Honey, I Dirted the Tank!

[Jessica.]

How about some hc cuba/dwarf baby tears? It'd be neat to see if any of the tanks can pull it off and grow it. Like, would the co2 release from the dirt give it the boost it needs? Looks like you'd have the light for it. 

I'd add stauro repens, but just because it's one of my favorite plants and it's your money I'm spending. 😉 Nice little foreground plant, develops good root systems quickly, can carpet or be an accent. 

[FriendlyLoach]

My tips are to not go too deep, and never gravel vac! I just let my soil go anaerobic and as long as I don't disturb the substrate every thing is good. I was scared when I saw gas coming out of the soil, but as long as there is oxygen in the water every thing is ok. 

[Daniel]

I will try and get some Black Diamond Blasting Sand (BDBS) from the local Tractor Supply.

Also I ordered:

• Dwarf Sagittaria
• Ammannia Gracilis
• Bacopa Caroliniana
• Jungle Vallisneria
• Red Melon Sword
• Red Flame Sword
• Cryptocoryne Lucens
• Cryptocoryne Wendtii
• Cryptocoryne Lutea
• Staurogyne repens
• Baby Tears

That should be a good start.

[Fishkeeper125]

Do you plan on sterilizing the dirt? Like baking it in a oven?

[Daniel]

I do not plan on sterilizing the dirt. I take a lot risks (or perhaps my fish do) but I think dirt is low risk, especially if it hasn't been part of an aquatic environment.

I plan on digging the dirt (ancient compost) from my asparagus bed that I set up about 5 years ago with compost I made previously. So I know there are no unknown chemicals in the dirt. I made the compost from old plants cleared from the garden and kitchen waste.

If the unsterilized dirt produces something weird, that will interesting in and of itself.

[AtomCatMatt]

Most people like to save the beneficial bacteria that lives in the soil.

[AtomCatMatt]

@DanielLove your use of tool chests, brings a manly sense to fishkeeping. 🤣

[shkote]

3 minutes ago, Daniel said:

 

I plan on digging the dirt (ancient compost) from my asparagus bed that I set up about 5 years ago with compost I made previously. 

Mmmmmmm.... asparagus 🤤

[RovingGinger]

With the black diamond blasting sand, I will admit I have never rinsed it and never had an issue. Sure some floats but I net that off, the rest clears up very quickly. 

[Streetwise]

We have two genes that relate to asparagus: one controls whether eating asparagus changes the smell of your liquid waste, and the other controls whether you can smell it!

It would make for an interesting dinner party experiment.

[Daniel]

The three substrates for this project will be:

• CaribSea's EcoComplete Planted 
• CaribSea's Super Naturals Peace River and Rio Grande mix
• Garden dirt capped by U.S. Minerals' Black Diamond Blasting Sand

The Black Diamond Blasting Sand seems to be one of the most popular black sand type substrates used in aquariums. With tax the 50 lb bag that I purchased from my local Tractor Supply was $10.66 which certainly made it popular with me.

The front of the bag indicates it is 'Coal slag'.

Not being sure was exactly this was I looked it up on the U.S. Minerals website's FAQ and got this description:

What is coal slag?

This stuff is boiler slag, which is a recycled product from coal burning plants. When coal is “fired” at over 2500 degrees it melts and produces a by-product called slag. When the slag is cooled through a process called vitrification, it crystallizes, forming sharp, angular granules in a variety of sizes. We reclaim this slag and put it through several screen processes to remove dust and unburnt coal, and then size the remaining crystals into five different “grit” categories.

There was also a Safety Data Sheet which listed its composition:

I thought to myself, is this stuff safe? But it was almost like U.S. Minerals read my mind because one of the next FAQs was:

Is it safe?

You’re darn right it is. It’s a recycled product, for starters—and it meets drinking water standards. Black Diamond Granules have been tested and not linked to any disease, including Silicosis. That’s because Black Diamond Granules contain less than 0.1% free silica and are low dusting and chemically inert. And if you’re worried about berylium, don’t sweat it. While our slag does contain trace amounts, an independent lab says we’d need to have 1,000 times more before we’d have to report. So rest easy.

Fortunately, I learned, I don't have to sweat the berylium! I think they meant beryllium.

[Andy's Fish Den]

I am following this experiment along. I have used the substrates you are using except the dirt, which I have not done. I've thought about doing it, but I like to move plants around every so often, and I've always been afraid that pulling plant roots out will cause a mess in the tank, so maybe I will see what happens as @Danieldoes this, and maybe I won't be afraid of trying a dirted tank out.

[David Ellsworth]

This sounds like a great start for some tanks. I have two 20 gal dirted tanks I set up at the same time. I used Miracle Grow Raised Bed Soil 100% Organic about 1.5 to 2 inches deep, sprinkled some Montmorillonite Clay powder over the dirt, and then put 0.5 to 1 inch pool filter sand cap. I left all the little wood chips in the soil, there were a lot. Many people online recommend removing them, but I think it is just more organics to break down over the long term. I get frequent carbon bubbles from the substrate and both are run with no air. One tank has an eheim surface skimmer pump (had a green bubble/slime either algae or bacteria on the surface). The other tank has no air and no filter and it doesn't have any major algae or problems. I did have issues with the occasional wood chip float to the surface with a bubble, but I just picked those out and I haven't had that issue for quite a while. 

