Converting to dirted tank

Anybody have any experience converting an established tank to a dirt substrate? I have a 40 breeder that I will be converting in the coming week and looking for a little guidance.

I imagine I would remove all substrate and fish into buckets. Get as much water out as possible. Put down about an inch of soil. Tap it down to firm it up. Cap with a couple inches of substrate. Fill the tank CAREFULLY with water. Then perhaps do a water change and fill again to remove some of the cloudiness. Plant the tank and get the filters heaters and lights going. Test the water and hopefully add fish back in after a day or two. Does this sound accurate?

Just as some background this tank has been running for about a year, I have harlequin Rasboras, Pearl Gouramis, Sterbai corys, a Bolivian ram, and a BN pleco as well as assorted snails. The dirt I will be using is Dustins Dirt Packs, they are essentially just mineralized top soil, in other words it’s top soil that’s been amended with nutrients, sifted, and baked in the sun to dry out and remove toxins. It really should not leach ammonia the way adding aquasoil or potting soil would. My cap will be my existing gravel, which is Caribsea Super Natural peace River gravel, about a 2mm fine gravel.

 

I would personally strongly advise against doing this without a solid plan to house the existing fish elsewhere for at least a couple weeks.

Even with a good gravel cap (I'd do more, rather than less) it's completely possible that there will be some leeching. I have no experience with Dustin's Dirt Packs, but even with DIY "baked" soils it's possible to get some leeching.

If things don't begin to leech, I think your idea is fine - but I'd be very, very on top of testing for ammonia/nitrites for the next month or two.

 

I agree with ChrissFishes01 , you need to make sure parameters are correct for some time before adding fish back to the tank. Ammonia will spike !

 

Yes, that’s been my biggest concern as well. I’m thinking just bite the bullet and setup a spare tank I have lying around, I’ll throw in a heater and a filter and buy some fake plants for the temporary situation.

Aside from making sure the fish are safe (definitely the most important thing), any other tips on making sure the conversion goes smoothly?

I appreciate both of your responses, thank you.

 

Yes, that’s been my biggest concern as well. I’m thinking just bite the bullet and setup a spare tank I have lying around, I’ll throw in a heater and a filter and buy some fake plants for the temporary situation.

Aside from making sure the fish are safe (definitely the most important thing), any other tips on making sure the conversion goes smoothly?

I appreciate both of your responses, thank you.

I’ve done a dirt tank once and my only suggestion is having everything in a place you don’t plan to move. If you start moving hard scales around or plants you’ll start to open that substrate barrier and have dirt clouds in the tank for a while. My plants grew amazing but I feel most aquarists like to change the looks of our tanks often and move plants around and what not. Just be ready for cloudy water initially and debris. After a while it clears up and plants grow like crazy!

 

Yes, that’s been my biggest concern as well. I’m thinking just bite the bullet and setup a spare tank I have lying around, I’ll throw in a heater and a filter and buy some fake plants for the temporary situation.

Aside from making sure the fish are safe (definitely the most important thing), any other tips on making sure the conversion goes smoothly?

I appreciate both of your responses, thank you.

I think your best bet will be to move some cycled media and a heater to the spare tank and plan to leave the main tank fishless for at least a week with an airstone/powerhead for water movement. If you don't have any ammonia issues after a week, I'd add in the corys first, just to make sure they don't stir stuff up enough to undo your gravel cap. I don't think they would, but it may be better to test it with just the corys before you add all your fish in. If they don't cause any ammonia spikes within the first few days, I think you'll be okay to go ahead and add in the rest of the fish.

I assume you probably have tons of plants, but I'd invest in some fast-growing stem plants/floaters/pothos, if you don't have any. In the event that there's a bit of leeching that you don't notice, having those ultra-fast growers will help you keep things in check.

