Soil in a Planted Aquarium

[Izzyf]

Hi all, I’m relatively new to fish keeping so I apologise if my question comes across as a silly one! 

I have a 100L tank that I intended to use Tropica soil as my base. I set up eveything correctly, but when I went to add water as carefully as I could the water had turned quite murky as you can see from the photo. 
 

I had spoken to the staff in the pet shop who said I could use soil on its own, but I feel that I have done something wrong for the water to be that murky. 
 

Is it a case that I would need to use a layer of gravel on top to stop this from happening? 
 

Thanks x

 

[Sora]

It would help to cap the soil with sand or gravel. if you want to cap the soil just make sure you rinse the gravel or sand first and then put it on top of the soil. also when you fill the tank back up, dont pour the water directly on the substrate. Instead you could put a bowl or a plate in the tank and pour the water into it so that the water does not stir up the gravel too much. good luck! 😄

[JettsPapa]

You could use gravel, but I prefer sand.  I'd recommend going to a swimming pool supply store and buying a bag of pool filter sand.  It's relatively inexpensive (especially compared to sand sold and labeled specifically for aquariums), and will need little to no rinsing.  I've used two different brands and didn't rinse either one.  One didn't cloud the water at all, and the other one did very little (it was cleared up the next morning).

I've heard reports from people who bought pool filter sand at one of the big box home improvement chain stores and it needed a good bit of rinsing.

Edited March 24, 2023 by JettsPapa

[jwcarlson]

Sand would be a better cap than gravel.  Unfortunately it's kind of a mess at this point.  I would wait until it settles and then cap it carefully.  When it settles drain most of the water out and then cap it.  Fill it carefully.  Personally, I think you should cap with about 2" of sand.  I have just plain fluval stratum in one tank and it's not... too bad.  But if I start moving stuff around it can get messy.

[Lennie]

Hello

Welcome to the forum.

I use tropica aquasoil in my setups myself so I may try to help on this one. I believe that hass nothing to do with capping tbh.

I always use it without capping in my setups, in large amounts. I have never seen anything like this before.

Are you sure it was  aqua soil? Or can it be  substrate or something? Because substrate needs to be capped, aquasoil does not have to be

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Lennie

[Scapexghost]

Lay a paper towel down and then fill it

[Izzyf]

On 3/24/2023 at 7:15 PM, Lennie said:

Hello

Welcome to the forum.

I use tropica aquasoil in my setups myself so I may try to help on this one. I believe that hass nothing to do with capping tbh.

I always use it without capping in my setups, in large amounts. I have never seen anything like this before.

Are you sure it was  aqua soil? Or can it be  substrate or something? Because substrate needs to be capped, aquasoil does not have to be

 

It’s definitely the aquarium soil as in the picture!     

[Sherry]

On 3/24/2023 at 2:15 PM, Lennie said:

I use tropica aquasoil in my setups myself so I may try to help on this one.

 

When you set up a new aquarium with Tropica Aquasoil, do you have any trouble with ammonia from the soil?

[Lennie]

On 3/31/2023 at 8:50 PM, Sherry said:

When you set up a new aquarium with Tropica Aquasoil, do you have any trouble with ammonia from the soil?

Hey Sherry!

Yes, I do read ammonia every time I use Tropica aquasoil. The last time I checked, there was 0.5 mg/l ammonia/ammonium in the new tank I setup last week. I do %50-60 water changes once every 2-3 days for the first 3 weeks and I introduce estalished filter afterwards. Generally, at the end of 3 weeks and running an established filter 1-2 days, the ammonia and nitrite clears out. Then I move my fish. It works pretty good for me this way so far.

Tropica also advices to make big water changes during the first month.

If you have any questions, I would like to help more. You can always ask here or private message me

Cheers,

Edited March 31, 2023 by Lennie

[Sherry]

@Lennie The write up on Amazon about Tropica Aqua soil says it lowers pH. Since I don't want my pH lowered, this worries me. What has been your experience?

Edited April 2, 2023 by Sherry

[Lennie]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:07 AM, Sherry said:

@Lennie The write up on Amazon about Tropica Aqua soil says it lowers pH. Since I don't want my pH lowered, this worries me. What has been your experience?

Ph from my tap is 8.0-8.2 and kh reads 20z since My kh is pretty high, it barely affected my ph really. Even followed by %50 ro water %50 tap water water changes every week around 20-25% over the weeks, the lowest ph I have seen ever is 7.5. And lowest kh I have seen was 13. It emptied my gh for the first two months tho even when I was dosing equilibrium to “soften” the water. Not anymore.

If your kh is high like mine, I guess it can’t really affect the ph. If your kh is on the low end, then it may make a difference on that regard I believe.

As a note, I use frodo stone in my setups. Some people say that it increases kh and ph. Again, as my kh and ph is normally high, I believe I could not observe any real effects on that one. I tested it with vinegar but no reactions whatsoever. So idk if they balance each other in the tank in a way I don’t have a direct impact on. Just wanted to share this as a side note.

Gonna have a setup where I won’t be using frodo stones in the future once I move my fish from my 29g to their new tank. It may give me a chance to compare stuff.

What’s your ph and kh?

[rockfisher]

I have just soil in one tank. I next time Place a bowl or cup in the tank am slowly fill the bowl/cup. Go very slow at first and then once there is some water in there you can go a little quicker. Also if it’s cloudy let it settle out it could take a day. I plant when the tank has some water but not full. Then I fill the rest of the way. There is nothing wrong with not using a cap. I have a capped tank to. I like the cap when I’m not planting carpeting plants or moss to cover areas. As for the PH what is the Ph of the water you are using. Trying to a “number” is craziness. There are very few fish now days that unless less you are at ether extreme that won’t do well. I have thriving guppies at 6.4-6.6 . Why because that is the what the water where I live is. I do check Ph, but it’s not really to see what the ph is. It’s to see if there is a change that is big or unexpected. That for each fishkeeper to decide what that want to. I would never be able to keep as many tanks as I have if I was chasing water parameters. I know what I have and deviations from that are what I’m looking for. There are a few fish that maybe you have to chase parameters and some wild caught fish that a parameter needs to be met.

 

[Sherry]

On 4/1/2023 at 9:28 PM, Lennie said:

What’s your ph and kh?

I add Wonder Shell.