, using the same soil, as you can see I've not actually finished the job. Plus I've got a bucket full of leopard vals, baby tear, wisteria & more. While it is still very much the same layout I've put in some different plants to fill out other areas. I probably should have done a little research to see if I needed to replace the mgopm but I didn't. I did drop a few O+ root tabs in key areas around the tank, such as under the line of crypts I put in across the back left. I'll see how things go and supplement fertz as needed.


I've never used root tabs before, but I was thinking about doing it when I replant everything into the new tank. To be completely honest, I don't even know what the root tabs actually do. Do they help the roots grow faster or are they general ferts?


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## thanatopsian (Dec 11, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Wow you guys have some beautiful tanks here! I love seeing pictures of them, it's actually really inspiring. Since Petco is having their $1/gallon sale, I plan to get either a 75g or 55g. As per suggestions and things I've been reading I'll probably end up dirting and capping with the black blasting sand. I love the way the black substrate looks against all those lovely green plants!
> 
> I know what you mean about the dirt being a pain to move things around in. I've had a dirt tank up for a while and every time I try to move something around, the tank gets super clouded with dirt. I usually end up getting an algae bloom right after that happens too, not sure if there's a correlation there or not.
> 
> ...


So, actually that DHG was a pain early on. I planted the shoots deep and spread them like everyone says so the roots made it to the dirt layer they melted for about 2 weeks under a single 14watt cfl at the time. I was also fighting string and black beard algae at the time, probably because I used black gold compost and didn't mineralized it. Anyway, I was convinced I needed CO2 at that point due to the lack of growth in the DHC and the algae taking over my tank so I built a diy co2 reactor out of a Coke bottle and growth took off! Unfortunately, I still had several algae probs that were choking my DHC to death. I was litterally combing the string algae out of the DHC nightly. I added a second light to better cover the tank and a cabomba plant to suck up nutrients. That helped a lot. I finally beat it back over the course of several weeks, a blackout, and daily dosing of api co2 booster. Here is a pick from the cabomba days. I ended up taking it out because I had to trim so frequently and it was starting to look scraggly from the trimming almost twice a week.














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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

> So, actually that DHG was a pain early on. I planted the shoots deep and spread them like everyone says so the roots made it to the dirt layer they melted for about 2 weeks under a single 14watt cfl at the time. I was also fighting string and black beard algae at the time, probably because I used black gold compost and didn't mineralized it. Anyway, I was convinced I needed CO2 at that point due to the lack of growth in the DHC and the algae taking over my tank so I built a diy co2 reactor out of a Coke bottle and growth took off! Unfortunately, I still had several algae probs that were choking my DHC to death. I was litterally combing the string algae out of the DHC nightly. I added a second light to better cover the tank and a cabomba plant to suck up nutrients. That helped a lot. I finally beat it back over the course of several weeks, a blackout, and daily dosing of api co2 booster. Here is a pick from the cabomba days. I ended up taking it out because I had to trim so frequently and it was starting to look scraggly from the trimming almost twice a week.


Aw man, really? I can never seem to grow hair grass of any kind. I love the way it looks though, especially in your tank there. But it would constantly up root itself and just melt, turning yellow and brown. Did you do a yeast/sugar co2 combination? I have tried that a few times, sometimes it works better than others. Recently I actually had to stop the co2 reactor because all the fish seemed to be struggling with it. They weren't struggling for air, but they would all just sit around the bottom of the tank and not even eat. It was kind of weird. 
Maybe I will try hair grass again when I replant in the 55. How long does dwarf hair grass grow? You said you had to trim it quite a bit, I imagine that would clog up the filters pretty easily and make a big mess in the tank.


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## tatersalad (Dec 7, 2011)

mrswis said:


> Aw man, really? I can never seem to grow hair grass of any kind. I love the way it looks though, especially in your tank there. But it would constantly up root itself and just melt, turning yellow and brown. Did you do a yeast/sugar co2 combination? I have tried that a few times, sometimes it works better than others. Recently I actually had to stop the co2 reactor because all the fish seemed to be struggling with it. They weren't struggling for air, but they would all just sit around the bottom of the tank and not even eat. It was kind of weird.
> Maybe I will try hair grass again when I replant in the 55. How long does dwarf hair grass grow? You said you had to trim it quite a bit, I imagine that would clog up the filters pretty easily and make a big mess in the tank.


