dirt tank
- Thread starter exhumed07
- Start date
i'm planning on capping it, i want the water to be clear, i don't want it looking like the mississippi lol. I have been reading that capping with sand can be bad as it compresses and creats an anarobic environment and is bad for plant roots. i love sand and would rather cap with sand if i can. also i'm kinda wondering, is there a lifespan to the soil? i know the plants will eventually deplete the nutriants in the soil, so would u recondition it with root tabs or replace it after so long? i have yet to find a video, or artical that relates to that. also from everything that i have noticed it's a minimum of 1 inch of soil and a cap of 1 inch of stone. what are your experiences with depth and how well does it work for u? i ask that cause i kinda want to aquascape it a bit and want to know how thin i can go and still be able to have solidly rooted plants.
also years ago i got some plants from an old member off here when i tried to do plants the first time. not sure if you remember lone wolf blue or not but he sent me the plants as well as root tabs. i never had a chance to use the root tabs as i tried to plant a cichlid tank and my cichlids made short work of the plants. but i still have the root tabs although they are not so much tabs anymore as powder. i kept them in a ziplock bag and was wondering if it would hurt anything to mix the powder into my dirt to give it more or less a boost or would that provide to much and burn the roots much like if you over fertalize grass or flowers? i'm debating on what kinda soil to use right now. i have some absolutly wonderful black soil around here abd thought about using that, but i might just buy some organic compost. have not decided yet.
thats exactly what i have been reading about and waching videos about on youtube. and i'm not planning to use compost as i don't compost. but i do have a spot of some realy good black organic dirt down in the woods where a creek has piled up leaves over the years. i use it as potting soil as it is. but if you dig down deep enough it's good black soil like you would see if you bought a bag of potting soil. i did notice alot of people recomend miracle grow organic but i've called every garden center in the area and they are either closed for the season or have none so i'm trying to figure out another good organic source. it also don't help that i am laid off for the season and trying to do this as cheap as i can, but still do it in a quality way. I'm assuming if the soil has no leaves or sticks or anything in it, it should be fine for this project. i thought about going to the swamps and digging up the dried up swamp mud but i am unsure of doing that. i know for a fact it is full of nutrients and alot of plants grow out of it but wonder if there could be micro organisms or such in it that have been hybernating cause of the drought but could come back to life after being rehydrated. and then again i could use just regular top soil and boost it with the powdered root tabs that i have. lots of things to think about but would like other peoples input on the ideas.
Hello; I have not done a "dirt" tank exactly but have put potting soil into containers. I then buried the containers in the gravel substrate and had a layer of gravel in the top of the container. I went to the extra step of using a cork boring tool to put holes in the bottom and sides of the container in hopes that there could be some circulation of water in and out and also in hope that the plant roots had an out if they grew enough.
I planted an Amazon sword. It went well for some time, at least a year and perhaps even two. The sword was one of the nicest I have grown. I do think that the nutrients in the soil became depleted and the plant ceased to do so well. The plan was to be able to remove the container and essentially repot the plant. As with many such endeavors a problem showed up. The plastic container had deteriorated and fell apart when moved. It was a mess.
My guess is that a full layer of soil under the substrate will last a considerable time.
One additional thought. Some years ago I wanted a black gravel substrate. I did not have enough pure black gravel to fill the tank. I had the idea to make a layer of multi colored grave on the bottom and cap it with the pure black. It did not take long for the colors to become stirred up and mixed.
I suspect that in setting the plants and doing regular care the soil will be often stirred up.
I planted an Amazon sword. It went well for some time, at least a year and perhaps even two. The sword was one of the nicest I have grown. I do think that the nutrients in the soil became depleted and the plant ceased to do so well. The plan was to be able to remove the container and essentially repot the plant. As with many such endeavors a problem showed up. The plastic container had deteriorated and fell apart when moved. It was a mess.
My guess is that a full layer of soil under the substrate will last a considerable time.
One additional thought. Some years ago I wanted a black gravel substrate. I did not have enough pure black gravel to fill the tank. I had the idea to make a layer of multi colored grave on the bottom and cap it with the pure black. It did not take long for the colors to become stirred up and mixed.
