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Permalink Reply by LED on October 29, 2012 at 6:02pm

normally you would want to cycle your tank if it does not have cycled media in the filter.  If you do have cycled media and you've conditioned the water correctly, then you should be fine putting them back in BUT A WORD OF CAUTION!  Do understand that if you simply throw dirt into a tank and cap it and fill, you WILL have a period of time that the dirt will leech lots of ammonia and nitrogenous nutrients into the water column potentially KILLING ALL YOUR FISH.  If you do not have a filter that can handle that load you will, not potentially, WILL kill all your fish.  It's happened here before and we hope you do not make the same mistake.  have good filtration to take care of the ammonia from the dirt, and you MUST do water changes to deal with the spike in ammonia and nitrogenous nutrients.  

ps How much dirt did you use and what cap did you use?  Did you already plant your live plants and how many plants?

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Permalink Reply by Cody on October 29, 2012 at 6:38pm

My filter is the Aqueon Quietflow 10(up to 20 gallons). It has been up and running for about a year now. I used about a 1 1/2 of dirt and about a 1 1/4 of gravel.

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Permalink Reply by LED on October 30, 2012 at 4:09am

Did you already plant your live plants and how many plants?

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Permalink Reply by Cody on October 30, 2012 at 6:06am

Yes i have 3 medium amazon swords and some narrow leaf java fern. And some anubias. And some dwarf hairgrass

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Permalink Reply by GSP on October 30, 2012 at 7:41pm

Add some fast growing stem plants. They are nutrient sponges and will sop up the nutrients in the water column that will cause algae and toxic water conditions.

hygrophila polysperma, hygrophila difformis, luwigia repens...

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Permalink Reply by Rob on October 29, 2012 at 6:03pm

After 30 water changes. Thats the magic number, yea 30. I'd say about 30 25% water changes.

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Permalink Reply by DePreston on October 30, 2012 at 7:10pm

I never had a dirt tank, just gravel, what is the advantages with dirt?  Just wondering.

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Permalink Reply by GSP on October 30, 2012 at 7:42pm

constant uncontroled additions of plant and algae food ;)

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Permalink Reply by Peter on October 31, 2012 at 1:17pm

dirt is basically naturally occuring dry ferts. w/ dirt you dont have to get liquid or dry ferts for ur tank because its already in the dirt. Incredibly cost effective and the only thing u might, MIGHT, need to dose is liquid co2

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on October 31, 2012 at 2:34am

Add floating plants. These are the best plants for eating nitrogenous waste. The other way of ridding the water of waste is by simply changing the water - makes sense right?. Either way you'd better get the fish in the tank pretty soon because the conditions in the bucket are truly poisonous.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Carbary on November 1, 2012 at 11:57pm

If you are using the same filter from your tank before it was dirted and you didn't let the media dry out you should be fine to add your fish back in. Just make sure and keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels over the next week or so. I recently did a 3 tank swap, dirting one while I was at it, and used already cycled filters and substrate and did not have a single loss. Just checked my parameters and did 50% water changes twice a week for the first week and 30-50% once a week after that.

My other word of advice is get more plants! You need to pack that tank to get all the nutrients sucked up, otherwise expect algae. I also agree with Robert that floating plants are a must. Duckweed and water lettuce are great floating plants and really help complete the eco-system.

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