ALTERNATIVES TO A "DIRTED" TANK

I have been keeping aquariums since I was 10 years old. My first tanks were small chrome framed, leaky tanks run on noisy air pumps and ugly plastic corner filters lighted by incandescent fish cooking lights, that showed off the beautiful red, blue, or lime green painted pea sized gravel, bubbling deep sea diver, flapping fluorescent clam shell, Chinese pagoda, and tiny “No Fishing” sign. After exterminating a few hundred dollars worth of fish in my algae covered ammonia concentration camps, I began reading books on how to have fish last longer than a week. “Hmmm, create a natural environment you say. Hmmm, use plants to suck up the poisonous by-products of fish waste you say”. Thus began my aquatic plant melting stage. I quickly learned to hate Cabomba and Myrophyllum with their needle shaped shrapnel. Amazon swords were the answer. They lasted a few weeks until the leaves began melting away, leaving an ever smaller version of the once majestic plant, until there was nothing left but a tiny algae covered rosette. More reading required. The next innovation was the under-gravel filter (UGF) for biological filtration, and plastic plants. The blue green or orange (not kidding) Cabomba was so classy, and the lime green Amazon sword never lost a leaf. And they never grew. And the tank never filled in. “Natural” 1960's style. One of the nice side effects of the UGF was that after a few months of sucking fish waste into the substrate, you ended up with an approximation of soil that would feed plant roots, cause the Vallisneria to actually grow and multiply, and keep that Amazon sword alive a bit longer. Eureka! Plastic plants off to the cichlid tank; real plants back in the community tank. The UGF, paired with fluorescent grow lights allowed me to finally conquer melting plant syndrome, and have a few of the easier plants actually grow and flourish.

Eventually, I began hearing rumours in pet shops and aquarium society meetings about these crazy people who, going against all the established rules of sane aquarium husbandry, were PUTTING DIRT INTO THEIR AQUARIUMS!! They claimed that they could grow really dense plantings of even the most difficult aquatic plants. SACRELEGE!! HERESY!! What were these fools thinking? Having exterminated more than my share of fish and plants, I decided to be safe and leave the dirt in the yard. So, for the rest of the dark ages before the internet, when aquarium knowledge was passed along via overheard boasting at pet shops and aquarium society meetings, or expensive hard cover books, I stuck to UGF's and fluorescent lights. Then came the internet! (Cue chorus of angels). Suddenly, I could download thousands of dollars of music, thus destroying the music industry!! Oh, and look stuff up too. That's when I discovered Flourite. For only a small second mortgage on your home, you could now cover the bottom of your aquarium, with a substrate that would hold and release nutrients to your plants, and not have any of the disadvantages of dirt. Combine this with natural looking gravel cap and a UGF, and densely planted aquascapes became possible.

I like to rearrange my tanks fairly frequently, which can be a problem in a dirted tank. I have never had the guts to put dirt into my main display tank. My planted tanks have UGFs, and a 1 inch layer of Flourite, capped with several inches of small grain natural gravel. The main, permanent filtration of my tanks uses sump filters or back of tank filters with mechanical and biological filtration. One of the main disadvantages of a UGF filtered substrate is that it takes months or even years of running with a well stocked tank, to build up enough “soil” in the substrate to grow nice plants. I usually grow easy plants in new tanks like this. It doesn't matter that the UGF gets clogged with roots, because I have external filtration. Some plants don't like having all that water flow around their roots. For these plants, in a well established tank, I will just turn off the UGF.

I know there are other good substrates out there that are as good as dirt, but just really expensive. What have you tried, that avoids the problems of dirted tanks, doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and lets you grow really nice plants?

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Comment by Peter on November 17, 2013 at 8:52pm: Wait the soil releases co2 so u dont need it but ur runing an air stone? Doesnt that work against the co2? And yes flourish and api are expensive but if u buy dry ferts u can get like a 2yrs supply for the price of an flourish excel bottle. Which is actually lots cheaper. Just takes a bit of reading to learn how to dose dry ferts

Comment by Luke Deer on November 17, 2013 at 9:19pm: Yes the dirt releases co2 in large amounts. Sometimes it will release a massive amount that would kill fish. The bubbler is a safety net against this. It makes sure the fish have plenty of oxygen. The dirt releases enough co2 so that the bubbler doesn't negate this. As for dry ferts, I have never messed with these. There is no need with dirt.

Comment by Peter on November 17, 2013 at 11:56pm: Well technically u have messed with dry ferts dirt is a dry fert just really messy and also contain organic matter. Using dirt is like using dry ferts with out knowing how much of diff nutrients it contains. With dry ferts u knownhow much o wat ur giving ur tank. Iron potassium etc. also unless the dirt is realeasing co2 in tiny bubbles were it dissolves fast enough in the water to poison te fish thats never gonna take 1 of ur fish out. Having a dirt tank i never saw micro bubles being released just huge 1s that went to the top fast but u might have diff experience being all tanks are diff

Comment by hoyttt on November 18, 2013 at 2:19am: cryptocoryne means hidden stick and if you grow it emersed there is a small chance if it making a extremely cool stick coming outta the middle.

Comment by Robert Jango on November 18, 2013 at 7:38am: I see under gravel filters as a very large fluidized bed filter that is incorporated into the design of the tank. The idea is ingenious but I suspect if they're not cleaned the "soil component" becomes sludge pretty quickly. I know sludge can form in sponge filters in as little as a week. In the aquarium world sludge = evil as it is the source of "bad" bacteria that infect our fishes. ( and us too if we're not careful! )

That's one of the the reasons I don't use UGFs. But I really do appreciate you relating your experiences with UGF in the post. Clearly they worked for you and I find that interesting. Your writing is entertaining too.

If you (or your fish) are always digging in the substrate, I can see how using soil might be distressing. But if you plan to leave it alone for awhile, soil is the absolute best substrate. I even stopped using a cap - don't need it. It looks beautiful and fish (especially Discus) love picking through it for worms. You can always cover the soil with a lawn of Dwarf Sagittaria too. This will hold the dirt in place and prevent kick-ups.

Comment by Luke Deer on November 18, 2013 at 6:35pm: Peter, yea to be fair I have never had any fish die form co2 being released, but that is what I read. I found it in a few places and I figured it doesn't take much effort to put a bubbler in, so I did just to be cautious. I'd rather have a bubbler then take a chance and get a tank of dead fish. You are right too when you say dirt is technically a dry fert. Seems easier to me to just dirt and cap then have to measure out dry ferts and all that. It was just really for me to dirt, and the dirt is full of ferts and will last for years. I'm sure buying specific store bought ferts is great option, I just have never done it.

Comment by George Barrett on November 18, 2013 at 11:05pm: I have done the dirt in the pot method it works great I have a small crypt in one now. planted it in the spring and put it outside for the summer. brought it inside for winter in one of my lower light tanks and when moving it around the other day I saw roots coming out of the bottom of the pot great idea. im going to try this with jungle val soon