My first dirt tank with pics need help

High everyone my first post here. I've been keeping fish for 20 years and decided to set up my first dirt tank.

I set up a 20 gallon tall and used a mixture of Flourite and Miracle Gro organic potting mix capped with gravel. I added a bunch of plants about 15 Crypt cuttings 4 Anubias and about 25 stems of Ludwigia I also have duckweed. Some of the Crypts have melted but the remaining leaves seem to be doing ok.

For lighting I'm using a Finnex FugeRay LED fixture and I was told it would put me into low end of medium light. I'm running a Eheim canister filter with no bio media in it. So far I've just been using the filter for circulation.

The tank has no fish as of yet.

My tank is about two weeks old and I'm running into some problems. I have a massive amount of staghorn algae growing down from my duckweed. I have a slight amount of staghorn reaching the plants growing on the substrate.

1. I've only done one water change so far. Should I start doing more? and how often? I'm pretty sure there is high amount of nutrients in the water.

2. In a dirt tank should I use biological filtration in my filter? I wanted to keep it low tech.

3. Would my tank benefit if I added an air stone?

Link is to a pic of my tank

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Permalink Reply by Peter on September 10, 2013 at 9:28pm

1. Wen u dirt a tank u have to do daily wc on ur tank for te first week. Then every other day for the next week.
2. Yes u need bio filtration
3. For the first month yes to help with gas exchange but after that ur filter should provide wnough surface agitation for ur tank.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Cunningham on September 10, 2013 at 11:35pm

Ok thx for the help

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Permalink Reply by George Barrett on September 16, 2013 at 11:09pm

couple things I would do again this is me. get something for the front when you dirt a tank you want to plant it to the gills no pun intended. u can get some nice micro sword or maybe some dwarf sag. dwarf sag tends to send runners everywhere making its own aquascape. also water changes are very important to prevent algae blooms so keep up with that. also if you are going to be adding fish you need to add biological filter media maybe take it from another existing tank that you trust to get the bacteria colony growing in your new filter media. also I cant tell if those anubias are planted all the way into the substrate just make sure the rhizome is above and the ROOTS ONLY are buried otherwise it will eventually rot. again my personal opinion putting the anubias on your driftwood looks pretty awesome also frees up space in your gravel for more cool plants. air stone wouldn't hurt when you get fish remember plants take in oxygen at night.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Cunningham on September 17, 2013 at 12:46am

Hey tanks for the advice George.

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Permalink Reply by Bratwurst Fingers on September 20, 2013 at 3:09pm

Constant water changes are important. Also you could use a Sponge Filter that would be a very low tech and great bio filtration and oxygenating the tank in place of an airstone. CO2 would be beneficial as well. A lot of video's on DIY CO2. Of course if you added C02 you wouldn't want any agitation of the water surface when your lights are on/when your plants are taking in C02 and releasing Oxygen. The surface agitation releases the C02 gas.