Dirted tank thoughts

[TomO]

Would it be a bad idea to use osmocoat and roots tabs in a dirted tank with eco complete as  a cap? Would the extra fertilizer from the cap have a greater chance for algae production?

[Cory]

I guess my question is why would you do this? This would just be a crazy amount of nutrients. The problem with dirt already is controlling the amount of nutrients all of this would just make it worse. 

[TomO]

And that is why I asked. I think I saw a video on a dirted tank where the person doing the tank used sand as a cap, but put root tabs and osmocote pellets in the dirt.

[Hobbit]

You shouldn’t need any root tabs or osmocote for a couple months until the plants have basically used up the nutrients in the soil. 🙂 

[Streetwise]

The nutrient battery of an organic soil tank should have a lot of longevity, especially if you let mulm and detritus rejoin the soil. I would recommend reading Diana Walstad.

[Hobbit]

Although fish mulm contains very little potassium, so you may need to start supplementing that earlier, especially if you have stem plants! I learned that the hard way.

I second reading Diana Walstad. 👍

[TomO]

I just picked up George Farmer's new aquascaping book today. I haven't really started reading it yet, however. But since the eco complete I ordered was on;y a half shipment, I guess I'll have a week to read through it,

[ChefConfit]

If your doing raw soil that would probably lead to an algae farm because it's way to much nutrients. If you're doing mineralized topsoil then still probably not unless you're insane like me and are going to spend half a year+ mineralizing the soil before it goes in the tank. And even then use one or the other very sparsely. My 29 Hex has maybe 2 teaspoons of osmocote+ under the substrate, and if I were to set the tank up again I'd skip it and use  root tabs under any plants that seem to be struggling after everything else is settled in and growing well. In my experience osmocote will find a way to the top of your substrate no matter how careful you are. It doesn't seems to adversely affect any of my animals, and it actually releases nutrients very slowly when in water(the company has data available about how it works when used in water because it's also marketed to hydroponic growers) but it's annoying as hell when little balls show up every once in awhile. 

[FriendlyLoach]

I dirted my tank and every thing in going great. The way I did it was set up the tank and then cycled it for 3 or so weeks (in the beginning there are lots of ammonia and nitrite and well nitrate because of extra nutrients). Once every thing was stable I added fish and I have been doing well. Rember that plants can only grow so fast, and dirt will basically get you there so there is no need to add more fertilizer in the soil. I also was scared of anaerobic bacteria in the start but now I am not worried. A few bubbles will burst sometimes but as long as you have dissolved O2 in the water, then you are all good (that is why plants are good).