Substrate thickness

[Blos85]

So in the near future i want to dirt my angel tank which is a 50g but its really tall which makes difficulty adding plants and/or maintaining them anyway.

My question is can i make the the dirt layer as thick as i want without repercussions? I figure if i just made it deeper it may be easier to maintain not to mention will bring the plants closer to the light. Ive read about deep beds before but i believe it was referring to a salt water set-up and it was sand only. I vaguely remember what i read sad to say although i do remember the deep bed allowed bacteria that required no oxygen to grow. I just cant remember the benefits of it or if it even applied to freshwater tanks. So if anyone could be so kind and clear the deep bed theory up for me also i would greatly appreciate it.

I wouldn't mind if it was 5-6inches capped. Ill be capping with pea gravel and roughly 4inchs of dirt and 1.5-2inches of gravel.
Would that be ok or could i have problems with gases and/or bacteria?

Thank you!

 

[Rivercats]

Honestly I wouldn't make an entire tank bed that deep. About 3-4 inches max IMO is good. Even in my 220g 30" tall dirted tank I only used about 2 inches of dirt and about 1-1/2 inches of cap. Dirt will break down and compact some over time so doing 2 inches isn't bad at all. If you dirt thickly you will have a lot more gas buildup and anaerobic pockets. With my tank being 30" tall along with sitting on a stand the tank is almost as tall as I am. So I have a 3 step stool along with 24" planting tools that I use. That tank is 100% planted and mostly with stem plants so I work in it a lot. You just need to get the proper tools and a stool to use. As far as lighting is concerned you have to first decide what level (high, med, low) you want and get an appropriate fixture.

 

[molly100a]

You don't need that much dirt. About 3 inches is fine.