Dirt For Substrate

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Nyghtfire

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2010
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Perth, Australia
Basically been researching it, and i want to do a planted tank, with black background dark soil, bring plants, and most importantly, bright fish :)

Pro's and con's of the good old dirt. or any advice in setting up the tank more then welcome :D
 
what do you mean just plain dirt? doesnt dirt and water make mud? never tried it in a tank, but i was a kid once :)
 
lols, kinda, will be mixed with sand.
basically, i want black substrate for the tank so i can get good colour contrasts and all.
but my problem is...
i can't find, black gravel, black sand or anything like that in my area, i can get rainbow gravel, but not black -_-
i haven't even seen it, but i've seen some beautiful pictures of tanks with that colour.
i just figured dirt/soil good fr plants right :)
 
I had a beautifully planted tank that I used Miracle Grow potting soil in. You have to put gravel on top of it. It will still cloud the water for awhile(couple of weeks,water changes help speed up the leaching and clear the water), but the plants will love it. With the gravel on top,it will cap the soil,and works great. If you don't,you will have a tank full of muddy water.
 
You can buy black sand. There are a lot of options for a planted tank substrate that are black. Eco Complete is black. Try searching on planted tank substrate. You will probably have to order it online unless you have a nice LFS near you. Try looking for some info on MTS (mineralized top soil). Plantedtank.net has a lot of info on it.
 
Its done but its not an easy matter.Youll have better luck starting out with mineralized topsoil,mixed with some clay.
 
I think I can help you. You will have to order black flourite. Search it on google. It is made specifically for planted tanks. And its black. I have it in my 12 gal planted.
 
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