# Mts



## teddyray2 (Oct 27, 2013)

Hello all.

I have a 29 gallon tank that I am slowly gathering equipment for to turn it into a high tech/ high light planted tank. I have already bought the stuff I need to do a MTS substrate for it. The question I have is how much of a cap I need to plan on having. All advice is welcome but please try and tell me in quantity not inches because I am one of those folks that can not look at an amount and judge how much it is. 
I want to black sand for the cap as I think it would look good but if someone disagrees then I am open to suggestions. I used to have a saltwater tank with white sand and no matter how I tried to clean it; it always looked so dirty!
Also if I need to have another layer between the MTS and the cap then please let me know because I am very new to planted tanks.

Thanks everyone.

P.S. As soon as I get the equipment I need I will be doing a tank journal.


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

Usually if another "layer" is added, its something like a dusting of dolomite on the glass bottom before the MTS is put in. The cap is typically about an inch. The reason it's listed as an inch instead of a volume, is because that volume will change depending on the dimensions of your tank. If you're talking about a 30"x12" footprint, then you would need just a little over a gallon and a half.

In inches:
( L x W x H ) / 231 = Gallons


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Adding to Tugg's good advice, you should use about 1" of soil. A soil layer that is too deep is a common beginner's mistake. Since you are new, I suggest that start the tank without fertilizers and high light, even if you want to add them later. The MTS will supply plenty of nutrients at first.

Your goal in the beginning is to stabilize the tank with good biofiltration and lots of healthy plants growing at a moderate rate. When you achieve this, you can increase the lighting and start fertilization.


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## Pheesh!! (Dec 9, 2013)

Black sand is relatively cheap so I would go ahead and buy a little too much rather than not enough to get a 1-1.5 inch cap layer. Chances are you will need extra sand anyway after a cleaning if you decide to vaccuum in order to fill in spots where you may have sucked up too much sand. As for keeping it looking clean, I have heard from many that black sand looks even dirtier than white sand (when dirty) and is even harder to keep looking good. However, I have no exp. with black sand so I can't confirm. 

I decided to cap with black flourite rather than black sand due to the high CEC of flourite, as well as the fact I have read several reports of sand compacting over time which really can obstruct proper oxygenation of the dirt substrate below leading to potentially anaerobic conditions. About 1/3 of my current 10g dirt tank is capped with white sand, and I don't seem to be having too many issues now that I'm in week 10 of the tank setup. 

As Michael has mentioned, biofiltration is huge as you will certainly have ammonia spikes which will need to be removed via large water changes as well as bacteria in the tank. I added corys as soon as 2 weeks into my setup (while still doing large water changes daily/every other) and ended up killing 2 of them. I believe my tank had not been given long enough to cycle at this point resulting in slower conversions of ammonia to nitrates which can be used by the plants.

One tip I have for you when setting up the tank it to make sure you plant all of your plants prior to adding water. Attempting to plant the entire tank after it has been filled will result in a huge mess from the dirt that you may not want to deal with.


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