Dirt + White Sand Substrate, and High Tannins

[AleNanoTank]

I wonder what people's experiences, with using soil under a substrate (or "cap") of white sand, and the development of very brown water, are.

I have been setting up a small, 5.5-gallon tank, which will be for shrimp only. The pool filter sand I used is/was beautiful. However, because I used a dirt substrate, under the sand, currently, the water is VERY brown. Also, because the substrate is white, obviously, the color of the water is way more noticeable.

I really want the dirt substrate, as I have had very good experiences with it in my 23-gallon tank, where the dirt, however, is capped with black sand. The plants really do much better thanks to the soil.

I really don't mind some tannins in the water, and I understand that those are good for the fish (I wonder whether they also help shrimp, by the way). Yet, with the smaller tank, either the tannins are way more, or the white sand makes the effect become way more noticeable, or both.

I am going to do a water change, to get rid of some of that water, and see how things go. Also, in the near future, WAY MORE PLANTS will be in there.

Here's a question: does carbon clear the water from the tannins, too, or only from cloudiness due to other elements? I was hoping to use ONLY the sponge at the biological pack (indeed, two of such packs), as I do in my bigger tank, to keep all the nutrients in the water. Yet, this tank, really, is too brown/red. (It is actually worse than what the attached picture shows.)


Thanks!

 

[Coradee]

Giving this a bump up for you hope you get some responses today

 

[Anthony1976]

I wonder what people's experiences, with using soil under a substrate (or "cap") of white sand, and the development of very brown water, are.

I have been setting up a small, 5.5-gallon tank, which will be for shrimp only. The pool filter sand I used is/was beautiful. However, because I used a dirt substrate, under the sand, currently, the water is VERY brown. Also, because the substrate is white, obviously, the color of the water is way more noticeable.

I really want the dirt substrate, as I have had very good experiences with it in my 23-gallon tank, where the dirt, however, is capped with black sand. The plants really do much better thanks to the soil.

I really don't mind some tannins in the water, and I understand that those are good for the fish (I wonder whether they also help shrimp, by the way). Yet, with the smaller tank, either the tannins are way more, or the white sand makes the effect become way more noticeable, or both.

I am going to do a water change, to get rid of some of that water, and see how things go. Also, in the near future, WAY MORE PLANTS will be in there.

Here's a question: does carbon clear the water from the tannins, too, or only from cloudiness due to other elements? I was hoping to use ONLY the sponge at the biological pack (indeed, two of such packs), as I do in my bigger tank, to keep all the nutrients in the water. Yet, this tank, really, is too brown/red. (It is actually worse than what the attached picture shows.)


Thanks!

I see no reason why you couldn’t use activated carbon to reduce the tannins it will take a couple of weeks though before you see a difference and your plants won’t suffer as they are getting their nutrients from the dirt. What I would suggest though is getting a load more plants in there or you will have problems with algae as you need to plant heavily from the start to use up the nutrients.

 

[AleNanoTank]

Yes, I really need to buy and plant more plants. I was getting a list ready, from which to select my "finalists," and then maybe get some advice from the forum, and finally order them. Then, my computer died. I hope it will be resurrected tomorrow.

I'm probably going for dense layers of not too many different species, as aquariums with fewer species may look better and, in my larger tank, I've experienced some species - I suspect - prevailing over others.