Dirt...and A Sand Cap? Will It Work?

I have been thinking about my swords...they have HUGE roots, but in the pool filter sand, the roots keep getting exposed when I clean, and I have to re-bury them. I'm sure this will only become worse as they grow.

I was thinking of putting in dirt, and then capping it with my pool filter sand..will this work? What kind of dirt is best? I can get Natural topsoil, etc at my grocery store...but they don't carry the Miracle grow Organic that I've seen used so often. Should I make the hop over to a garden center?

Then, the other question is Ammonia..will it leach ammonia? I tried an experimental dirt plant tank once, using outside dirt, and it smelled of urine two or three days later.I ended up dumping it outside lol. I guess something had peed there before I dug.....

Will I have to worry about Aenerobic pockets the way I do with sand?

 

A thread that may help:
Mineralize the soil:
How-To: Mineralized Soil Substrate, by Aaron Talbot - Library - Aquatic Plant Central

Other threads:

 

Thanks, I'll give them a read

 

It is a lot easier, (and expensive) to use ADA Aquasoil.

 

Mineralization is more than I can get into just now...by the time I purchased everything I needed, I may as well just pay for planting substrate

I guess I had this idea that I could just put in the soil, cap it, and do water changes until things balanced out lol

 

SeaChem Fluorite is good. Floramax and Ecocomplete are good. If you want dirt, look into ADA Aquasoil:...available at Aqua Forest Aquarium.

 

Mainly I want something that I can cap with my sand, so that the swords stay down, and gain nutrients and my Betta is happy too. I thought about a planting medium in the back of the tank and sand pushed over it, I think it was by fluval? $25/bag and it's smooth dark "pebbles "


My only concern there was the possibility of "sandstrate " lol

Here's the tank I'm working with


It's the swords that need feeding with a deeper substrate base, and nutrients

 

Fluval Stratum

 

That's the one