# Soil for Tank



## lang510 (Sep 18, 2016)

My planted tank has been set up for about 12 years. I had a maintenance person come to my house to clean my tank as my nitrates were sky high and I had been trying to get them under control without much success. I was watching how he was cleaning the tank and I noticed that he was removing quite of bit of soil in the process. He said at this point, the soil is not necessary and when I use the python, I should go all the way down and eventually remove the dirt. What are your thoughts on this.

BTW, he brought my nitrates down to zero and my tank looks beautiful. I am also in the process of upgrading most of my equipment but am concerned about removing the dirt as I clean the tank.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Welcome to APC!

I am glad the service you called got the nitrates down, but please ignore their advice about soil, and about vacuuming the entire substrate. Soil is eventually depleted of its initial nutrients, but it never "wears out". It always keeps the ability to absorb nutrients from the water and keep them in the substrate until plant roots absorb them. And if you vacuum the entire substrate you will constantly disturb and damage plant roots.

It sounds like this technician is mostly familiar with heavily stocked fish-only tanks, which do need complete vacuuming of gravel.


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## lang510 (Sep 18, 2016)

He tells me he has a lot of experience with planted tanks. He did however, tell me to not disturb the section of my tank that had plants. But thinking that I might want to add plants in the near future, I was concerned about all the dirt I was removing. My tank isn't heavily planted as my goal is fish first and then plants. My nitrates are again high but came down after I did a 50% water change. They are currently at 40. 

I think I will have to clean the substrate but I will be careful not to remove any more dirt.

Although I think I removed quite a bit of dirt, I am hoping I didn't remove too much.


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## AKnickolai (Nov 30, 2007)

You mention soil, so it sounds like this is a dirt tank with a gravel cap?

As Michael said, the initial nutrients are gone, but the soil is now acting as a conversion bed for nutrients - it's just going to happen slowly. High nitrates is usually a result of over feeding and/or lack of water changes.

Options going forward would be to do some large 30-50% water changes to knock the nitrates down and keep them down. Also check the expiration dates on your test kit - I know that has caused me grief before.

I have planted tanks that are 7+ years old. I never gravel vac any of them. If there is a large pile of junk sitting on top of the gravel I'll try and suck it up, but there isn't much need/reason to disturb most of the substrate.

How large is the tank? I just did a substrate swap an an 80G dirt tank because I wanted a different color gravel. It was a fair bit of work, but only took 6 hours. Just siphon a bunch of tank water into a large container with an air stone and heater and put the fish in there while you are doing the work. Just make sure you have some suitable soil on hand before you start the process. I'm not saying you have to swap substrates by any means, just pointing out that it's not as bad as it sounds ;-)


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## lang510 (Sep 18, 2016)

Yes, dirt, flourite and gravel. It is 90 gallons. I've done a couple of 50 percent water changes and have cut down on my feeding. Taking all the fish out and putting more soil in the tank will be too hard of a job for me. I am short and not young. It's only the front part of the tank where the dirt was removed which for the most part I want to keep clear of plants so I'm hoping it will be OK.

I was on a schedule to clean the tank about every 3-4 weeks which I now know won't work. I was hoping to clean every 2 weeks but until I can consistently bring down the nitrates, I guess I will have to do it once a week until the nitrates are at zero or close to it. FYI, my tap water is zero. My test kit was purchased about 4 months ago and doesn't expire until 2020.


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## AKnickolai (Nov 30, 2007)

Sounds like a pretty good setup. You can always supplement with root tabs if you feel the plants are needing more nutrients. I'd get the nitrates under control first. I find that my tanks do best with weekly water changes. I'd start there and see if you can increase your interval.


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