EveryThing About A Dirt Tank

I Need Help Starting One And Have Not Found A Video That Goes Through The Process Please Help. Thanks. :)

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Permalink Reply by Peter on April 15, 2012 at 9:49pm

Check out Dustin's videos on YouTube. "Dustinfishtanks" he has alot of videos on how to do it. But to run you tru it u put 1 inch of dirt then cover that with 1 inch of gravel then you fill the aquarium SLOWLY till you see some water start bearly reaching the top of te gravel at this point you stop filling and plant the heck out your tank and decorate. Then finish fillin it slowly and ya da basic planted tank.

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Permalink Reply by Miguel(CaptinFindus) on April 15, 2012 at 9:52pm

When I Add More Plants In The Future Wont Dirt Come Up?

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Permalink Reply by Peter on April 16, 2012 at 10:18pm

Very little dirt rises up and when that happens after a couple hours the dirt will settle to the bottom

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Permalink Reply by Miguel(CaptinFindus) on April 15, 2012 at 9:54pm

Also He Doesnt Have A Video That Explains The Whole Process

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Permalink Reply by Miguel(CaptinFindus) on April 15, 2012 at 10:08pm

Also What Substrate Should I Use?

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on April 16, 2012 at 3:29am

There's all kinds of substrate. Clay pebbles mixed with flourite is great. And Eco-complete is good too but over-priced. The clay pebbles are sold as non-clumping Kitty Litter, "Turface", or as "Oil Sorb". You can find Oil Sorb in automotive supply chains. It's cheap too. Dustin is selling dirt now. I don't know the cost but I bet its high quality.

Glad your putting potting soil on the bottom. It may come up a little bit when you plant but it will settle back down within hours; so no big deal. Eventually the substrate will become exhausted of nutrients and just like potted plants you'll have to add fertilizer. But it will take at least a year before this happens.

Another good thing about the soil and above-mentioned products is that, unlike gravel, they suck nutrients from fish waste right out of the water and hold them for the plants roots. Theoretically you never have to fertilize your plants, but finding this correct balance of fish waste vs plant take-up is tricky business. Anyway, your plants will let you know how they're doing.

Good Luck Miguel.

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Permalink Reply by filedor.com on May 14, 2012 at 4:50am

Please help, I already saw Dustin's vids on youtube, I already have my dirt tank, now I'm getting air sacs between my 1.5 soil and my 1.2 fine sand. I have my tank almost cycled (already 3 weeks nitrite spike going down), 14 gallon refugium + 20 gallon tank medium planted (25 elodeas, 2 small anubias, 2 driftwoods (10inch each), 8 cabombas, 25 big java ferns (in my refugium), 1 java moss wall (@refugium), 4 duckweeds(not sure which type but its 2 inches each)) and some Lemma duckweed (@refugium) and I have 7 Malaysian T snails(no more @ LFS). All plants are looking healthy and growing like crazy (especially cabombas & elodeas) Do I need more MTS? I don't think I can vacuum my sand without getting my dirt off. No fishes in my main tank (of course), because I'm still on the nitrogen cycle process. I got some fishes in my 12 gallon QT tank (11 cardinal tetras, 2 corys, 6 siamese algae eaters, 1 awful chinese algae eater O_O... I know, I know... get rid of him asap lol everyone says that, but I will just have it in my refugium). What can I do about those bubbles? I raised the temp around 88 F, cuz I heard that helps for them to reproduce, I just see them every now and then coming out the sand. Any suggestions?