Dirted Tanks?

I have had tanks with gravel for decades, what is the deal with dirted tanks? I have a 90 gallon with gravel and a single water wisteria, that has nearly filled the entire tank. I have to go in there every two weeks and trim it like my hedges outside. I can't imagine what benefit it would be for me to take out the 200 lbs or so of gravel and put dirt into the tank. How do you clean the dirt? My tank has a HOB filter, an undergravel filter , a Marineland c503 canister filter, and a UV filter hiding in the back and now with all the babies nearly a hundred fish. I have not lost a fish in a very long time, I have some cats that have to be 8 or more years old, plus an algae eater that is 7 inches long that I can't remember how old he is. So I would say I have a healthy tank and for what reason why would I want to dirty it up? I am just wondering, there may be something to this, but it may be a fad that I would rather skip. Plus, anyone know what to do with 60 baby guppies? My cat seems very interested.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on December 1, 2013 at 1:20am

well for 1 u don't clean a dirtied tank, as in gravel vac it. if u have a healthy tank and the only plant u keep is doing good don't dirt ur tank. u have a good established set up. dirt is for ppl w/ lots of plants who don't want to dose ferts cause its expensive after some time. dirt is more for low tech tanks but can be done in hightechs no problem. i used to have a dirtied tank and my plants loved it but wen i decided to move some plants that were getting big….lets just say i couldn't see my fish in my dirty water for a day, it was that cloudy. dirt is like having a layer of root tabs but much cheaper. also takes a while for dirts nutrients to get exhausted. about them guppies try ur mom and pop lfs petco and petsmart don't take fish. if ur lfs don't take them ur gonna have 1 happy cat.