Why I Don’t Use Dirt In My Fish Tanks…

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Once Upon a Time all of my aquariums used to be soil or dirted tanks but I haven’t set one up in like 7 years I’ve been seeing a ton of stuff on planted dirted tanks recently always like glorifying the pros of them and so I think today we’re going to talk a little bit about the cons because there definitely are some I have to go find some super old footage from when I used to mess around with dirted tanks because it’s been that long don’t get me wrong I love soil-based tanks I love dirted tanks they’re basically the whole reason why I’m here doing what I am right now that style of aquarium is what started all of this for me way back I don’t even know when like 2011 my experience with aquariums before then was basically just me having like a random B fish in my bedroom when I was like 16 but right before I got back to it you know this is several years later I was in college and I figured out on YouTube that you could put soil into an aquarium and grow live plants and that was just like mind blown this is crazy it was a super long long time ago now at this point obviously like more than 10 years but it was definitely a Dustin’s fish tank video that kind of showed me that you could do that I then jump to the forums and then like the rest is history so that’s why dirted tanks will always have a special place in my heart but at some point along the journey I kind of just realized that for what I was doing and what I was trying to achieve after I had learned so much stuff from them that they just weren’t really the thing that I wanted to be doing all the time and that’s when we slowly started moving into more of the active substrates so in here we have like a UNS Contra soil there’s a few different brands that makes these types of substrates and I think they do a really good job at growing plants and I don’t think soil really beats them something to also keep in mind and I never hear anybody talk about this is that these active substrates are technically a soil substrate so the way that they make these is that they originate as mud from a rice Patty they then take that mud process it you know kill fire it or do something to it they might add some things as well and then you’re left with these tiny little balls that are then your substrate so technically still soil versus you know like an organic potting mix which is going to be you know a lot of Pete Moss and all the other things that make up that soil the biggest Pro of using an active substrate is that you essentially get a soil with pretty similar performance without having to have a cap over the top of it that’s going to make it just that much easier to Aquascape that obviously depends on what type of Aquascape you’re making if you’re just doing flat with a couple rocks you know it’s not not a huge deal but if you’re doing more elaborate things then having this style can really help you out it’s obviously much less messy too one thing that soil definitely has going for it is just the pure surface area of it so you’re going to have a much higher Cc or cation exchange capacity if you want to get super nerdy compared to tanks that are just going to be using only sand or certainly only gravel they’re going to have less of that surface area basically you’re going to be more dependent on the m and the junk that collects down in that substrate over time for the plants to have food and then have access to the nutrients that they need not to mention the enhanced like microbiological activity that goes on in a soil-based tank and I don’t know if it’s going to be better in a tank that uses potting soil compared to an active substrate which we’ve already established is a type of soil a lot of the aquariums that I set up today just have only sand in them and no nutrient substrate no root tabs just plain sand I know kind of crazy but there’s more to it than just like the performance of it all and we’re going to talk about all of that in today’s video if you’re somebody that’s new to aquariums or you’ve been into aquariums for a long time and you just haven’t tried a soil tank I recommend that either of those type of people whichever one you are you try it you do it because it’s such a rewarding experience I can’t really describe like what it does to you I’m just going off of my own personal experience but when I went to the lengths to put the soil in the aquarium to get that involved to learn all that stuff it really just kind of like connect Ed me in a way to the aquarium that’s hard to describe it’s just like probably any other hobby where you dive into it so deep that you start to do things that are maybe a little unorthodox or a little bit more unique or more niche in it that just kind of like connects you more to it I guess is what I’m trying to say but yeah if you haven’t tried it you should just you should just do it you should just get a 10-gallon aquarium put some soil in it put some sand on top and go for it cuz it’s a lot of fun but there’s a lot of things with the soil aquarium that can be a little confusing especially if it’s a brand new thing so obviously at this point you know the Internet isn’t you know we’re not in 2011 anymore there’s a bajillion resources it’s all on video but I’ll give you my take on it here and maybe with a little bit more caveats than what you’re used to seeing cuz I think a lot of the content that I see nowadays is like only glorification of it and people like to skip out on some of the downsides of the whole process of having soil in your aquarium but that’s not to say that there aren’t a ton of Pros using soil as well so I mean obviously you’re putting a super nutrient dense layer down there any plant you put into there is going to be super happy it’s going to have everything that it needs I’ve seen a bunch of different like special formulas for soil over the years and it’s not that I don’t believe in those I’ve messed around with some different methods as far as like additives putting laterite clay down in the soil to increase the amount of iron I’ve also gone as far as to sprinkle in like a mixture of potassium chloride calcium and magnesium I think that’s something that I did in the video that I’m using clips from and all of those things sure in theory have a benefit it’s hard to say if they actually do you know it’s it’s tough to prove that those things