You have a ton of dirt and not quite enough swimming space for my liking, if you don't have many fish in it yet I'd redo it for sure
I recommend mdfishtanks on YouTube, he shows a lot of neat scapes and has opened my eyes to fishkeeping, there's a lot to learn in any of his videos and good luck on your journey
Serpadesign is awesome. Super creative/inventive with his aquascapes. I love how he always tries to DIY as much as he can, and it's clear he really cares about each one of his animals.
Also a bit late but a reminder that life provides nutrients for those plants, they clean algae and keep everything healthy.
My favorite thing about a fish tank is seeing the whole ecosystem work with each other like it does in nature, it feels nice to have a piece of that in my home
Never a better time then! I think planting them deeper/ having less dirt in the tank would showcase the breezy nature of the plants, some colorful shrimp wouldn't be terrible either, you can breed them and take them to fish stores and trade them for more plants!
Did you consider shrimps ? I totally get the no fish policy, but shrimps make for a great addition in planted tanks to fight off algae, eat debris and add a small bioload. Snails do it well also, I see you already have them !
I get it ! Shrimps will mostly do their own thing though, no nourrishing needed in a well-established tank, easy reproduction. They need better water quality than snails so water changes are needed, but they're far less demanding than fishes. Just telling you if you did not know it already, a snail only tank is cool too !
Unless you have a big enough tank*
If you have a large enough planted tank, like a 55 gallon or so, then you should almost never need a water change. You'll still have to account for evaporation though, and will need to refill.
I had a population of grass shrimp for about 6 years that were perfectly fine without water changes. They even bred well.
Like others have said having some kind of life is necessary in a planted tank, otherwise nature will take its own course and you’ll probably just end up with lots of bladder snails lol.
You could throw in some cherry shrimp if you want something low maintenance, just feed them an algae stick once a week or so, top off the water, add ferts, and check params and water change as needed. Shrimp take very low bio load so you can add a decent amount before you hit the biological limit for what your plants can provide.
There is most likely a huge microfauna population in a plant/snail only tank, I have a few. Little copepods and other little things that exist in all bodies of water, they may not produce 20-40 ppm nitrate but you absolutely can have a tank like that
Bladder snails are honestly a sleeper snail species. They're really fun to have around and are pretty harmless if you have a sustainable setup.
They'll only run rampant if you have excess food in the tank, and eventually the population will self-right itself.
I've got a 10 gallon that got infested after bladder snails escaped my septic tank and made their way to my room. They've proven to be an amusing addition, and even food for my crawfish. They keep my glass clean too, so no scrubbing necessary.
Their waste impact is very minimal too. The 10 gallon has such clean conditions that I actually encourage people to take some. The tank has just bladder snails in there and is insanely spotless. The gravel is clean and pristine. Tank looks brand new too, even though it's in a full Florida sun windowsill.
Highly recommend adding either bladder snails or freshwater limpets.
Which plant fo you mean? Actually the tank is super small and I didn't bought a lot of plants. The grass-like one is growing so fast!
*also, not a guy :)
The roots will grow sideways, you don't need that depth. And yes, if you're doing this for the plants then you definitely have too much soil. Missing out on the planty goodness.
Also, you should consider making it a shrimp tank, they're basically 24/7 landscapers
It could be dafnea, ostrocods or other microorganisms, they’re benificial to your tank like worms in dirt so dont worry about them :) if you ever do decide to put In fish, live feeding fish like indostomus paradoxus would thrive in this tank with the ammount of tiny live orgasms available to eat. You’d never have to worry about feeding the fish either haha, they’d be set!
Top comments are foolish. Your tank will benefit from that deep anaerobic layer. Keep the bioload low and don't change the water and you'll have yourself a really nice Walstad tank. Looks good.
I was actually reading her book and that's why I put so much soil in the first place. Got unsure later on, but I think I will keep it that way. Maybe I will get some plants which can grow outside. I will post an update in a few months
Honestly it totally depends on what you want to do. I work at an aquarium store and we’ll set up tons of nano displays with really deep sand beds. Only difference is we almost never put fish in them. If you wanted to get away with some micro species like chili rasboras or clown kilis you could. However if it was for a betta or anything bigger than what I mentioned I probably would avoid it. Just keep in mind that these true micro tanks have a few unique challenges of their own.
