Soon to be 75 gallon dirted tank. What can I do before hand?

Ok so after watching dustin's videos for a long time, I want to start my own dirted tank. I have the MircleGro organic potting mix and the gravel i want to cap with, and a bunch of plants. So i have some time before I want to set it up becuase the tank has fish and water running in it currently. I hear about somthing about mineralizing the dirt and stuff, so can anyone explain on that? Dustin also says that duckweed helps absorb the extra nutrients, will hornort work too? b/c i have a ton of hornwort in my pond, like enough to cover the 75gallon tank densly in hornwort. So, will hornwort help if i float a bunch of it? Could i just soak the dirt for a few weeks in a few buckets or somthing, so it wold leech off the bad stuff?

Thanks again.

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Comment by dylan woodhouse on September 2, 2012 at 5:09am: dont wash the potting mix, try and use clay, i just used straight potting mix and no clay nd my fish love it

Comment by dylan woodhouse on September 2, 2012 at 5:09am: i mean plants love it

Comment by Robert Jango on September 2, 2012 at 10:01am: I understand why people use the term "excess nutrients" but its confusing. Excess nutrients means you have fertile soil which is what you want. Can it lead to an algae outbreak? Sure. If you don't stock your tank with a lot of plants its true that algae can take over. Floating plants like Duckweed are most effective at controlling algae but Hornwart is ok too if you have a lot of it.

Just a note about algae. I'm breeding German Blue Rams and if it wasn't for algae I probably wouldn't be able to raise the fry which are too small to eat baby brine shrimp or microworms. Algae harbors all kinds of microscopic life and is great at cleaning the water. I definitely understand why you may not want algae but people in the Far East (and me) believe green water is the healthiest environment for many fish especially baby fish.

I have no idea what "mineralizing" means. And there's no "bad stuff" in your soil to leech off unless you live next to a nuclear waste site.

Comment by Robert Jango on September 2, 2012 at 10:05am: I almost forgot. Dylan mentions clay. Capping your soil with clay pellets would be better much than inert gravel. The clay also helps to keep green water under control. And if you want to add clay soil to your Miracle Gro that's fine too. He's right. Plants love it.

Comment by Ronald Last on September 3, 2012 at 7:58am: One good thing to do before hand is to read the book The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium, by Diana Walstad (I think I'e got that right....).

Another thing, the method seems to work in fairly small aquariums. Earlier this year I set up a pair of temporary containers to test having dirt in the substrate, and work up a little stock of plants. You'll need loads of plants in a tank that size. (The substrate needs the plants just as the plants need the substrate)

One of the reasons for using floating plants is that they don't compete with the other plants for CO². Hornwart doesn't have that advantage (as far as I know...). Also, if it doesn't like the initial conditions in your set-up (The temperature for example) it may not do well...