Digging into my first dirted tank ;)

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GodFan

Aquarium Advice Addict
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I finally decided to do it! Im gonna dirt my 20 gallon long! I am ooen to any and all suggestions, tips, and advice! This is gonna be my journal/build thread as well as my ask amillion questions thread!
I will attach a pic of what he tank looks like now (sorry about tbe quality) the plan in to make a low light, low tech, low maintanence tank.
Decor:
Driftwood, rocks, and..........plants!

Fauna:
Pothos vine
2 pond plants I bought at my LFS
dwarf umbrella palm
Banana plant
Maybe crypts
Maybe java moss
Random house plant I dont know what it is

Stock:
HELP! Lol I have considered a straigt up otto tank, a betta tank, some kinda catfish, and a shrimp tank but Im open to all ideas!

Hardware:
Aqueon filter
Bubble stone on opposite end
Maybe a heater
Sunlight
Maybe one day in the distant future a small light

So what can yall tell me? I do not want to add ferts in any shape, form, or fashion. I will probably not trim plants (other than pulling dead leaves and tossing into water) and water changes will be small and infrequent.
I was thinking about using 1-2 pieces of driftwood. One would poke out of the water and probably have some plant or plants growing on it out of the water. I will slope the substrate up to one side where I will plant my umbrella palm. Probably do a gravel cap.

Thanks in advance and Go

ForumRunner_20131010_185844.jpg

d bless!
 
Now I feel dumb. That should be flora and not fauna -_-
 
GodFan said:
I know I know. Lol do you have a dirted tank?
Click to expand...

No, but I'm actually getting ready to start one in about a month or so. I'll be reading Diana Walstad's book and following her methods to the t. It's kind of a little experiment I've been wanting to do and I came up on a free 20 gallon from a fellow club member, so I figured hey why not. It'll be in my son's room, so if it ends up being hideous, at least I don't have to look at it all day... :lol:
 
Billbug68 said:
No, but I'm actually getting ready to start one in about a month or so. I'll be reading Diana Walstad's book and following her methods to the t. It's kind of a little experiment I've been wanting to do and I came up on a free 20 gallon from a fellow club member, so I figured hey why not. It'll be in my son's room, so if it ends up being hideous, at least I don't have to look at it all day... :lol:
Click to expand...

Nice! I want to read the book but its not worth 30$ lol Ill just do internet research and wing it lol
Yea my tank is in my room so I want it to look decent but it doesnt need to be living room show quality.
 
Following! : )


Just FYI, there's a whole section on The Planted Tank about low tech tanks. I did some reading there prior to starting mine.

I love my crypts, and they come in such variety. They do need root tabs though, I am pretty sure I'll have to use them occasionally in my nano when the nutrients in the dirt get used up. Ha, that the big downside to a closed system like an aquarium, you always have to add something!!

I bet a betta would love a heavily planted 20, maybe even tolerate some tank mates in a space that size!
 
The app wont let me multoquote!
I will check out tpt. I use that forum sometimes in addition to this one
At 8 bucks I may consider it :)
 
So I was thinking today. If this tank is my experiment tank I may go all out! The main problem I see with a dirted tank is that eventually the nutrients will be used up. I understand this doesnt apply to some nutrients that fish add but in general it will happen because it is a closed system. I was wondering how the dirt outside gets its nutrients back after plants use them. It may bd a cool project to try and replicate this in my tank!
Im sure there are more but I can only think of 2 sources of nutrients in nature: decaying plant matter, and fecal matter from animals (especially worms and stuff) so is this replicatable? I already throw the dead leaves from my plants i to the water. I could have some mts and assassin snails to add to the substrate. Just a thought what do yall think?
I was also wondering if I should use a cap or just straight up dirt. Thoughts?
 
If you go low tech "enough" supposedly nutrients are re-absorbed by the dirt from fish waste, decaying plant matter, and left over food. It's best to cap with 1" layer of fine gravel, or a .5-.75" layer of sand. I started reading Walstad's book last night. Two other keys to the operation being; no biological or chemical filter media(stuff like carbon, purigen, bio rings, etc.), and a split photoperiod, so carbon has a chance to re-accumulate. Oh and you need to plant it heavily from the get go, as well.
 
Billbug68 said:
If you go low tech "enough" supposedly nutrients are re-absorbed by the dirt from fish waste, decaying plant matter, and left over food. It's best to cap with 1" layer of fine gravel, or a .5-.75" layer of sand. I started reading Walstad's book last night. Two other keys to the operation being; no biological or chemical filter media(stuff like carbon, purigen, bio rings, etc.), and a split photoperiod, so carbon has a chance to re-accumulate. Oh and you need to plant it heavily from the get go, as well.
Click to expand...

Ok cool. No biomedia goes against my nature as an aquarist lol but I suppose.. the photoperiod will not be able to be split. It only gets natural sunlight!
 
Oh forgot to mention I got my soil today! Its miracle gro orgailnic garden soil.
 
Billbug68 said:
Cool! :) I'm still trying to polish water damage out of my tanks glass. I hate getting used tanks from people who don't top off! :(
Click to expand...

Yes it is quite annoying. I will post pics after tbe change over. Tonight or tomorrow!
 
I read that Tom Barr would freeze a dirt/clay/sand mixture in ice cube trays and insert the concoction (very quickly) into the substrate to replenish the dirt after some time.
 
Atxpunx said:
I read that Tom Barr would freeze a dirt/clay/sand mixture in ice cube trays and insert the concoction (very quickly) into the substrate to replenish the dirt after some time.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I wonder how much it helped though.
 
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