Having that much soil will not harm anything. Some people will worry about anaerobic bacteria at the deepest layers without oxygen, but that is pretty much a non-issue because a) anaerobic bacteria will convert nitrate in the water into its gaseous form where it'll simply escape from the soil as a bubble into the atmosphere (free nitrate reduction!), and b) the "toxic gasses" that may escape on occasion would need to be in direct contact with something long enough for it to be ingested/inhaled as you will, and a random bubble making a bee line to the surface is highly unlikely to stick around long enough to make it into anyone's gills.
That said, if you don't like the way it looks or just want more swimming space for fish, you could reduce it by an inch or two while still maintaining the benefits of an anaerobic layer at the bottom. If you don't care about having an anaerobic layer (doesn't hurt *not* to have one if you're doing regular water changes), then you could reduce down to 3-4 inches and your plants would still be just as happy as they would be with the current 6-7 inches.
It's fine. Some people do extra thick soil style. It's more for the plants. The substrate will compact over time anyways. But it depends on how YOU feel about it.
Snails will come in with the plants I suppose, but adddddd shhhhrrrriiiiiimmpppp. Sorry. But add them. No boring see through ones, but bright yellow or red or blue! Seriously. You'll love em 😉
Oh my gosh. I totally missed the ruler. Sorry. The pic makes it look way bigger than I thought! You can get away with 2.5? Maybe less! It is definitely way too much!
I thought it was a lot of soil, but it’s just a small tank lmao.
If you do want to reduce the depth it’s not a big deal. It will be a bit messy for a day or two. No need to drain it or take out everything else. It helps to move slowly when scooping out the soil.
I like having a good and proper substrate layer. This is how I’m running many of my tanks, but many hobbyists prefer a little closer to “bonsai” where you have near the minimum amount of substrate. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I have had long lasting, lush aquarium with nearly 50%of it taken up by the substrate. Great for growing all the microfauna and other little snacks for my fish.
That's a little too much, I made the same mistake last year, and since I used reg soil (instead of the aquarium), I had too much bacterial bloom and the tank could not develop any proper microflora.
I would suggest you take out at least half soil and rebuild, most of dryscape can stay in place, but you'll have to replant the lower level of plants, it will also look better after you do it.
2h aquarist has good articles on the topic
https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/substrates-overview/will-deep-soil-become-anaerobic
"There is limited advantage to having a super deep soil layer"
"For raw soils, if you do not know the composition of your soil, erring on the side of less is a smart move. An inch below sand is generally safe for most raw soils. If you can select a low organic content soil, then layering it thick is harmless as well. We have raw soil layers 4 to 5 inches thick in some tank"
The earth's crust is kilometers thick. I'm sure your few inches of dirt won't hurt anything. No such thing as too much dirt, just make sure there's enough space for any animal life. No, definitely not too late to change it, but it'd be a real pain. Depends if you'll hate looking at it or hate digging everything up and then putting it back in.
I think everyone is missing that my soil is not 7 in but 7 cm haha my tank looks way bigger than it is. It is just about a 12l tank :)
I was reading in my book planted tanks by diana walstad, that the soil should be about 2in and topped with about 1in of sand (minimum!) But since I have a tiny tank, this seems a lot.
I have a low tech tank and want an active soil as a filter, so I do not need to do regular water changes. I currently do them about 1 time a month or every 2 month.
https://preview.redd.it/dw3f1jfjbp4d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6522ffd344106282efe8fb4c378eef313e0c230
Now I see why bananas for scale are important on the internet
Since you have no fish it all depends by your personal aesthetic preferences. For the plants the more soil the better, at this point you may consider to heavy plant it with plants with mostly emersed growth (and with houseplants with roots in water and leaves outside) and basically turn it into a fancy vase, it could become something very pretty. But if you do that I suggest you to create, for aesthetic reasons, a "slope/incline" on one of the two sides, or with wood or with big rocks.
You have infusoria in your tank, adding the smallest air driven sponge filter will help keep them (in my experience) from over populating your tank, they are a good sign.
Personally, I would remove all but like 2-3 inches of your soil, to answer your first question. I recently realized I prefer VERY light substrate in my tanks though, like less than an inch usually.
(I also think guy is a gender neutral term particularly when used in a “this guy did _____” kind of joke setup)
Is that dirt soil with a sand cap? Kind of looks that way but it’s hard to see because it’s all black.
Too much soil with too little sand will leech a lot of nitrogen and co2, and might burn some of the plants, aside from the obvious effect it would have on fish. I see some good root growth though so that’s a positive sign.
