Woodchips in dirt? Help!

Hi, I have just purchased some organic garden soil and as soon as I got home I realised it had plenty of tiny woodchips throughout it, I've researched and looked around and I've seen many sites mention "avoid the use of soil with woodchips as a substrate".

My question is: if I used this as the bottom layer of my substrate (1- 1.5 inch) with a cap of gravel (1- 1.5 inch) over the top would it cause any dramatic effects to my fish/plants besides floating pieces of wood?

Thanks fishtanktv :)

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Permalink Reply by Peter on April 9, 2012 at 4:06pm

The only thing wood chips will do to your tank is the same thing that happens web u put drift wood in your tank with out soaking it. It jus turns your water a bit brown is all.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on April 9, 2012 at 4:11pm

The thing that helps which i forgot to mention is if you really are iffy about the wood chips just swift your dirt you can get most if not all wood chips out like that

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Permalink Reply by Choof Bongsly on April 9, 2012 at 8:15pm

Thanks for the reassurance, Pedro. I've talked to a few people now and they've used woodchips without a problem to their plants/fish.. The only thing they mentioned is that the woodchips may float out from underneath the gravel messing your tank a little.

Thanks again, Choof

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Permalink Reply by Charlie on April 11, 2012 at 1:50pm

You could put you soil in a bucket fill it with water. Stir the soil with you hands and what a little all the worships will come floaing. That's what I did to my dirt.

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Permalink Reply by Serrecko25 on May 9, 2012 at 1:37am

On my second dirt tank I did something a little different.

I found an old screen and more or less screened the whole bag of MG Organic. Came out with a fine, almost powder like, dirt. Worked great! No twigs, no rocks, no other debris. Just good ole dirt.

I watered it down a bit, tossed it in, capped it and boom... clear water in about 6 hours. Of course I stuck in my DIY Filters and it was fairly easy, fairly clean, pretty darn fast.

Serrecko