I think the trick on the dwarf hairgrass is starting it out emersed in a dry start. It gives it time to take hold and then when you flood the tank it will really take off. I do believe that in order to grow it thick you need CO2 and decent light. It will grow in low light with no CO2, but it is painstakingly slow and more than likely you will give up on it. My large tank and my office nano are both dirted. My office nano pictured here is Miracle Grow with the Black Diamond blasting sand cap. I have had great success with the hairgrass in my nano setup. I did a rather long dry start of 6 weeks, but I really think I probably could have flooded it at 4 weeks and been ok. I've had dirted tanks for at least the last 8 years and I won't mess with anything else. If you put your dirt in and then shake a little Osmocote Plus on top before you cap it, you will see great results.


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## thanatopsian (Dec 11, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Aw man, really? I can never seem to grow hair grass of any kind. I love the way it looks though, especially in your tank there. But it would constantly up root itself and just melt, turning yellow and brown. Did you do a yeast/sugar co2 combination? I have tried that a few times, sometimes it works better than others. Recently I actually had to stop the co2 reactor because all the fish seemed to be struggling with it. They weren't struggling for air, but they would all just sit around the bottom of the tank and not even eat. It was kind of weird.
> Maybe I will try hair grass again when I replant in the 55. How long does dwarf hair grass grow? You said you had to trim it quite a bit, I imagine that would clog up the filters pretty easily and make a big mess in the tank.


Kinda like the guy above me said, the CO2 seems to be key. I didn't emerge mine, I went submerged straight out of the pack ( I had/have tissue culture from petsmart) 

I'm sorry, when I re-read my post it wasn't clear; I pulled out the cabomba because of rapid growth. DHG is funny in that it tends to stay at whatever lvl you trim it. As it spread it new shoots tend to grow about to the height you trimmed the parent shoot. Some grow higher, but most of them don't. I rarely trimmed My DHG. When I get home I'll post the new layout. I decided I was tired of sand cap and changed to black gravel. I reused my dirt, but added some fresh compost and mixed it in and went with black gravel. I put the DHG back in, but it didn't do well at all (I think it was a combination of slopes that didn't allow direct access to the soil and my gravel is too big). I took it out and it is currently in my overflow tank recovering. My new setup includes sterogene repens and I am very pleased so far. 

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## thanatopsian (Dec 11, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Aw man, really? I can never seem to grow hair grass of any kind. I love the way it looks though, especially in your tank there. But it would constantly up root itself and just melt, turning yellow and brown. Did you do a yeast/sugar co2 combination? I have tried that a few times, sometimes it works better than others. Recently I actually had to stop the co2 reactor because all the fish seemed to be struggling with it. They weren't struggling for air, but they would all just sit around the bottom of the tank and not even eat. It was kind of weird.
> Maybe I will try hair grass again when I replant in the 55. How long does dwarf hair grass grow? You said you had to trim it quite a bit, I imagine that would clog up the filters pretty easily and make a big mess in the tank.


Haha, just realized I didn't answer your question about the CO2 generator! Yeah I did a sugar yeast mix and and still run that today. I plan on eventually transitioning to a paintball system, but right now I'm focusing on upgrading how I deliver CO2 to the tank. Right now it's going straight into my intake impeller and the bubbles are pretty big.

A lot of my trouble with do-it-yourself CO2 came from bad advice on the mix. A lot of people advocate 2 cups of sugar in a 1-liter coke bottle and I found that just doesn't work well. For one, a lot of research suggests that excess sugar acts as a preservative and I think it inhibited the productivity of my yeast. Second, water with a lot of sugar is really thick. I found that the thick water solution trapped a lot of CO2. (As evidenced by all of the Fizz when I poured it out). Now I go with 3/4 of a cup of sugar in a 2 ltr coke bottle and I make sure to not fill it past the point the bottle starts tapering back down to the opening. This increases the surface area for CO2 to diffuse from the liquid to the air in the bottle.

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## sharambil (Nov 15, 2016)

I have done a Fluorite/Gravel mix that has always worked extremely well for me. I use that mixture to cap off the dirt, so heavily root feeding plants can access another source of nutrition other than the fluorite/ dosing of nutrients to the water column.


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