Thinking about dirt...

How would I go about adding dirt to my tank thats already up and running? after looking at alot of dirted tanks I'm thinking about converting and having live plants instead of fake plants, I'm sure my fish would prefer this aswell, but how would I go about doing it?

Will I have to tear down the whole tank and redo it all with dirt and let it cycle again? or would I get away with draining it but keeping the water and adding that back in?

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 4, 2011 at 10:44am

I've watched alot of the hot to dirt a tank video's

the only thing I'll have a problem with is plants, the places local to me don't stock many plants, and postage to get them online is alot, is there a way to store the plants? could I just keep them in a bucket of water till I'm ready to dirt my tank? that way I can build up a collection of plants after I have everything else ready for my tank.

I have a vauge idea in my head of how I want my tank to look, I just need to look around and find the plants to suit.

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Permalink Reply by Clarke on October 4, 2011 at 12:40pm

As long as the plants are in water and have light,they should be Ok for a little while. Maybe some other people can weigh in on this, as I am no plant expert.

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 11, 2011 at 2:24pm

ok, after watching more videos and seeing more dirted tanks and how amazing they look with all the plants... i'm converting! buying a big container (as big as my tank) will drain the water into there and put my fish in there with a heater and filter while I do the tank

afew questions, should I let my tank cycle with fresh water before i put my fish back in? or should i use the old water, add my fish straight away and do big water changes for the first 4-5 days or so?

going to get some more plants bought, at the moment i've got some plant (java fern i think) on some bog wood, and some java moss, and I bought some hairgrass today as i like the looks of it and i think it will look good at the back of the tank.

going to buy some dwarf sag and some amazon swords, and maybe some sort of red plant to add abit of contrast, I'll also be buying afew more bits of bog wood

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Permalink Reply by Danny1107 on October 15, 2011 at 4:31pm

I've done it! just waiting to get more plants, at the moment I've got Ludwigia, Pogostemon and some Hairgrass, and something on some bogwood I bought (pretty sure its Java fern)

its looking great so far, can't wait to get some more plants in there, and maybe put some Java moss on one of my bits of bogwood.

The one thing I think that will make me like the tank even more, is switching to an external filter/pump unit to make it look better, thats a future plan though...