Gravel size for dirted tank too big?

Hi, I recently did a dirted setup(horay!), I'm completley new to dirt, I have so many questions but I will try to keep it too a minimum. I have been doing almost full water changes 1-2 times a day(29 gallon tank)to try to remove most of the tannins from the water, It has been up for 3 days and every time I do a large wc, a few hours after it clouds up again, I'm not sure if this is normal for a new dirted setup but I was thinking It could have to do with the individual size of of the substrate that I capped it with. Its a mix of pebbles and regular gravel, but in some areas it appears the the dirt could be leaking through the gravel. Do I need to recap the dirt? Or is this normal? Please tell me anything I need to know about getting this tank up and rolling.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on August 13, 2012 at 7:17pm

Well u have a ton more excess nutrient and creates alot more gas that bubbles up and brings dirt up with and basically u shouldn't layer ur dirt to high. U can actually google that questions and ull get a bunch of first hand answers from people tellig you what happened to them when they tried it

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Permalink Reply by Austin LeGrand on August 13, 2012 at 8:28pm

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by seth roach on August 13, 2012 at 11:26pm

shell be ok just tons of nutrients....that is a lot of dirt... but itll be good in time and itll grow into it you might wanna get some elodea, najas, or water sprite, to suck some of the nutrients out the water...or just do water changes till it stops being cloudy...but its a waste or nutrient...get your grow on...

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on August 14, 2012 at 4:25am

I put 3+ inches of dirt in a few flower pots throughout my bare-bottom tank and they stunk up the joint for months. Pedro posed the key question when he asked how much dirt you added. You're gonna get all kinds of funky activity down there. Too bad.

I wouldn't worry too much about the cap layer but I recommend something with high a CEC like very inexpensive clay pellets or Eco-complete if you can afford it. The gravel you're using probably now has no ability to absorb and hold nutrients for your plants (CEC)

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Permalink Reply by Craig Loughery on August 19, 2012 at 12:26pm

I just set up a 75 using a dirt mix- covered with about 1 inch of washed pool filter sand...the cloudiness was gone in a few hours after running a canister filter ...Before you tear it all apart, try this...add some rinsed sand to the gravel...it's obvious that your "cap" is too coarse and the dirt materials are dissolving into the water column...