# I made a muddy mess!!!!



## spalmer114 (Oct 3, 2007)

I think I have permanentley turned my tank into a mud pit!! I had a bag of SMS in the tank, but decided I wanted a little more substrate so I could build it up. I purchased a bag of top soil from Lowes and tried to rinse it the best I could and added it to my drained tank. I mixed both substrates together and slowly refilled the tank. Now all I have is a tank full of muddy water!! It's been 2 days and it is not clearing. I did a 50% water change last night and have turned off the filter to see if everything would settle to the bottom. Do you think I need to drain my tank remove all the substrate and start over, or will the muddy mess eventually clear up? I was just getting ready to order some plants and my Co2 system and looking forward to finally getting this thing up and running.


----------



## Mud Pie Mama (Jul 30, 2006)

I see you mentioned you'll be using injected CO2. What size tank is this and what type of light fixture are you planning to use? Also, stem plants, or rosettes - ie, mostly crypts? 

If you are using a lot of lights and a lot of stem plants, you'll be doing plenty of pruning and replanting. In this case I would definately not use top soil. However if you are using low light and slow growing plants, then check out the NPT forum here for recommendations on how to add topsoil to a tank.


----------



## spalmer114 (Oct 3, 2007)

Mud Pie Mama said:


> I see you mentioned you'll be using injected CO2. What size tank is this and what type of light fixture are you planning to use? Also, stem plants, or rosettes - ie, mostly crypts?
> 
> If you are using a lot of lights and a lot of stem plants, you'll be doing plenty of pruning and replanting. In this case I would definately not use top soil. However if you are using low light and slow growing plants, then check out the NPT forum here for recommendations on how to add topsoil to a tank.


Thanks for the response. The tank is 75 gallons with a Tek T5 6 lamp fixture. The only thing that I will be planting will be HC.


----------



## jhill (Feb 21, 2008)

Topsoil


----------



## spalmer114 (Oct 3, 2007)

jhill said:


> Topsoil


 If you do a search you will find out that quite a few people add top soil to there substrate. I now wish I would'nt have, but it seems to work for a lot of people.


----------



## frozenbarb (Feb 8, 2007)

spalmer114 said:


> If you do a search you will find out that quite a few people add top soil to there substrate. I now wish I would'nt have, but it seems to work for a lot of people.


Well, most people put their soil on the bottom then top it with SMS or other gravel.


----------



## jhill (Feb 21, 2008)

I didn't mean to sound sarcastic but I am very new to planted tanks. I have had bare bottom tanks raising discus and wanted to get my feet wet on planted tanks, they are so awesome. Then maybe my wife will like it and let me have more then 4 tanks running LOL. My goal is to set up a 135g planted tank for my selected discus. 
I just thought the sound of topsoil did not make sense to me. A Muddy mess exactly. I use lava rock in my bonsai soil and thought this would be a great substrate. As with bonsai I have to keep up on the fertilizing and probably would have to with a planted tank.
Boy I have a lot to learn. But I will get there I like challenging things. Drives my wife batty though 
I will keep reading though and learn from others mistakes.

John


----------



## spalmer114 (Oct 3, 2007)

frozenbarb said:


> Well, most people put their soil on the bottom then top it with SMS or other gravel.


Where were you on Sunday when I was turining my tank into a mud garden?!!!! LOL


----------



## spalmer114 (Oct 3, 2007)

jhill said:


> I didn't mean to sound sarcastic but I am very new to planted tanks. I have had bare bottom tanks raising discus and wanted to get my feet wet on planted tanks, they are so awesome. Then maybe my wife will like it and let me have more then 4 tanks running LOL. My goal is to set up a 135g planted tank for my selected discus.
> I just thought the sound of topsoil did not make sense to me. A Muddy mess exactly. I use lava rock in my bonsai soil and thought this would be a great substrate. As with bonsai I have to keep up on the fertilizing and probably would have to with a planted tank.
> Boy I have a lot to learn. But I will get there I like challenging things. Drives my wife batty though
> I will keep reading though and learn from others mistakes.
> ...


I didn't think you were sounding sarcastic. I thought the same thing about topsoil until the other day. I just made the mistake of adding it to my existing substrate and trying to mix it together. I'm also new to this and I have a TON to learn!!!


----------



## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

When using topsoil the common procedure is to put about an inch to inch and a half layer of topsoil down and then cover it with an inch or more of a capping substrate to keep the soil down. While the layers will get mixed a bit when planting they aren't mixed on purpose. I have soil underlayers in all my tanks, including those with stem plants, and the main trick is to pull plants out sloooowly to avoid stirring up the soil, and a tweezers is invaluable in replanting stem plants and smaller plants without making a huge mess.

If you're patient the soil will likely settle down on its own now that you have the filter off, but it will likely take several days. Then you'd still need to be careful to avoid stirring everything up again.

Do you have as much substrate in your tank as you want? I was thinking that it would be easiest to drain the tank and add a capping layer of SMS at least 1/2" thick, but 3/4 to 1" would be better. Or you could scoop out some of what you have in there and then add the capping layer. When refilling the tank make sure you use a plate/saucer to avoid having the water blast through the top cap of substrate and stir up the soil again.


----------



## Sphearion (Jan 28, 2008)

I used silt from my backyard after a recent rainstorm (it kind of pooled and I just skimmed it off the surface with a shovel. works great and my plants love it, when I first put it in it made a muddy mess, I drained most of the water from the tank then dugg a hole in the silt and put a small container profusely perforated into it and started siphoning even more water out until just the dirt was left and not so "soupy" but still very wet. I then topped this with playsand and refilled the tank using a sprinkle sprayer (round disk full of holes) mine came on a long tube for watering hanging plants in a greenhouse. i just unscrewed the sprayer end and put it on the hose and sprayed it onto a plate placed in the sand to keep the sand from moving around too much, and to my delight the water was decently clear and within 24 hours it was crystal clear and I was adding plants and fish  

Maybe you should cap the substrate with a bit of sand maybe 1/2 inch or so or even use gravel I mean the plant roots will be below the gravel in the dirt anyway right 

Hope this helps clear your muddy mess 

I should add the silt was easily collected after the recent building of a couple of rather large rock retaining walls the trackhoe that moved the boulders around in the yard tore it up pretty bad so when the rainstorm came through you can imagine how much dirt moved being that about 90% or so of the yard has no grass left on it.


----------



## spalmer114 (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks for the responses!! I think I will take the advice and scoop some out and cap it with some fresh (Not Muddy!!!) substrate. Hopefully I can get back on schedule and order my HC next week.


----------

