First Dirted Tank Troubles

Hello all,

im trying my hand at my first dirted tank and it isn’t going well. It’s a ten gallon, i used Harvest Organics natural and organic raised bed mix soil as my base, capped with sand bought from Lowes and river rock, put in plants and a heater/filter… i also use tap water treated with seachem prime.

another note is i had an idea of attaching a clear acrylic container on the inside to build an island near the surface for the betta who will eventually inhabit the tank, in doing so i used quite a bit of the green cap gorilla glue (which is aquarium safe but maybe i used too much?)

the tank with plants in it has been set up for a week and ammonia kept reading 0. I did some research and some said that they didn’t experience an ammonia bloom so i thought i may have to create one myself. I added some tetra safe start plus to the tank and put 4 neocaridina shrimp and a nerite snail in there.

all 4 shrimp died within a few hours and the nerite snail was exploring/munching on the glass… but now he is sitting in the bottom corner of the tank motionless.

im thinking maybe this soil isn’t aquarium friendly? But idk… it has super basic ingredients, i don’t know what else could have gone wrong.

thank you all in advance for any advice on what may be wrong.

Hello all,

im trying my hand at my first dirted tank and it isn’t going well. It’s a ten gallon, i used Harvest Organics natural and organic raised bed mix soil as my base, capped with sand bought from Lowes and river rock, put in plants and a heater/filter… i also use tap water treated with seachem prime.

another note is i had an idea of attaching a clear acrylic container on the inside to build an island near the surface for the betta who will eventually inhabit the tank, in doing so i used quite a bit of the green cap gorilla glue (which is aquarium safe but maybe i used too much?)

the tank with plants in it has been set up for a week and ammonia kept reading 0. I did some research and some said that they didn’t experience an ammonia bloom so i thought i may have to create one myself. I added some tetra safe start plus to the tank and put 4 neocaridina shrimp and a nerite snail in there.

all 4 shrimp died within a few hours and the nerite snail was exploring/munching on the glass… but now he is sitting in the bottom corner of the tank motionless.

im thinking maybe this soil isn’t aquarium friendly? But idk… it has super basic ingredients, i don’t know what else could have gone wrong.

thank you all in advance for any advice on what may be wrong.

Oh and i forgot to mention that i strained the soil to take out all the larger wood chips, in a thread on my aquarium club they said these larger wood chips could cause issues

 

Where did you buy the shrimps from? Are you sure they are neocaridina?

 

Where did you buy the shrimps from? Are you sure they are neocaridina?

I bought the shrimp from Petco, my local Petco is a good one because it has some solid employees, but yeah i guess im not 100% positive they are neocaridina.

the nerite is still alive and moving around, so that gives me hope that it was more the shrimp than my setup… but how would i even tell if the water is toxic beyond ammonia/nitrite/nitrate?
Looked further into it and they actually seem to be crystal res shrimp (caridina), or at least that’s what they look the most like

 

I bought the shrimp from Petco, my local Petco is a good one because it has some solid employees, but yeah i guess im not 100% positive they are neocaridina.

the nerite is still alive and moving around, so that gives me hope that it was more the shrimp than my setup… but how would i even tell if the water is toxic beyond ammonia/nitrite/nitrate?
Looked further into it and they actually seem to be crystal res shrimp (caridina), or at least that’s what they look the most like

Yeah crystal reds need specific parameters so they likely didnt do too well. I don't think you need worry about your water with just 1 snail. If you want the cycle going then you have to add an ammonia source, either a small bit of fish food every few days or add bottled ammonia directly.

Also, considering how thin the sand cap is, I would avoid fish that can disturb the substrate eg cories, plecos, loaches etc

 

No worries there, it’s for my betta, i just wanted some help keeping the algae at bay. Ok then, ill let the tank settle for a while longer and then look for some true neocaridina shrimp. Thank you for your help!