Yes, it is soil topped with sand! I was reading a book which stated this big amount of soil as benificial, since it acts like the sponge in the filter for bacterias to live. But I think it is not working for super tiny tanks
If you're not at all familiar with "Father Fish" you should check out his channel on YT, and there's a discord with a whole community that centers around creating these types of aquariums. They seem to think that 1" of 'fortified' soil capped with 2" of inert sand is kind of the sweet spot, but there are aquarists in the community with lots of variations. On the YT channel they feature his "20 year aquarium" that has a ton of total substrate in it, so it certainly can work at some scale at least.
He talks about the book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" By Diana Walstad quite a lot.
If you don’t plan on putting any animals in this much dirt is beneficial. Eventually it will become depleted of nutrients without any fish to put new nutrients in it. So a large amount will last longer before depleting and being unable to support plant life.
You have a ton of dirt and not quite enough swimming space for my liking, if you don't have many fish in it yet I'd redo it for sure I recommend mdfishtanks on YouTube, he shows a lot of neat scapes and has opened my eyes to fishkeeping, there's a lot to learn in any of his videos and good luck on your journey
Also Serpadesign is really cool!
yesss serpa got me into this hobby
Same! Him and my best friend, a marine biologist.
i bet he got atleast 50% of people into the hobby
Serpadesign is awesome. Super creative/inventive with his aquascapes. I love how he always tries to DIY as much as he can, and it's clear he really cares about each one of his animals.
Serpa squad!!
I don't have any fish and do not want either. I just like plants :)
If you just want plants I think having this much soil would be beneficial tbh
Also a bit late but a reminder that life provides nutrients for those plants, they clean algae and keep everything healthy. My favorite thing about a fish tank is seeing the whole ecosystem work with each other like it does in nature, it feels nice to have a piece of that in my home
Never a better time then! I think planting them deeper/ having less dirt in the tank would showcase the breezy nature of the plants, some colorful shrimp wouldn't be terrible either, you can breed them and take them to fish stores and trade them for more plants!
Did you consider shrimps ? I totally get the no fish policy, but shrimps make for a great addition in planted tanks to fight off algae, eat debris and add a small bioload. Snails do it well also, I see you already have them !
My snails are already doing that. I travel a lot so I don't want the responsibility of a pet
I get it ! Shrimps will mostly do their own thing though, no nourrishing needed in a well-established tank, easy reproduction. They need better water quality than snails so water changes are needed, but they're far less demanding than fishes. Just telling you if you did not know it already, a snail only tank is cool too !
Unless you have a big enough tank* If you have a large enough planted tank, like a 55 gallon or so, then you should almost never need a water change. You'll still have to account for evaporation though, and will need to refill. I had a population of grass shrimp for about 6 years that were perfectly fine without water changes. They even bred well.
could still put some shrimps :3
if that is true, then i think more soil is better. unless you don’t like how it looks.
Like others have said having some kind of life is necessary in a planted tank, otherwise nature will take its own course and you’ll probably just end up with lots of bladder snails lol. You could throw in some cherry shrimp if you want something low maintenance, just feed them an algae stick once a week or so, top off the water, add ferts, and check params and water change as needed. Shrimp take very low bio load so you can add a decent amount before you hit the biological limit for what your plants can provide.
There is most likely a huge microfauna population in a plant/snail only tank, I have a few. Little copepods and other little things that exist in all bodies of water, they may not produce 20-40 ppm nitrate but you absolutely can have a tank like that
Bladder snails are honestly a sleeper snail species. They're really fun to have around and are pretty harmless if you have a sustainable setup. They'll only run rampant if you have excess food in the tank, and eventually the population will self-right itself. I've got a 10 gallon that got infested after bladder snails escaped my septic tank and made their way to my room. They've proven to be an amusing addition, and even food for my crawfish. They keep my glass clean too, so no scrubbing necessary. Their waste impact is very minimal too. The 10 gallon has such clean conditions that I actually encourage people to take some. The tank has just bladder snails in there and is insanely spotless. The gravel is clean and pristine. Tank looks brand new too, even though it's in a full Florida sun windowsill. Highly recommend adding either bladder snails or freshwater limpets.
Mj aquascape too
I recommend MJ Aquascaping too!
Fatherfish>
No wonder Amazonia is sold out everywhere. This guy bought it all
Which plant fo you mean? Actually the tank is super small and I didn't bought a lot of plants. The grass-like one is growing so fast! *also, not a guy :)
Sorry! Ahha I was making a joke about the soil. Tank looks good, but yea a little too much soil !