 

I’ve done a dirt tank once and my only suggestion is having everything in a place you don’t plan to move. If you start moving hard scales around or plants you’ll start to open that substrate barrier and have dirt clouds in the tank for a while. My plants grew amazing but I feel most aquarists like to change the looks of our tanks often and move plants around and what not. Just be ready for cloudy water initially and debris. After a while it clears up and plants grow like crazy!

I did consider that I won’t be able to move stuff around much, that’s going to be difficult but I suppose I will have to live with it for a while! Hopefully it comes out good, looking forward to the plant growth

I think your best bet will be to move some cycled media and a heater to the spare tank and plan to leave the main tank fishless for at least a week with an airstone/powerhead for water movement. If you don't have any ammonia issues after a week, I'd add in the corys first, just to make sure they don't stir stuff up enough to undo your gravel cap. I don't think they would, but it may be better to test it with just the corys before you add all your fish in. If they don't cause any ammonia spikes within the first few days, I think you'll be okay to go ahead and add in the rest of the fish.

I assume you probably have tons of plants, but I'd invest in some fast-growing stem plants/floaters/pothos, if you don't have any. In the event that there's a bit of leeching that you don't notice, having those ultra-fast growers will help you keep things in check.

cycled media going in for sure, I am going to setup a 29gal I have lying around, bought a filter light fake plants and heater for it. As far as the plants—mine have been compromised by a former algae issue that has since been mitigated…but unfortunately I have to start over from scratch. I am planting heavily and with fast growers as you have mentioned, that will certainly help with tank parameters and combat algae.

 

It seems like a plan is starting to form here. But as cool as dirted tanks are, they are also a nuisance espcially if it's one of your main, bigger tanks with a lot of fish.

I would suggest using an aquasoil such as ADA aquasoil, UNS Controsoil, Carbi-sea aquasoil and even aqueon has an aquasoil
I personally love UNS controsoil, it does an amazing job!

 

It seems like a plan is starting to form here. But as cool as dirted tanks are, they are also a nuisance espcially if it's one of your main, bigger tanks with a lot of fish.

I would suggest using an aquasoil such as ADA aquasoil, UNS Controsoil, Carbi-sea aquasoil and even aqueon has an aquasoil
I personally love UNS controsoil, it does an amazing job!

Unfortunately I’m committed to the dirted tank as I already have the dirt and plants arriving tomorrow. But honestly I am regretting it a bit. My justification for dirt vs aquasoil was that the MTS will not leach ammonia nearly as much as an aquasoil. And the other reason was because I can cap the dirt with my existing substrate, which I figured would help immensely in keeping my tank cycled. I don’t have the ability to change completely to aquasoil and cycle a tank for 6 weeks right now. BUT as I think about it more I heard the UNS controsoil doesn’t leach ammonia too badly compared to some aqua soils, and I have a lot of mature filter media that would probably cycle my tank quickly. So long story short I do kind of wish I did the aquasoil conversion as you suggest. Perhaps next time or another tank.

 

I have been running a deep substrate dirted tank for a few weeks now. Use dirt from a backyard and a bag of black blasting media in a 29 gallon. Besides some murky water at the beginning from not rinsing the plants are very happy. I started with just plants, snails and some cull shrimp for the first week and moved in 6 glowlight tetras.

I am following the Father Fish method on this tank. He has a bunch of videos and has recently converter a tank like that to saltwater to see water happens.

 

The conversion went smooth, I have the 29 setup for the fish in the meantime, and the water barely clouded on the 40. I tested the tank after a full day and no ammonia and nitrites and about 5ppm of nitrates. Hard to say if the substrate is just not leaching ammonia (yet) or if the ammonia is being consumed (I do have old filter media in there still as well as the old substrate). Either way I’ll be keeping the fish in the 29 for at least a week or 2. Here is a shot of the tank so far, still waiting on a lot of plants. A shot of the 29 as well, just because

 

Anybody have any experience converting an established tank to a dirt substrate? I have a 40 breeder that I will be converting in the coming week and looking for a little guidance.