actually help because you’re not really going to be comparing it to anything or if you do the comparison is hard to make because every aquarium is so different people like to talk about how much soil to use you know don’t use more than 3 in or you’re going to have potentially dangerous Anor robic conditions there’s all kinds of stuff like that all of which over the years of doing this and doing it to so many tanks I never really saw a downside from so I’ve done tanks where we’ve used like 4 in of soil never had any problems with hydrogen sulfide buildup I’ve gone down and poked holes in the substrate had big bubbles of methane hydrogen sulfide you know whatever bubble up out of the tank with fish in it no ill side effects on the fish whatsoever I’ve also done tanks where I’ve used very little amounts of soil like a qu of an inch and still had like crazy good growth out of the plants that I planted in it so my for those who are starting out doing a dirted tank for the first time I think don’t overthink it go with an organic potting soil even though you know I’ve done both I’ve done non-organic not had any issues looking back though I think I probably would just stay away from anything that isn’t an organic soil because of just the way it’s made you don’t want to have weird kind of like slow release ammonium chemical balls in your soil I just think I don’t know there could be something wrong with that it introduces too many variables basically that uh I don’t want to have to think or worry about whereas the organic stuff is typically like what do they use like I think like feather meal bone meal things that are more natural to supply those nutrients so I I would just stick in that realm because it’s kind of like the thing that everybody has always done and recommended and not had issues with and another thing to keep in mind is that even some of the substrates that are meant for aquariums have slow release nitrogen in them or or at least a type of nitrogen that is released in ammonia form uh example the Ada soil there is a you know a known period of where you’re going to have ammonia leeching into your soil but so you don’t want to add fish right away when you’re using that type of active substrate but that could be the same kind of thing with the nonorganic soil it’s just I honestly I don’t know for sure so I would stick clear of it unless you want to try a little experiment without fish but I mean all of that should get resolved eventually and probably relatively quickly with all the bacterial action that’s going on in the soil and of course you know the nitrifiers that are going to show up to handle all of that stuff so another Catch 22 I guess for the soil but use an organic soil something that doesn’t have a bunch of things not on label that could be in it that might be a thing or I’ve seen you know a lot of people get soil from their backyard from areas where they know there hasn’t been like pesticide sprayed or like abundant amounts of fertilizer put on it um I you know unless you really know your soil I would stray away from doing that it’s also less work you have to do if you’re just going to be using like a bag of organic soil that you get from home Depot and if you’re nervous about it that’s totally normal I’m sure I was probably really nervous the first time I did it um but my advice in that department is just use a little bit less soil than what you have been maybe told online or how much you think you should use because any amount of soil that you put down there is going to eventually get access by the plants that you put in it right I mean probably even right away if you you know don’t put too much of a cap on it so the rules that are kind of set in place aren’t I I don’t think they’re super important like you’re probably going to get the effect that you want I think you just want to make sure you put a good cap over the soil so probably at least an inch of sand above that that’s going to help some of the cons that we’re going to talk about in just a second I’m a big fan of pretty much always using sand especially when I’m doing a dirted tank because I feel like in the past if I’m remembering correctly the only times that I had like extended periods of leeching was when I used gravel and probably not enough gravel so go with sand do at least an inch all the way around around check it from spot to spot cuz sometimes you know if your tank is Big it can be tough to know if you actually have an inch of sand like in the middle and then the last piece of advice for the soil-based tank is to just be a little bit more patient give it a little bit more time before you introduce livestock this is going to give you time to really make sure the tank is cycled and you don’t have any kind of crazy leeching going on and it’s also going to give you a little bit more time to observe the plants that you put in there because they’re the ones that are going to show probably the first signs if there’s an imbalance are a weird problem that’s coming up because of the soil using soil as a nutrient substrate is also a really good way to save some money because we all know that these substrates these active ones that you can buy from a handful of different companies it doesn’t matter who you get it from they’re expensive and if you’re doing a big tank I mean you’re buying three four five bags of $4 $50 active substrate like that’s expensive and I totally get that that was one of the main reasons in the beginning why I used soil and then like cheap sand was because I couldn’t afford to do anything else also back then there wasn’t as many choices but cost was a big thing and soil was relatively cheap it still is you could do a big tank with a lot of soil if you wanted to it doesn’t cost you a ton of money it doesn’t cost you hundreds of dollars so that’s all great soil is an awesome tool from you know the learning experience that you’re going to get from it from the deep dive that you’re probably going to take into the hobby as a result of it at least for you know if you’re somebody like me but then there’s the question why haven’t I set up a tank with soil in like 7 years and it’s mostly because dirted tanks are dirty it’s not super uncommon for you to come out the next morning after you set up your dirted tank for the first time and see something that’s totally unrecognizable something that is completely orange or light brown that’s just a