Dirt bottom tanks

[Msmith88]

I've been planning to start a 55 gallon planted aquarium for awhile now and have begun looking into substrates and came across dirt tanks. Liking doin things as naturally as possible, I've been doin my research on the subject but really haven't found that much useful information. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Esoteric Backbone]

Why not try sand as a substrate?

 

[jetajockey]

Go with mineralized topsoil instead of potting soil, it'll bypass the breakdown process of the soil, plus the clay helps keep the soil from making too much of a mess when it gets stirred up. Google mineralized topsoil.

 

[daileene]

I have dirt as my bottom substrate and then gravel on top of it. You could do sand on top of the dirt too, any other substrate is fine on top of the dirt. The reason why is that, dirt normally don't stay down, so an added substrate will help it down. Organic Miracle Gro Potting Soil is normally recommended if you want to give it a try.

 

[daileene]

oppsss jetajockey had a good suggestion....that actually make sense. LOL...see! I am still not that experience when it comes to dirt.

 

[Msmith88]

Thanks guys this really helps. I read somewhere that you should bake the soil before adding it, to kill any unwanted organisms or something.... Has anyone else heard of this?

 

[Demonknight]

I didn't bake mine, and I used potting soil..I get he odd set of bubbles now and then but unless I'm scapeing atm I don't smell them...all in all I would say to go with the soil as well, my tank was horribly cloudy for weeks even with pwc's.

one thing else, get some fast growing plants to start with even if they don't make the final cut just to use up the extra nutrients so they don't turn into a algae bloom like mine did

 

[roydooms]

Agree with the last post. If you are doing dirt, you should put a lot of plants or the excess nutrients from the soil will make your tank algae heaven. I have 2 dirt tanks and I just use potting soil. I didn't bake them or anything. Went straight in the tank from the bag. Damp the soil a little bit then I capped one tank with PFS and the other one with play sand. 2 months and still looking good. I put a lot of MTS so that sand will get stirred wont get compacted.

 

[jetajockey]

Mineralizing the soil helps avoid the algae bloom problem also.

So just a little bit of time prepping the dirt first will reduce the chance for stank tank bubbles, initial algae blooms, and a reduction in tank cloudiness.

 

[Deep Seven]

Mineralizing the soil involves soaking it in water to remove any fertilizers or unwanted chemicals and then spreading it out and allowing it to dry, then repeating the process. This allows greater oxygen penetration into the soil and speeds up the decaying process so you don't have food for unwanted microbes in your tank.

How-To: Mineralized Soil Substrate, by Aaron Talbot - Library - Aquatic Plant Central this is a good post on how to mineralize soil and describes how he set up his dirt tank.

He swears by this method and seems to have a lot of successful followers. I'm planning on building a similar substrate.