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Permalink Reply by Josh C. on October 2, 2011 at 12:45pm

Yea you would have to take all the fish out, drain it, and THEN add the dirt. Although the tank may mini-cycle it shouldn't do a full cycle if you use the same filter.

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 2, 2011 at 12:48pm

so I'd be ok to put my fish back in straight away? obviously I'd treat the water

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Permalink Reply by Clarke on October 2, 2011 at 1:15pm

There have been several questions about this on here lately.  I'm not a fan of cycling a tank with fish in it because it stresses the fish unnecessarily.

 

I think a lot of this depends on how sensitive your fish are.  If you have things like German rams, rummy nose or neon tetras, I would wait for the tank to fully cycle to reintroduce them to the tank.  If your fish a a hardy species, you could do it.  You just have to do lots of water changes at first to keep the water quality good for the fish until the tank cycles.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 2, 2011 at 1:39pm

in the tank I want to dirt I've got 3 female guppies and just added a black spiny plec yesterday, I had more guppies in there but they died, will be getting some more in a week or so.

 

If I do go down the dirt route, is there a way to keep the plants alive before I do my tank? I'm thinking of getting everything together bit by bit to spread the costs, I'll get the plants last obviously, but will have to keep them alive till I have enough time to tear down the tank

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Permalink Reply by Josh C. on October 2, 2011 at 5:23pm

plants dont NEED dirt. you can just gt them and sick them in plain gravel untill your tank fully cycles. ( thats what im doing)

 

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Permalink Reply by Cort weiner on October 2, 2011 at 7:18pm

I just converted to dirt literally 4 days ago and you HAVE to do massive water changes the first 2 or 3 days.

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 4, 2011 at 5:51am

Thanks for the advice guys, I think I might wait till I get a bigger tank, hoping to get a huge tank early next year :D will have that planted! can't wait to get it

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Permalink Reply by Clarke on October 4, 2011 at 9:02am

Why wait?  I would go ahead and do it.  My first dirt tank was a 16 gallon I set up in my daughter's room.  I am in the process of getting things ready so I can move all of my fish to a holding tank while I tear down my 29 so I can dirt it.  I have all of the above mentioned fish in my tank, so I will need to wait awhile to transfer them to the newly dirted tank.

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 4, 2011 at 9:56am

thats the thing, I don't have a tank for my plec, the guppies can go into my other tank but my plec is too big for that tank.

 

If I can borrow a tank from someone then I will dirt mine, I will ask afew friends who keep fish to see if they have a spare tank I could borrow for afew weeks.

 

what kind of dirt do you guys use? I was thinking about just going to a garden centre and buying some potting compost, would that be ok?

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Permalink Reply by Clarke on October 4, 2011 at 10:11am

Mirical Gro Organic seems to be the soil of choiceon this site.  I would not use straight composts, as it would take a long time to get the excess nutrients out of the soil.

 

If you are willing to do the water changes at first, you could most likely get away with it.  Since you already have a tank with (what I am assuming) an established filter, you mini-cycle time will be much shorter.

 

You could use a 5 gallon bucket for the short term holding if the fish if you had to.  Just keep your filter going on what ever you use to hold the fish in.

 

My plants are doing sooo much better in my dirt tank, even though I only have the light the hood came with on it.  Once I upgrade the lighting, I'm sure they will take off.

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 4, 2011 at 10:20am

I can get Mirical Gro Organic.

I'm getting really tempted to now, maybe a project for after I get paid.

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Permalink Reply by Clarke on October 4, 2011 at 10:26am

DO IT!!!!  You won't be sorry.  It just takes a commitment of time at first with the water changes and such to keep the water quality where it should be.

 

Like I said, my dirt tank is doing so much better than my other tank which has been set up with plants since April.  I can't wait to get my 29 gallon switched to dirt.

 

There are lots of videos that Dustin, and other members have done (including me) on howto dirt tank.  Check them out.  If you need help, there is a lot of that available on here.

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