result of the soil leeching out stuff into the water I don’t care how well you cap that thing or you know like what the ratio of soil to cap or you know what type of cap you use I think pretty much every time I set up a soil tank except for maybe like one or two times I came out and had a super turbid aquarium that I could barely see into it’s not the end of the world though it’s just more work you have to do and so what you got to change the water on your aquarium that you just set up like big deal you do you know a 500% water change and then you probably won’t ever see that tinge again it’s just like a a thing that happens when you set up a tank like this another really big drawback for soil tanks and this is primarily the reason reason why I think I stopped using them all those years ago is because they are just such a pain in the butt to alter the Aquascape right like so imagine you set up a dirted tank you get your substrate all perfect you plant a bunch of plants you wait six months you have crazy growth of whatever like let’s say you put in dwarf sagge that’s a great example it spreads all over the tank you get to the point where you maybe you have a bunch of it in the front and it’s pressing up against the glass and does look very good you want to change it you want to go in there and pull it out well I mean you can right but as you can imagine you’re going to be pulling those plants out it’s impossible to not have just a complete mess on your hands it’s very difficult to get away clean and yes that is going to happen with pretty much any substrate even the active substrates or just sand because there’s so much mle and detrus and stuff down in there that you’re going to have big plumes of stuff um but with soil it’s just it’s a whole different game it’s like maintenance on you know times it by 100 you’re going to have to get in there with all your equipment turned off with a siphon trying to pull things out sucking out soil while you’re doing it so it doesn’t get crazy um you might even want to take like most of your fish or if you know if not all of them out of the tank because it’s going to get so crazy this all depends on how much you’re going to be altering the tank but um you know it’s it’s kind of annoying and then not to mention when you get to the point of tearing the tank down trying to sift out the dirt from the sand like if if you’re going to be reusing sand I had to do that pretty much every time when I started and got into this Hobby and I still even do that today because it seems weird like why am I going to throw out sand it never goes bad I want to try and reuse it recapture as much of it as I can um and having soil in there it just makes it an infinitely bigger headache somewhere along the line I also started to do more tanks that had less plants in the substrate and more plants sort of suspended in the water column like the Monte Carlo tree style I mean there are some plants down here there are are quite a few things in the substrate that surely could benefit from having more nutrients down there I just got to a point where you know I wanted to make changes to my aquarium I was so involved in kind of making little alterations to the Aquascape and every time I did that it was like some big event and it was annoying enough to you know put that over time I just decided like hey there’s got to be something else for me to use here and you know honestly looking back at all of those tanks it’s hard for me to say that the soil did much better at growing the plants than the active substrates or even a seasoned sand that has a bunch of fish poop and M and stuff down in it let’s take kind of a break and feed some fish though this will kind of also blend into one of the reasons why you might not want to do a soil-based tank I’ve been feeding a lot of these guys the uh I got I got my Japanese rice fish some Japanese food you know cuz why not so these koys down here they get a pinch of this we got to feed everybody but we want to prioritize our breeding rice fish right now I don’t always feed my fish the most legit fish food ever mostly the small fish because we’re out of the Nano and we don’t have a baby powdered like fry food yet it’s on the to-do list but you guys helped me out a ton so far this month with the buy two of the 2 oz bags and get two free so we’re starting to get a little bit lower on the community we still have a decent amount of the bottom feeder but that deal is still running through December so if you haven’t tried the food yet you know of course we have free samples but if you want to get basically double the food it also saves you a couple bucks like compared to if you were just to buy the the two 4 o bags and it’s really helping me getting ready for the new shipment the new packaging that was kind of like the whole idea behind it I just had too many of the 2 O bags still around wanted the new packaging to be cohesive and mostly match with everything so thank you so much if you got your bags of fish food let me know what you thought of them down below and you know link links everywhere if you want to take advantage of that deal it’s just it’s going to go through December of 2023 of right now I know I said in the creation of this little mini fish setup that this was as much as I was going to do but of course you know the the plans change guys like um more fish are breeding everybody’s really happy we need more tanks I’ve been needing to like get all of this organized but I already pretty much decided that we’re just going to have to redo this whole fish room I still have to like mud this and paint it and do all this stuff we got to move racks in here I don’t want to give too much away because I’m going to try and like you know create it it’ be its own thing but if you’ve watched this far along here’s the little spoiler we’re turning this room into like a proper fish room so I can have more tanks we can finally get everything aquascaped and then we can also have more racks because I’ve just like it it bit me I was trying to not get bit by it but it bit me but yeah hopefully that’s a thing that kind of starts in the middle of January that’s Loosely the idea this Tank’s Still rocking doing super super good no issues whatsoever this is the best tank ever this is the best tank I’ve ever set up I think that’s going to be next week’s video but but back to why you might not want to have a soil tank is