Mebbid's first dirted tank 10g

[Mebbid]

Looks amazing! I'm ready for you to show me how it's done...and sell me some of those beautiful greens ?de0a

Thanks! I certainly have enough to part with now

It's looking great! Dirt is amazing isn't it? Now that you've done it are you going to do the rest of your tanks?

Since my 55g is about to die I've decided to pull the trigger on a new 75g. Since I am making it high tech as well I figured I might as well dirt it.

 

[agrasyuk]

this looks absolutely great! i'm not to happy with fluorite either, will be trying something else for next tank build as well.

 

[Mebbid]

My 20oz CO2 tank has just a bout ran out so that makes it about a month that it's been running. I could have extended it another week or two by turning off the co2 manually but I wanted to see how long it would last. At $4 per refill I think that is a reasonable amount of time for it to last.

My micro chain sword has now grown soo much that it can be considered out of control. I honestly never expected it to grow as tall as it has but it's great if not overwhelming.I would guess that there is at least 30 new runners in the tank atm.

 

[agrasyuk]

Mebbid, I wonder, how long will the "dirt" part of substrate going to stay down? I would think that eventually it will get mixed with sand, probably even faster if snails help it. Or is it not a consern at all? Asking since I'm researching substrate for my upcoming 125gal which will be heavy on plants as well.

As far as your surplus plants I might join others here in helping you get rid of those

 

[ashleynicole]

Im also confused about dirting tanks and substrate becoming mixed. Especially if you like to rescape frequently. Or should you not rescape at all?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Mebbid]

Mebbid, I wonder, how long will the "dirt" part of substrate going to stay down? I would think that eventually it will get mixed with sand, probably even faster if snails help it. Or is it not a consern at all? Asking since I'm researching substrate for my upcoming 125gal which will be heavy on plants as well.

As far as your surplus plants I might join others here in helping you get rid of those

Im also confused about dirting tanks and substrate becoming mixed. Especially if you like to rescape frequently. Or should you not rescape at all?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

That question is actually the exact reason I tried out dirting my 10g tank before my big tank. I'm sure they will be mixed do a degree but careful uprooting should help prevent this as the substrate is very deep. I am hoping that any dirt that does make its way to the top can get siphoned out but we will see.

 

[Fishperson]

Wow! I'm interested to see how this turns out!

 

[Mebbid]

This weekend when I finally have some time I will pull some of my micro chain swords up to see how it works out. Their roots should be insanely established by now with how fast they are growing.

 

[delfisherman]

Id like to do a dirted 10g because i tried to do dirted bowls and the gas build up from the decompossing matter erupt out and funked up my angel growout tank

 

[Mebbid]

Id like to do a dirted 10g because i tried to do dirted bowls and the gas build up from the decompossing matter erupt out and funked up my angel growout tank

What dirt and cap did you use?
How deep was it?
Did you wet down the dirt before capping it?
Did you poke at it to get any air bubbles out after capping it?

 

[delfisherman]

It was about 2-3 inches deep with a 1in sand cap and yeah i did wet the soil and poke aroubd to get bubbles out it was mg organic soil

 

[Mebbid]

Well I did my uprooting of plants to see how it worked out and I have to say it wasn't as bad as I expected. There were quite a few air bubbles that were under the sand but they didn't cause any big issues. There were a few places where dirt got pulled up but it was easily removed with a gravel vac.

Biggest spot before

Biggest spot after

There were some larger clumps that I had issues with but I think I will just screen the dirt before putting it in my big tank to get rid of any issues. Not a big deal either way imho, but will just make cleanup afterwards a little easier.

 

[agrasyuk]

Hey Mebbid, so how this dirtied tank going? Any mixing happening?

 

[Mebbid]

Hey Mebbid, so how this dirtied tank going? Any mixing happening?

Sorry, just realized I completely forgot to reply

Nope, there is no mixing but due to school I haven't had the time to properly take care of my tanks and my plants are suffering from it as well as a fairly bad green dust algae bloom. The 10g seems to be much harder hit from it than my 55g though. The ghost shrimp I had in there died for some reason that I couldn't figure out but the rest of my fish are living healthily. I got around to fixing most of the plants yesterday and clearing some of the overgrowth.