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Showing results for tags 'dirted'.
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So I did a thing. I have created a Walstad shrimp jar. I followed her instructions here. I tried to find as many of the plants she used as I could, but I could not find the exact ones. I used Rosette sword, bacopa, and dwarf hairgrass. I added a piece of driftwood that has been in the fish tank a few months. It will provide biofilm and bacteria. I was going to add a piece of cholla wood, but there really wasn’t room once I added the hairgrass. The plants are more important. Since I changed my mind on the jar, my light would not fit on the lip. I improvised a solution. Hopefully the Iron Sheik does not mind too much. 😉 Next I am going to plug the light into a Christmas light timer. I have not added any critters yet, but the water I used is water from the shrimp tank. I had some extra hairgrass that I added to the shrimp tank and to Geppetto’s (betta) tank. My neighbor has some bladder snails. Perhaps I will add one or two to this jar. I also hope to add floating plants.- 201 replies
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Do you like to use dirt in your tank, a different fertilized substrate (perhaps like fluval stratum or even root tablets), only inert substrate, or none of the above? Why do you use dirt? Why do you not use dirt? What is your experience like? You can provide as little or as much information as you'd like! I'd love to hear about it. My personal opinion is I like dirted tanks and think the pros outweigh the cons, but I wish I had researched more before jumping right in. Dirted tanks cause a bit of problems: primarily making the water muddy or murky, especially if you don't know what you're doing. I used my own mix for "dirt": peat moss, organic soil mix, clay, decaying leaf litter, and crushed lava rock. I knew this would provide nutrients to my plants, and I was confident. But this was my first time using live plants, and my first time using dirt. Gosh, I didn't know what I was getting into... I had to do five water changes the first week setting up my tank, simply because some of the dirt matter dissolved into the water. To cap off the substrate, I had to use almost two inches of fine pea gravel + sand mix. That being said, I do not regret it: I would just go about it differently in the future. So here is what I would change: get the dirt wet AND waterlogged before capping off with inert substrate or filling the tank. This will reduce the random bubbles. don't cheap out on inert substrate: get more that I think I will need. At first I only got enough to cover barely an inch deep, which was not enough. It just caused more pain and ended up mixing my inert substrate in with my dirt mixture. It was super difficult and I had to restart once or twice. after I did get my inert substrate figured out, I filled the tank all the way up before planting. Not the best decision, as I learned. Instead, next time I will fill the tank about half way and then plant. Honestly, just like planting a veggie garden, I would probably "mound" the plants with sand/gravel a little to encourage them to STAY IN THE DARN GROUND. I also learned not to be scared of weights, glues, and strings. At first I was kind of stuck-up and thought it wasn't natural and ergo bad if you used things like plant weights or if you glued/tied your anubias down. HECK NO. These are tools. Use them! That is something important I learned. When I was putting moss in my tank I quickly learned I needed string to tie em down... and when I purchased some rotala it came tied with a weight, and gosh this stuff is helpful. I love these tools and glad I tried them. So how do you feel about dirt in tanks? What did you learn?
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