Black Diamond Blasting sand + Soil?

Hello everyone,

I wanted to start a high tech planted tank.
Here’s some of my goals and I’ll list the equipment I have already right under.

Main Goal: Use a 1 inch organic potting soil cap under black diamond blasting sand. This would allow for nutrient rich substrate for the plants while being capped with a fish safe layer of blasting sand. I was going to do a “dry start” to get the plants going better before adding water then cycle it of course before adding fish.

Materials in Possession:

-Black Diamond Blasting sand the abrasive not the fine.
-Miracle Grow Organic Potting Soil
-Tank

Materials Needed:

-CO2 set up. If you have any tips on great regulators let me know! I was going to buy a generic regulator with a solenoid from a local Brewery supply store.

Please let me know if you have any input regarding this build. Or if anyone has used this build before and ran into troubles, post what kind of troubles. Trying to get all the info before I set up a death trap/not ideal situation.

Thanks all!

 

Several of our members use the Black diamond, hopefully they’ll chime in with their experience of it with plants & others will address your Co2 questions today.

 

Several of our members use the Black diamond, hopefully they’ll chime in with their experience of it with plants & others will address your Co2 questions today.

Thank you for the bump! I’m much less worried about the black diamond sand, and more worried about the long term effects of organic decomposition in the soil.

 

Hello,

Just saw your post and thought I'd might be able to help as I am using the exact same substrate. Disclaimer: I am about 2 months into my first fish tank, but I have done around 5-6 months of research and have had many people help along the way.

I started a journal to hopefully help people such as your self. I know there isn't much information out there regarding dirted tanks, so I thought I would document my experiences as encountered. You can read it here Dirted tank journal
Some of the posts are rather long-winded so apologies for that.

To summarize: I tried to outthink the suggested practices and encountered issues (H2S) and I believe I have worked through those issues. I made the substrate a little deeper than recommended. You can read my thoughts in the journal but basically:
"I believe I tried to outthink the customary practices based on some heavy research and it cost me.
1. I made the substrate a little too deep
1a. I made it deeper than the suggested 1.5 inches to allow room for extensive root growth. I know amazon sword roots can dominate a tank, so I tried to make extra accommodations.
2. I knew that I ran the risk of creating anoxic conditions in the substrate by increasing the soil depth
2a. I was alright with that as anoxic zones can help with the denitrification process.
2b. In addition, I estimated that due to the heavily planted nature of the tank, oxygen would take care of any H2S that made it way to the water column as H2S is neutralized in the presence of O2"

This thinking cause me a little issue, but have gotten back on track.

Your plan sounds sound.

Thank you for the bump! I’m much less worried about the black diamond sand, and more worried about the long term effects of organic decomposition in the soil.

If you have enough plants in the tank (you want to heavily plant) they will soak up the nutrients. Not enough plants and you will get massive algae presence due to all the nutrients released from the soil. The sources seems to be split in the long term viability of the soil. Eventually you will probably have to dose fertilizer. The nutrients in the soil will run out. The good thing though is the soil will absorb the fertilizer to rejuvenate.

*Organic soil is fish safe. Many people add the BDBS as a cap to keep the soil in place.

What plants are you planning on adding?

 

Hello,

Just saw your post and thought I'd might be able to help as I am using the exact same substrate. Disclaimer: I am about 2 months into my first fish tank, but I have done around 5-6 months of research and have had many people help along the way.

I started a journal to hopefully help people such as your self. I know there isn't much information out there regarding dirted tanks, so I thought I would document my experiences as encountered. You can read it here Dirted tank journal
Some of the posts are rather long-winded so apologies for that.

To summarize: I tried to outthink the suggested practices and encountered issues (H2S) and I believe I have worked through those issues. I made the substrate a little deeper than recommended. You can read my thoughts in the journal but basically:
"I believe I tried to outthink the customary practices based on some heavy research and it cost me.
1. I made the substrate a little too deep
1a. I made it deeper than the suggested 1.5 inches to allow room for extensive root growth. I know amazon sword roots can dominate a tank, so I tried to make extra accommodations.
2. I knew that I ran the risk of creating anoxic conditions in the substrate by increasing the soil depth
2a. I was alright with that as anoxic zones can help with the denitrification process.
2b. In addition, I estimated that due to the heavily planted nature of the tank, oxygen would take care of any H2S that made it way to the water column as H2S is neutralized in the presence of O2"

This thinking cause me a little issue, but have gotten back on track.

Your plan sounds sound.


If you have enough plants in the tank (you want to heavily plant) they will soak up the nutrients. Not enough plants and you will get massive algae presence due to all the nutrients released from the soil. The sources seems to be split in the long term viability of the soil. Eventually you will probably have to dose fertilizer. The nutrients in the soil will run out. The good thing though is the soil will absorb the fertilizer to rejuvenate.

*Organic soil is fish safe. Many people add the BDBS as a cap to keep the soil in place.

What plants are you planning on adding?

Hello,

Some plants I have in my possession that were going in are:
-2 big marimbo Moss Balls
-Amazon Frogbit
-Moneywort
-Bacopa Monierri(might be spelt wrong)
-A red leaf variant of ludwigia(can post pic later because I’m not too sure on ID)
-Jungle Val
-3 “Banana plant”
-dwarf hair grass
-another type of carpeting plant I got off a friend(not sure what it is & can also provide pics later)
-2 anubia petite

I believe I have listed them all, I may have missed one small variety of plant but I listed all of the large ones.

These are some fo the plants I get at mu LFS which isn’t the best and only one in town. But grateful to have them!

 

Another concern is I found these rod like structures in the BDBS which can be seen in this pic. Would any fish potentially swallow this like corydoras?