My newest addition..20G Long! :-D

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wow, that link is very informative. i am so hoping that the lady is wrong. I will go check the gh and kh for this tank today and hopefully they are not way all that high.

thanks for the link coursair.
 
I am so sad. It was really a live sand. Now i have to change the whole substrate and overhaul the plants in there. :-(
 
Okay, since I have to totally change all the substrate here, I was thinking of going dirt then sand. How many bags of sand should i put on top of dirt?
 
daileene said:
Okay, since I have to totally change all the substrate here, I was thinking of going dirt then sand. How many bags of sand should i put on top of dirt?

Google Walstad Method.

I'd say an inch of sand ??
Make sure you use Organic Potting Soil and it helps to sift out the big stuff.
 
Yes, I did research bout the walstad method and the potting soil to be organic. :)

But I wasn't sure how many bags of sand I should put in to make an inch on top of the dirt.
 
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daileene said:
Yes, I did research bout the walstad method and the potting soil to be organic. :)

But I wasn't sure how many bags of sand I should put in to make an inch on top of the dirt.

What fish are going in here? From previous experience, if you have bottom dwellers like loaches, you'll have brown water. The bottom dwellers will remove the top sand. Generally you use enough sand to keep the dirt from flooding into the water although not enough sand to make the dirt go anaerobic.

That being said, my 10 galling walstad is going fine although I had to give up in the fact that my water will be crystal clear. And my 1 gallon RCS bowl that was walstad worked perfectly up until some crazy collapse happened.

Good luck!
 
I wasn't thinking of getting loaches. But thanks for that info.

Okay, so enough sand to cap the dirt but not too much to make it anaerobic. Got it. I was getting MTS from SM for the sand to help out.

I also have another tank that has dirt and used gravel to cap it and so far my water is crystal clear. I am thinking of getting harlequin rasboras, cherry barbs and either neons, green or cardinal tetras for this tank.
 
Okay, so I got the miracle gro organic choice potting mix and a quikrete play sand that came in a 50lbs bag(beige color coz I cannot find a black colored sand) yesterday and cleaned this tank out from the live sand that was in it and replaced it with at least 1 inch of the potting soil and at least 1 and a half inch of play sand. Well, it is quite cloudy still until now even after 24 hours.

But I replaced the plants and I am hoping that this tank will take off after everything will settle. Will get pictures tomorrow.
 
Good day! Sorry for not being able to update this thread after I setup the dirt and the sand together. I have been busy and the tank was very cloudy for days. I got some pictures of it but it is still in the camera. Will upload it maybe tomorrow.

So far, here are all the plants I have in here now:

Rotala Indica
Italian Val
Contortion Vals
Water Wisteria
Water Sprite (Ceratopteris Cornuta)
Anacharis
Hornwort
Crypt Spiralis
Crypt Lucens
Crypt Lutea
Crypt Balansae
Crypt Parva
Anubias Barteri var. Nana 'Petite'
Sword Plant (I do not know what variety)
Micro Sword 'Narrow Leaf' (Lilaeopsis Mauritana)
Hygrophila 'Compacta' (Hygrophila Corymbosa Compacta)
Baby Tears 'Giant' (Micranthemum Umbrosum)

That is all for now in here. No residents yet. Was thinking of transferring my Blue Gourami from my son's room to here after when the guppies I ordered will arrive. I will put the guppies with the neon tetras. I don't want the blue gourami to be introduce here alone though so I was thinking of adding him to my other 20G that has the 5 serpae tetras. But I was researching and supposedly this kind of tetras are nippy. So....I don't know what to do yet.
 
Picture Time!!!!

Here are some pictures when I changed the substrate from the live sand to dirt with playsand to cap the dirt. Taken last April 11, 2012. Very cloudy.

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capping the dirt was harder than I thought. but for now, it finally settled. but you can see the extra dirt that came up from underneath. will it be okay to leave it like that?

thanks for the advice in advance..
 
I know I owe you guys more pictures now that this tank is really setting in very nicely. Plants have a lot of growth. New additions are here. Shay sold me juvie marble angels, SM had sold me a male and female pearl gourami and I just transferred my 2 cherry barbs in here yeasterday. I know I needed to add more to them since they shoal. But so far, everybody is getting along well. Although sometimes, the male pearl will always try to knock down the female pearl during feeding time. He is a little territorial with his space above when eating and when the female will start to come up to eat, he will go to where she was at and knock her down. He will only do it to the female pearl and he will leave the others alone. It is so weird. Is that normal?

Will get pictures soon. :)
 
well, here is the promised pictures finally. so sorry for the delay dear readers...been so busy...but here they are:

Note...they just got fed on the pictures so it is a lil cloudy:

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