Potting soil under gravel for new planted tank

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Sean W.

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Aug 8, 2013
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Hey guys,

I am going to to be starting a new 10 gallon planted tank for a few ( 4 or 5 ) dwarf puffer fish, im going to want it to be heavily planted with a some drift wood. I was wanting to put some potting soil under the gravel for the plants, but i have a few questions:

1. With soil under the gravel, how will i vacuum the substrate? or do you not vacuum a planted tank ever? Or just parts of the tank or what?
2. Is there a specific kind of soil i need to use? THIS is the soil i have just laying around, could i use it?
3. Does the potting soil mess with any of the water parameters?

thanks for any help!
 

goneRogue

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Aug 2, 2013
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http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-mineralized-soil-substrate-aaron-talbot.html

http://www.barrreport.com/showthrea...asting-for-nutrient-enriched-sediments-how-to

Personally I'd go with the earthworm castings as it is much less time consuming, but either method will work. The key is oxidizing the soil before adding it to your tank to avoid ammonia and a subsequent algae bloom. The soil/earthworm castings you use is very important. More details can be found in those two links. As for vacuuming, you place a "cap" of 1-2 inches on top of the soil layer and only vacuum that.
 

Sean W.

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Aug 8, 2013
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hmm...

that looks like a lot of work.. :/

I was thinking just rinse the potting soil, put like a 1" layer of that in the bottom and cover it with my gravel? Apparently its not that simple?
 

jpappy789

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Feb 18, 2007
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1. As mentioned you have to cap soil substrates since they are light and float.
2. Make sure it's organic and low in fertilizers (should have NPK #'s on it)
3. You can sometimes get a tannin effect from the organics, but nothing very drastic or long term.

I prefer potting mixes compared to MTS or anything else because you can pretty much dump, cap, and go. I've never noticed an ammonia spike from the potting soil I use (MGOCPM), not to the effect people see with Aquasoil.
 

goneRogue

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I haven't tried it without oxidizing. Boiling the earthworm castings for 15 mins is easy. If you don't have any fish then you don't risk much with an ammonia spike. Having existing biological filtration would also help a lot.
 
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