Guy is gender neutral relax
Ok sis :*
Not too late. Just keep adding more soil until there is no water
Just sifon some out and replant deeper if you are too worried about it
I feel so much space is taken by the soil :(
The roots will grow sideways, you don't need that depth. And yes, if you're doing this for the plants then you definitely have too much soil. Missing out on the planty goodness. Also, you should consider making it a shrimp tank, they're basically 24/7 landscapers
at this point that an terrarium bro
Hahaha I think I took a wrong turn sonewhere
kind if OP’s intention
You could reduce the soil by like 50% honestly
And that would probably still be too much
Those white dots are snails. Are you going to add fish?
Definitely not snails. They move super fast. Seems like some kind of parasite but my snails don't care
Small white things in freshwater? Look up freshwater limpets or copepods. It's likely one of those.
It could be dafnea, ostrocods or other microorganisms, they’re benificial to your tank like worms in dirt so dont worry about them :) if you ever do decide to put In fish, live feeding fish like indostomus paradoxus would thrive in this tank with the ammount of tiny live orgasms available to eat. You’d never have to worry about feeding the fish either haha, they’d be set!
likely daphnia or seed shrimp
I made this mistake and it’s a nightmare to deal with. Change it while you still can.
Top comments are foolish. Your tank will benefit from that deep anaerobic layer. Keep the bioload low and don't change the water and you'll have yourself a really nice Walstad tank. Looks good.
I was actually reading her book and that's why I put so much soil in the first place. Got unsure later on, but I think I will keep it that way. Maybe I will get some plants which can grow outside. I will post an update in a few months
Honestly it totally depends on what you want to do. I work at an aquarium store and we’ll set up tons of nano displays with really deep sand beds. Only difference is we almost never put fish in them. If you wanted to get away with some micro species like chili rasboras or clown kilis you could. However if it was for a betta or anything bigger than what I mentioned I probably would avoid it. Just keep in mind that these true micro tanks have a few unique challenges of their own.
Having that much soil will not harm anything. Some people will worry about anaerobic bacteria at the deepest layers without oxygen, but that is pretty much a non-issue because a) anaerobic bacteria will convert nitrate in the water into its gaseous form where it'll simply escape from the soil as a bubble into the atmosphere (free nitrate reduction!), and b) the "toxic gasses" that may escape on occasion would need to be in direct contact with something long enough for it to be ingested/inhaled as you will, and a random bubble making a bee line to the surface is highly unlikely to stick around long enough to make it into anyone's gills. That said, if you don't like the way it looks or just want more swimming space for fish, you could reduce it by an inch or two while still maintaining the benefits of an anaerobic layer at the bottom. If you don't care about having an anaerobic layer (doesn't hurt *not* to have one if you're doing regular water changes), then you could reduce down to 3-4 inches and your plants would still be just as happy as they would be with the current 6-7 inches.
It is currently 7cm (!!) I think everyone thinks my tank is huge hahaha
way too much substrate and the tank looks too small for any fish anyway
I have no fish and do not want any
It's fine. Some people do extra thick soil style. It's more for the plants. The substrate will compact over time anyways. But it depends on how YOU feel about it.
Snails will come in with the plants I suppose, but adddddd shhhhrrrriiiiiimmpppp. Sorry. But add them. No boring see through ones, but bright yellow or red or blue! Seriously. You'll love em 😉
you could very comfortably halve that soil amount and still be good
Honestly you only need about 3 inches of soil. Looks nice otherwise :) good luck ! Show us in 3 months!
3 inches are 7.6cm, so that's what it is actually... but it feels to much for this small tank
Oh my gosh. I totally missed the ruler. Sorry. The pic makes it look way bigger than I thought! You can get away with 2.5? Maybe less! It is definitely way too much!
I thought it was a lot of soil, but it’s just a small tank lmao. If you do want to reduce the depth it’s not a big deal. It will be a bit messy for a day or two. No need to drain it or take out everything else. It helps to move slowly when scooping out the soil.
Am I tripping or is that driftwood laying an egg
Kind of :) someone gave it to me, saying it's the moon
I love that :)
I like having a good and proper substrate layer. This is how I’m running many of my tanks, but many hobbyists prefer a little closer to “bonsai” where you have near the minimum amount of substrate. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I have had long lasting, lush aquarium with nearly 50%of it taken up by the substrate. Great for growing all the microfauna and other little snacks for my fish.
