Hi,
Not sure if I can be of help to you, but I have a dirt planted tank and although I have read tons of information to guide me I have had it fail on me 2x now, but I am learning from it. Despite my failures I am sold on dirt, the plants go nuts. I have followed others advise of success and although they have succeeded with their methods, I ran into some problems
1x 1-2" miracle grow potting soil capped with an 1" sand - looked great never had soil coming up because I used sunshading screen to retain soil. 2 months later despite the beauty i found my plants with rotting roots that smelled like a sewer, I even had live black worms added to help aerate soil
Round 2 - mineralized the miracle gro mix for 2 weeks and added a "MUCH" thinner sand cap less than 1/2 inch after reading about sand caps being too compact for soil substrate, added worms again and had better results with my plants that were big rooters. But like you I constantly had dirt coming up and loose collapses like you speak of, so my cap wasn't big enough. I tried to wait it out thinking it would settle and the plants would take over but this did not happen because the extra nutrients being released from the soil was such a mess that there was a constant cloud and my plants suffered...when i dug up the tank, despite my mineralization the spots where the roots didn't reach were very sulfuric still. I had my heart set on sand but after reading so much and different opinions I finally choose something different.
3x seems to be the charm - gravel over dirted areas and areas dedicated completely to sand. I used cardboard barriers when. I set it up to keep everything clean and then slowly removed after. The dirt is never over 1" deep and never is the gravel cap over 1" it seems to allow enough access so I am not getting anaerobic areas but the gravel is heavy enough to keep my dirt contained. I am super happy with results. I did not mineralize dirt this time and all seems well. But of course made my soup/mud mix before setting up and capping
Sorry for the long story but it sounds like you are going through what my tank did in the 2nd try. Picture was when it was first set up so the plants aren't huge yet
Not sure if I can be of help to you, but I have a dirt planted tank and although I have read tons of information to guide me I have had it fail on me 2x now, but I am learning from it. Despite my failures I am sold on dirt, the plants go nuts. I have followed others advise of success and although they have succeeded with their methods, I ran into some problems
1x 1-2" miracle grow potting soil capped with an 1" sand - looked great never had soil coming up because I used sunshading screen to retain soil. 2 months later despite the beauty i found my plants with rotting roots that smelled like a sewer, I even had live black worms added to help aerate soil
Round 2 - mineralized the miracle gro mix for 2 weeks and added a "MUCH" thinner sand cap less than 1/2 inch after reading about sand caps being too compact for soil substrate, added worms again and had better results with my plants that were big rooters. But like you I constantly had dirt coming up and loose collapses like you speak of, so my cap wasn't big enough. I tried to wait it out thinking it would settle and the plants would take over but this did not happen because the extra nutrients being released from the soil was such a mess that there was a constant cloud and my plants suffered...when i dug up the tank, despite my mineralization the spots where the roots didn't reach were very sulfuric still. I had my heart set on sand but after reading so much and different opinions I finally choose something different.
3x seems to be the charm - gravel over dirted areas and areas dedicated completely to sand. I used cardboard barriers when. I set it up to keep everything clean and then slowly removed after. The dirt is never over 1" deep and never is the gravel cap over 1" it seems to allow enough access so I am not getting anaerobic areas but the gravel is heavy enough to keep my dirt contained. I am super happy with results. I did not mineralize dirt this time and all seems well. But of course made my soup/mud mix before setting up and capping
Sorry for the long story but it sounds like you are going through what my tank did in the 2nd try. Picture was when it was first set up so the plants aren't huge yet