# Dirted tank Question



## edschueth (Jan 2, 2010)

I am starting a 10g dirted tank. I used Miracle-Grow Organic soil and capped it with sand. The water in the tank is orange/brown in color which makes me think the dirt is leaching into the water, did I not cap it off enough with sand? Is this common? Will it go away over time? How harmful will this be to the fish? Thanks.


----------



## mitchfish9 (Apr 30, 2012)

Do you have driftwood in the tank? Because that could leach tannins. And also how much dirt and sand did you use in what ratios?


----------



## edschueth (Jan 2, 2010)

No drift wood. Its tough to tell on depth of substrate but i'm a less is more person when it comes to substrate.. If I had to guess I did roughly 1/2 inch packed dirt with about 1 inch of sand.


----------



## ge2655 (Mar 10, 2013)

> The water in the tank is orange/brown in color which makes me think the dirt is leaching into the water, did I not cap it off enough with sand?


Ed,

I'm going through the same issue and have attributed it to the soil releasing tannins into the water column. In my case, one inch of dirt, capped with one inch of pool filter sand. I believe the discoloration is a normal occurrence that will subside over time with frequent water changes.
I'm a newbie at this, so don't hold me to my assertion.

Regards,
-Gary


----------



## darthmilmo (Feb 19, 2013)

The discoloration will subside over time. It took 1 week on one of my tanks, 4 weeks on another tank. I account the longer time to the particular driftwood I used. 

I heard that purigen will clear the water in no time so maybe you can give it a try.


----------



## Matt1977 (Feb 17, 2012)

In my dirt tank, the water cleared in 3-5 weeks, but i restricted water changes to 20% once a week. Using Purigen will help, it'll clear over days than weeks, but it's a pricey option.


----------



## tumbleweedz (Mar 1, 2012)

Mine only took two weeks, but there has been no problem since.


----------



## Freyr (Feb 17, 2013)

I did a ton of water changes the first week, several a day. My water was yellow initially, after a week of 50% changes it was mostly clear. I had some purigen handy and that cleared the remainder in hours. As long as your tank is adequately planted you shouldn't have problems with water quality,the plants will use up the excess nutrients. I added my first fish 10 days after starting, no problems.


----------