I imagine I would remove all substrate and fish into buckets. Get as much water out as possible. Put down about an inch of soil. Tap it down to firm it up. Cap with a couple inches of substrate. Fill the tank CAREFULLY with water. Then perhaps do a water change and fill again to remove some of the cloudiness. Plant the tank and get the filters heaters and lights going. Test the water and hopefully add fish back in after a day or two. Does this sound accurate?

Just as some background this tank has been running for about a year, I have harlequin Rasboras, Pearl Gouramis, Sterbai corys, a Bolivian ram, and a BN pleco as well as assorted snails. The dirt I will be using is Dustins Dirt Packs, they are essentially just mineralized top soil, in other words it’s top soil that’s been amended with nutrients, sifted, and baked in the sun to dry out and remove toxins. It really should not leach ammonia the way adding aquasoil or potting soil would. My cap will be my existing gravel, which is Caribsea Super Natural peace River gravel, about a 2mm fine gravel.

I did something similar almost year it will take some time for your tank to recycle even with you adding your current substrate as a cap. I had set up a tank using a clear tote that you can buy at walmart and I drill holes in the lid so my fish had a place to stay while the tank cycled. Also when planting its always good to do it when the waterline is an inch or 2 above the cap so its not too much detritus getting into your water column. I would recommend at least housing your fish for 2 weeks or at least after a week of consistent ideal water parameters.

 

Anybody have any experience converting an established tank to a dirt substrate? I have a 40 breeder that I will be converting in the coming week and looking for a little guidance.

I imagine I would remove all substrate and fish into buckets. Get as much water out as possible. Put down about an inch of soil. Tap it down to firm it up. Cap with a couple inches of substrate. Fill the tank CAREFULLY with water. Then perhaps do a water change and fill again to remove some of the cloudiness. Plant the tank and get the filters heaters and lights going. Test the water and hopefully add fish back in after a day or two. Does this sound accurate?

Just as some background this tank has been running for about a year, I have harlequin Rasboras, Pearl Gouramis, Sterbai corys, a Bolivian ram, and a BN pleco as well as assorted snails. The dirt I will be using is Dustins Dirt Packs, they are essentially just mineralized top soil, in other words it’s top soil that’s been amended with nutrients, sifted, and baked in the sun to dry out and remove toxins. It really should not leach ammonia the way adding aquasoil or potting soil would. My cap will be my existing gravel, which is Caribsea Super Natural peace River gravel, about a 2mm fine gravel.

Do you think it is worth the effort For just 1 inch of soil? What kinds of roots systems are you expecting? Large? Small? depends on plants. Also, once you remove the old substrate all kinds of things get released and you may want to rinse it out and not just reuse it or you risk poisoning your tank. I just went for that exercise a few weeks back. Everything seems normal when I filled The tank back up until a couple weeks later the ammonia went high up and some of my plants started to die.

 

I did something similar almost year it will take some time for your tank to recycle even with you adding your current substrate as a cap. I had set up a tank using a clear tote that you can buy at walmart and I drill holes in the lid so my fish had a place to stay while the tank cycled. Also when planting its always good to do it when the waterline is an inch or 2 above the cap so its not too much detritus getting into your water column. I would recommend at least housing your fish for 2 weeks or at least after a week of consistent ideal water parameters.

Do you think it is worth the effort For just 1 inch of soil? What kinds of roots systems are you expecting? Large? Small? depends on plants. Also, once you remove the old substrate all kinds of things get released and you may want to rinse it out and not just reuse it or you risk poisoning your tank. I just went for that exercise a few weeks back. Everything seems normal when I filled The tank back up until a couple weeks later the ammonia went high up and some of my plants started to die.

I appreciate both your responses, however this conversion happened 8 months ago. Everything went quite smooth, the water never clouded and water parameters remained consistent and acceptable throughout. Ammonia never spiked. I did keep the fish in a different tank for a few weeks to be safe. It was well worth the effort as the tank has been flourishing since with minimal algae.