I suspect that in setting the plants and doing regular care the soil will be often stirred up.
well i plan to cap the soil with the gravel sand mix i have currenty, it's black gravel with white sand. i like the look of the 2 mixed. in fact one of my 30 gallon tanks has white sand with a small amount of black and my 55 has about 60 pounds of black with about 2 pounds of white sand and it looks pretty good as well. can u sense a theme? lol
well i have decided on swamp mud. I'm going to gather it this morning when i go catch some chubs to sell to the walleye pros in town. it's all high and dry now so it wont be soupy and it will be easy to work with. i'm planning on baking it in the oven to kill off any microbes that may be pressent as well as cook out any volitile gases that may also be in the dirt. then i'm going to cut it a bit with some top soil and clay. so that is the plan and i forsee no issues with it as far as i can tell. it will be sterile and nutrient rich and there are no fields within a mile of this swamp ground so there should be minimal to no crop runoff. i will post pics as i get everything ready and do it. i may have to wait to do the tank till later in the week. a friend is going to give me a bunch of plant clippings to transplant into my tank on tuesday. i think it will be better to do it then instead of doing the bottom and then planting later in the week.
i got my mud. i dug down about 18 inches to 2 feet to get the mud i wanted so it's pretty darn sticky right now. but it was deep enough to get past most of the sticks and all the leaves and what sticks are there are pretty much mush cause they are so decayed. but i did come across something i did not expect to find. a large chunk of cast iron. the mud within 6 inches of it has alot of red from the rust so i grabbed some of that. so i should be set on iron for plants that require lots of iron. also i went to a clay bank near my house and got some chunks of clay. it's dry now so it should mix in rather nicely. my potted plants i do on the deck grew SUPER well in this stuff and it's pretty much as natural as u can get for aquatic plants so this should work. just need to heat it up to kill anything bad and get rid of any volitile gases
mud has been all treated today. i sifted it through an aluminum screen i had laying around in the attic. so no sticks or anything like that in it. just pure mud. then i put it in a big pot and put it on a fire and heated it all up and dried it out a bit. it's alot thicker and not as sticky now so should be easier to work with. tomorrow i'm heading to a couple creeks to find some good rocks to go into the tank. my old piece of driftwood from ym 55 fits in my 20 gallon pretty good so i'm going to use it as well. i'm not going to do a flat bottom in this tank. i'm going to try to aquascape it to the best of my ability. plan to do it clean out my tank and get it all setup on tuesday. i'll post pics of the process after i'm done 
i'm trying to make as natural looking of a lanscape as possible. i'm not trying to get the tank to look like the bottom of a stream or lake. my goal is to make the tank look like a mountain side or like rolling hills with boulders in it. not sure mixing the 2 drastically different stones would work for the look i'm trying to get. so i'm going to just use one style or the other. and i should have had a reference for the size. the big yellow one is about the size of a volley ball and about 10 pounds. it is accually probably to big for a 20 gallon tank. got overzelus lol
Hello; Reminded me of a post on another forum. The person mentioned how one of the decor rocks had cracked the bottom of a tank. My take was that rocks and glass can equal problems.
Do not recall exactly what happened but have considered some ways to avoid such problems.
First; I would avoid stacking rocks unless some means of keeping them in place is used. A rock nugged off of a pile in some way could hit the bottom.
Second; When placing a big rock some extra care will be taken to avoid letting it hit too hard on the bottom.
Third; Avoid the use of rocks that are unstable whem in place.
Hope this does not keep you from using the rocks and please post how you decided to deal.
Do not recall exactly what happened but have considered some ways to avoid such problems.
First; I would avoid stacking rocks unless some means of keeping them in place is used. A rock nugged off of a pile in some way could hit the bottom.
Second; When placing a big rock some extra care will be taken to avoid letting it hit too hard on the bottom.
Third; Avoid the use of rocks that are unstable whem in place.
Hope this does not keep you from using the rocks and please post how you decided to deal.
Actually i have considered the extra weight of the mud and stone. my stand has an open bottom design and if u go under it U can see the glass and the tank is only supported by the ends. so i have already added bracing to the stand to support the front and back and i have a piece of plywood i will be placing under the tank as well as a central crossmember to support the middle of the tank. that will support it from overall weight and create a nice even surface for the tank to sit. as for rocks falling the biggest gear would be hitting the front or back of the tank but i don't plan to stack rocks on top of eachother. Ill have on one side a big piece of driftwood and on the other side a hill coming from the back corner of the tank towards the front center of the tank with the stones imbedded into the substrate as though they have rolled from the top of the hill to the bottom. then I'll have most of the bottom covered with a short growing grass and then other plants mixed in around the tank. i have it all visualized right now just hope i can bring it to life lol.
