DIY Substrate?

[KevinM]

Im looking around for substrate that wont break the bank on my new 75 gallon tank, so Ive been checking out some DIY stuff, since in the long run its usually better anyways.

I wanted to run a idea by a few of the more experienced member.

Miracle Grow Organic Choice(in the green bag, less wood chips)
A little bit of sand mixed in.(im going to use PFS as my top layer for the loaches
Im going to get)
a bag or two of Fluval just to boost the Dirt.

Topped off with 1.5-2in of PFS

or would it be better to try the dirt with some sand and just add in iron etc myself instead of the fluval?

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Honestly, I would just do PFS with root tabs. Especially if you aren't getting very demanding plants.

I say this because I've done the Walstad method (dirt with sand top) and I can attest to my Loaches moving sand off of the dirt. This will make you're water allll kinda of brown. It was a nuisance in a 10g, I can't even image how annoying it would be in a 75g.

 

[aqua_chem]

I say this because I've done the Walstad method (dirt with sand top) and I can attest to my Loaches moving sand off of the dirt. This will make you're water allll kinda of brown. It was a nuisance in a 10g, I can't even image how annoying it would be in a 75g.

That's more or less exactly what you would expect to happen with a layered substrate and loaches.



Goting the MTS/MG route will give you better results in a number of plants, especially root feeders but also stems. Strictly speaking, it's far and away better than only eco-complete, flourite, etc, and noticeably better than many root tabs.

 

[KevinM]

I never thought about them digging the dirt up lol

Mineralized Top Soil and Magnesium? sorry still learning all the acronyms hehe.

I dont think Im going to go to demanding, Im pretty set on a sandy front ground and then having my plants, Moss carpet, then Flame Moss on my DW, and this hanging vine off another piece of DW that looks like a tree(make like a weeping willow look) and then Ferns Swords and a few other plants(stills working out what else to put in the back ground and alone the side of the tank).

 

[Rivercats]

I have a "dirted" 220 gallon tank. I didn't use Miracle Grow Organic simply because there is a brand of Organic soil I have used for years in my garden and in potted plants in the ponds. I comes in 2 or 3cu. feet bags and I get it at Lowes. What I did is put 1-1/2" inches of organic soil, then capped it with !-1/2 inches of eco-complete. I chose to use the Eco-complete because I like the look of it and it is also an enriched substrate.

After putting in the substrate I had to fill and empty the tank for 7 days for remove alot of the tannins which leech from the soil. Oh, I did not remove any large pieces of anything out of the soil mix. I also ran my Fluval FX5 during this time with Seachem Purgen in it to also help remove tannins. On day 8 I planted, heavily. I still kept Purgen running in the filter for about 3 or 4 weeks, and had very very little tannin color in the water.

I will tell you with a rich soil base you need to plant heavily from the get go. And put in a couple stem plants and maybe Water Sprite to help mop up excess nutrients. I also took a few small water hyacinths from our pond to also help with nutrient removal. You will get diatom algae fairly quickly, just so you know. But my tank cycled in 13 days... honest! I think partically because the eco-complete comes with bacteria in the water it is packed in. Once I put the plants in I really could not believe how quickly it cycled. I tested over and over for a couple days because I could not believe it. So I actually got a BNP and put him in. Also had MTS's and got some Pond Snails in there by accident that came off the water hyacinth out of the pond. Which turned out okay as this multitude of snails with the Pleco really started hitting the diatoms hard and quick. Do watch how long you run your lights so your algae problems don't go crazy in the beginning with all the excess nutrients. Some people use duckweed but that stuff is messy and a bear to totally get out of the tank. After a couple weeks of letting the algae crew do their thing, I added in my three yo-yo loaches to get to work on the pond snail population. The loaches are unable to eat the MT Snails due to their shell configuration.

Anyway, months down the road my plants have grown and filled out amazingly. The two swords I put in grew to the top of the tank, which is 30 inches within 2 weeks. The water sprite started out with 5- 5" tall stems and in a couple weeks was to the tank top and had filled in so much I had to start trimming. Crypts nor any plant ever melted. I am still amazed how big some of the crypts have grown. So the jist of it is... using a dirted tank can be amazing. And as for the loaches digging, I have never had them dig down to the dirt. And two of my guys are about 4" now. They do root, I've seen them root and dig until they actually get under the dwarf baby tears. But also, the organic soil is heavy and I don't think they could root in it even if they could ever get down that far. Sand, maybe but you have many choices to use for a cap over soil.

Sorry I know this was long winded but it might give you an idea of what a dirt tank is like.

 

[Rivercats]

Here is a list of the plants growing in my 220 now:

Plants:
Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii)
Ambulia (Limnophila indica)
Limnophila aromatica 'hippuroides'
Proserpinaca Palustris
Rotala Indica (Rotala roundifolia)
Rotala macrandra
Anubias barteri v. Nana
Anubias barteri v. Coffeefolia
Bolbitus heudelotii
Pogostemon helferi
Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides)
Java Fern, Lace (Microsorium pteropus v. Windelov)
Crinum Calimistratum
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Florida Sunset'
Tiger Lotus, Red (Nymphaea zenkeri)
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne lutea
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Bronze (Cryptocoryne wendtii v. Tropica)
Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri)
Ozelot Sword (Echinodorus 'ozelot')
Corkscrew Vallisneria (Vallisneria americana)
Dwarf Baby Tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba')
5 small Water Hyacynth (floating plant)

 

[aqua_chem]

Mineralized Top Soil and Magnesium? sorry still learning all the acronyms hehe.

Miracle Grow

I dont think Im going to go to demanding, Im pretty set on a sandy front ground and then having my plants, Moss carpet, then Flame Moss on my DW, and this hanging vine off another piece of DW that looks like a tree(make like a weeping willow look) and then Ferns Swords and a few other plants(stills working out what else to put in the back ground and alone the side of the tank).

With the exception of swords, none of those are even substrate plants. Sounds like a lot of unnecessary effort for what you want.