because you might be setting up an aquarium that doesn’t really plan on having a lot of plants down in the substrate these tanks are a prime example of that like yeah we do have some plants in here but the main goal is not to grow a bunch of plants really really well like you know this is just an environment for these small fish to grow out in and then you know we’ll put some new baby fishing them and then we’ll do the same thing they’ll probably eventually go into some type of a tank or a pond where plants are the primary thing but it wouldn’t really make much sense to put soil in tanks like this even though there is a few plants because you got to remember that soil isn’t the only thing that can grow plants like look at how much junk is down here in the substrate you know creating layers that’s all plant food and yes you’re totally right that it might not be enough or it might not be like comprehensive enough to grow plants the best but it’s certainly not going to just be a situation where you put a plant in it it doesn’t have what it needs and it dies like some plants are going to be that way but most easy plants it’s not going to be an issue the longer that we let just these plain sand substrates season themselves get more poop in them collect more nutrients over time charge themselves up then the more benefits it’s going to have to whatever is planted in them so um that’s kind of like the long game that you can play like it’s certainly not going to be something that you achieve in a month whereas with soil or an active substrate or something that you put a bunch of root tabs into whatever that might be um you know you’re not going to get the result right away like you would with that but I mean maybe I’m crazy though I I certainly could be so don’t take my word for it that’s just my two cents on the whole thing but certainly if you’re not going to be planning on planting a bunch of plants down in your substrate then maybe soil just isn’t something that you really want to focus on but again if you really want to try it you should just you should try it you should go for it I think it’s a really good thing to do you’re not going to have some kind of crazy bad side effect from not having very many plants in it I’ve done that too over the years nothing bad ever happened there wasn’t like a crazy build up of hydrogen sulfide or methane gas that then like killed fish I just think that you know that’s something that’s pretty uncommon like it might not be impossible but I don’t think it’s something that should keep you up at night and certainly if you’re substrate is bubbling some stuff up most of that gas is leaving they’re leaving in big bubbles um I don’t think it’s a situation like CO2 where it mixes into the water um in the same way because again those tend to be big bubbles of methane SL hydrogen sulfide gas that come up and then they’re just lost to the atmosphere so I wouldn’t let it keep you up at night you know do the thing with the Chopstick go through with the fork whatever pop some bubbles let them up and then over time that should kind of like slowly stop happening with that being said I definitely think there are situations that could uh be an issue so if we for example in this Pond had a few inches of dirt we had a cap on it and then we set that up let that kind of you know let the microbiology happen for a few weeks and then we go in and then we decide to put our plants in that’s a situation where you could already have a buildup of gases you plant some plant roots and then since those processes are already taking place then your plants could die and so if you’re going to be setting up a soil tank I recommend planting it pretty much right away so that you can get that exchange of the gases between plant roots between bacteria happening right away so that you don’t kill a bunch of plants I think on paper soil should be probably the best substrate for growing plants but again that depends on a lot of other things right is your lighting where it needs to be for those specific plants like it’s a hard thing to do unless you did a side by-side comparison where you had the same plants the same everything the same but you had soil and then in one you had sand and like I know that if I did that comparison the tank that had the soil would grow the plants better but how much better that’s the big thing right like you might be able to see a difference and it might be like oh that tank looks way better the one with the soil but like is it is that worth the extra headaches that kind of go with it I don’t know that’s not for me to decide that’s for you to decide I will say that doing a soil tank is a super rewarding process and if it’s something that you want to do you should definitely do it because it can unlock a lot of doors in your mind it get you thinking about a lot of other things and it can you know teach you a lot more about the just the microbiology and the just everything else about our aquariums even the physics of our aquariums like it all kind of glues together and it’s really cool and if that’s the direction you want to take with this hobby then you should do it you should be planning the setup of your planet tank right now this video was not supposed to be like the deterrent for you not to do it just wanted to throw out my kind of like my caveats to the the whole thing is what I’ve experienced over the years from doing it so many times and just wanted to share that with you but I mean all this negative talk about soil tanks is kind of making me want to set one up and when I was driving back from getting a haircut today I was like okay the new fish room we have to do a dirted tank again it’s been so long I think I just needed in my life and certainly like making this video talking about it for like 30 minutes or however long this thing is um I think we have to do one and so I’m thinking about ideas about how exactly I want to do it what plants I want to use and so I think eventually maybe like in a month two months from I don’t know how long it’s going to be I don’t want to make any promises but we’re going to do a dirted tank once again so be on the lookout for that we’ll give it like a whole tutorial I’ll show you exactly how I do it it’s going to be a lot of like kind of relearning a few things cuz it’s been a while but that should be fun that’s what this Hobby’s all about man full circle we’re coming back baby