 

My tanks have been set up for 2 months now and  my dwarf sag, water wisteria, and pogostemon gayi is all growing like mad. I have a $24, 4000k (5,000 lumen) shop light and my dwarf sag is growing so well it is taking over the tank on the side it is planted on. I put a couple stem plants and one floater in to see how they did and they were doing really rough once the cycle was done so I have to give a shot of easy green every so often and they are doing much better.

 

About 1 week ago I added 2 hillstream loaches to the tank overrun with algae  with the surface skimmer and they are going to town on it. But those two are the only fish in there. The other tank has 1 Amano shrimp, but both have pest snails too. 

 

All your root feeders should do Incredible in there. I haven't used blasting sand, but many people online have with great results.

 

I'm really interested to see how well the eco-complete and all the set ups do for you. There is a massive difference between my first tank which is gravel only and these dirt tanks. The gravel tank used some root tabs and better lighting, but the dwarf sag is less than 1/4th the spread of my dirted tanks when the gravel was set up for 5 months, (dirt only 2 months and insane growth.). 

 

[Brandy]

Late to the party!

I have a 5g portrait that I layered with 1.5in dirt and maybe 1-1.5in extra-fine white caribsea super naturals sand. It looks gorgeous, and has done well with madagascar lace, dwarf hair grass, and Ozelot sword. To hide the contrasting layers, I built a wet sand frame on the glass walls, put the dirt in wet in the middle, and capped it with more sand.

I liked it so much that I just set up a divided 20g high with half of it based with 0.5-1in dirt capped with BDBS, planted with stem plants--rotala, hydrocotyle, scarlet temple mini and saggitaria--and a tiger lotus bulb. I made the other half a thin layer of the white sand and epiphytes on rocks, with a matten filter dividing.

Build thread to come--this is my new guppy fry auto-sorter, fingers crossed that it works! Just waiting for the next drop!

Edited October 28, 2020 by Brandy

[Daniel]

As part of this project I am monitoring each tank with its own set of pH and temperature probes connected to a Neptune's Apex Fusion controller to see if there are any pH differences between the 3 aquariums. As a bonus when I get the Felix set up where I can also measure temperature, pH, Ammonia and PAR, I will have a trusted reference to compare the Felix measurements to. It is always good to have reference which is why I use a NIST traceable ( +/- 0.1 F) grade thermometer to compare against the Apex probes to see how accurate they are.

 

[Streetwise]

Daniel, if you ever need another probe holder, I like these magnetic ones, which come in two sizes:

Innovative Marine AUQA Gadget CustomCradle

WWW.MARINEDEPOT.COM

---

Innovative Marine AUQA Gadget CustomCradle AUQA Gadget CustomCradle XL Introducing the...

 

[Daniel]

Just now, Streetwise said:

Daniel, if you ever need another probe holder, I like these magnetic ones, which come in two sizes:

Innovative Marine AUQA Gadget CustomCradle

WWW.MARINEDEPOT.COM

---

Innovative Marine AUQA Gadget CustomCradle AUQA Gadget CustomCradle XL Introducing the...

 

@Streetwise You read my mind, I do need another probe holder. The Apex ones are finicky and it is clumsy when turning the set screws.

[Daniel]

I just planted all three tanks with the same layout. I have left plenty of room around each plant for its growth to monitored. I have some Amazon swords coming shortly and these will go in the back right corner of each tank.

I am monitoring pH with an Apex controller. I will also be controlling the lights and heaters with the Apex.

[Daniel]

Here is the layout of each tank.

[Daniel]

I just calibrated my probes. In theory the temperature of each tank is +/- 0.2 F of each other. At the time I took the screenshot all the pH probes were in a 7.0 pH buffer.

[Daniel]

At the time of this screenshot all the pH probes were in pH 4.0 buffer.

So it looks like I can trust the pH probes to give a pH I can trust at no worse than +/- 0.1

[Daniel]

Got the heater and the heater controller programmed on the Apex today.

The dial on the heater is set to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. But the heaters are plugged into Apex controller outlets that will turn off if the temperature when it gets above 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and turn on if the temperature falls below 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The fallback position is OFF which means about 72 degrees Fahrenheit as this is the ambient temperature of the fishroom.

I consider today to be Day 1 of the project as this was the day the heaters and filters went in. Usually I wouldn't put in a heaters or filters, but most people would, so for this project, heaters and filters it is!

EcoComplete Day 1.

Dirt (Organic garden soil) with BDBS cap Day 1 (and bonus earthworms coming out the soil)

Regular 'Peace River' substrate with fertilizers.

All the aquariums have 2 Finnex 36" Stingrays set to be on from 8 AM until 8 PM.

[Daniel]

Everything is starting to settle according to my Apex.

Felix reports a little ammonia in the Dirted tank. I will check this later with a different test. The next step will be to add some Endlers to each aquarium soon.

[Daniel]

I added a trio of Endlers to each aquarium. I plan to add equal amounts of the same species to each tank over the next few days. This is the dirted tank.

 

 

[RovingGinger]

I’m still too cowardly to fully dirt a tank, but I have dug up chunks of moss from my back yard and put them into aquariums. My cichlids are very appreciative of the worms that pop up!