I wouldn't be deterred. I used the wrong dirt in my excitement/impatience. It had high peat content, it wound up too fluffy. At first, all the fluffy was at one end, then I tried spreading out the fluffy to minimize the effect of it. Nope! Just spread the effect, actually.
Honestly, the fish and snails don't seem to care in the least. But the plants can't get good light when they're covered in yuck. I'll get a super embarrassing pic complete with emergency try to get the mess cleaned up measures before I tear it all down tomorrow.
Thinking of it, this whole thread is full of ermagerd don't do this! *shrug* Aside from peroxide-pocalypse deaths (one ember tetra, one CPD, blue velvet and bee shrimp, all my otocinclus, a blue mystery snail, nerites ? RIP, I'm sorry!), I regret only that accident. Everything else is hilarious mishaps brought about by experimentation and impatience.
Dirt away, just don't pull a Laeris and derp the dirt.
I'd redo the dirt with plain fortified (red clay/fluorite, garden lime) topsoil, but I have 15 CPD, six striped kuhlis, six ember tetra, five mystery snails, three emerald corydoras, three dojo loaches, a black kuhli (trying to find more!), a calico longfinned bristle nose pleco, a black devil snail, an army of MTS and all those plants who can't stay in a 40 gal plastic tote while I take the one, two months on the outside to get the dirt right.