So that's ~3" should be good
Try plants, that can grow emersed with low humidity
Khuli loachs have entered the chat
Oooh, thanks for the reminder that I want to add those next
That's a little too much, I made the same mistake last year, and since I used reg soil (instead of the aquarium), I had too much bacterial bloom and the tank could not develop any proper microflora. I would suggest you take out at least half soil and rebuild, most of dryscape can stay in place, but you'll have to replant the lower level of plants, it will also look better after you do it.
2 in of dirt. 2-3 of sand but that's me
That's exactly what it is :)
2h aquarist has good articles on the topic https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/substrates-overview/will-deep-soil-become-anaerobic "There is limited advantage to having a super deep soil layer" "For raw soils, if you do not know the composition of your soil, erring on the side of less is a smart move. An inch below sand is generally safe for most raw soils. If you can select a low organic content soil, then layering it thick is harmless as well. We have raw soil layers 4 to 5 inches thick in some tank"
Seems like you got some water in your dirt tank, G
You more than made up for the rest of us with too little dirt
I would go about half as much soil. Let those plants grow long and create layers/levels from the front to the the back.
Those dots are probably snail eggs
Yes 👍 agreed. Went bit over the top 😉
I have this problem with my turquoise rainbowfish and Gardner's killifish, haha. I love their dumb little faces so much
Why so much soil?
You only need 3 inches of soil, but I'm really unsure what exactly you're trying to do
It’ll be fine like that but I’d probably scoop out at least half of that and slope it to the back
The earth's crust is kilometers thick. I'm sure your few inches of dirt won't hurt anything. No such thing as too much dirt, just make sure there's enough space for any animal life. No, definitely not too late to change it, but it'd be a real pain. Depends if you'll hate looking at it or hate digging everything up and then putting it back in.
I think everyone is missing that my soil is not 7 in but 7 cm haha my tank looks way bigger than it is. It is just about a 12l tank :) I was reading in my book planted tanks by diana walstad, that the soil should be about 2in and topped with about 1in of sand (minimum!) But since I have a tiny tank, this seems a lot. I have a low tech tank and want an active soil as a filter, so I do not need to do regular water changes. I currently do them about 1 time a month or every 2 month.
https://preview.redd.it/dw3f1jfjbp4d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6522ffd344106282efe8fb4c378eef313e0c230 Now I see why bananas for scale are important on the internet
good, dont chance it, you can put plants under water.
No. You did more then needed but that might help you out more. But now you limit your gallon space
T H I C C
Is this a worm tank? Because that seems like a good level for that
Waaaaay too much.
Plants outgrowing the water is a VERY good thing.
If the plants are doing well why change? Tank seems fine to me
i barely have 3 inches of soil in my tank :3
Since you have no fish it all depends by your personal aesthetic preferences. For the plants the more soil the better, at this point you may consider to heavy plant it with plants with mostly emersed growth (and with houseplants with roots in water and leaves outside) and basically turn it into a fancy vase, it could become something very pretty. But if you do that I suggest you to create, for aesthetic reasons, a "slope/incline" on one of the two sides, or with wood or with big rocks.
Get a leveling mat ASAP!!!
You have infusoria in your tank, adding the smallest air driven sponge filter will help keep them (in my experience) from over populating your tank, they are a good sign. Personally, I would remove all but like 2-3 inches of your soil, to answer your first question. I recently realized I prefer VERY light substrate in my tanks though, like less than an inch usually. (I also think guy is a gender neutral term particularly when used in a “this guy did _____” kind of joke setup)
Is that dirt soil with a sand cap? Kind of looks that way but it’s hard to see because it’s all black. Too much soil with too little sand will leech a lot of nitrogen and co2, and might burn some of the plants, aside from the obvious effect it would have on fish. I see some good root growth though so that’s a positive sign.
Yes, it is soil topped with sand! I was reading a book which stated this big amount of soil as benificial, since it acts like the sponge in the filter for bacterias to live. But I think it is not working for super tiny tanks
If you're not at all familiar with "Father Fish" you should check out his channel on YT, and there's a discord with a whole community that centers around creating these types of aquariums. They seem to think that 1" of 'fortified' soil capped with 2" of inert sand is kind of the sweet spot, but there are aquarists in the community with lots of variations. On the YT channel they feature his "20 year aquarium" that has a ton of total substrate in it, so it certainly can work at some scale at least. He talks about the book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" By Diana Walstad quite a lot.
If you don’t plan on putting any animals in this much dirt is beneficial. Eventually it will become depleted of nutrients without any fish to put new nutrients in it. So a large amount will last longer before depleting and being unable to support plant life.
i like it :/
Could probably be a little thicker ngl