# Not capping a dirt tank!



## obie (Mar 28, 2011)

what are the cons of not capping a dirt tank? can I get away with it?


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## Warmen (May 25, 2011)

obie said:


> what are the cons of not capping a dirt tank? can I get away with it?


I strongly recommend not to do that, you will definetly have issues with particles raising all the time when fish is disturbing it or you have to trim plants, not even talking about time to time vacuuming of the bottom to collect some of the waste. Also might have a problem leaking nutrients to water column which you might never stop having algea problems.


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## Justindew (Apr 15, 2011)

Have you seen the little worms that come in a worm tank that pop up through the cap? I can't imagine how many of those little guys would show up without a cap.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Well, Nature aquascapes like that all the time. But she does not stick her grubby little fingers in the aquascape all the time like most of us do with our tanks.

Go to any creek and look at the areas where the water is calm. There is a layer of mulm and the water is crystal clear too. But even the slightest intervention turns everything into a murky soup.

So, yes you can skip the cap, but better keep your hands out of the tank. This situation teaches you one important thing about planted aquariums - they mimick Nature but are not Nature. Certain things need to be done in certain ways because of that. A cap over the "good substrate" is one example.

--Nikolay


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I recommend adding a cap. The organics in the soil will cause lots of problems especially if you have any kind of fish that hangs out near the bottom of the tank. I keep cichlids and they make a complete mess of soil tanks where the cap is thin or bare. The entire tank becomes messy and all kinds of algae blooms when the soil is disturbed. 

You can buy very cheap silica pool filter sand from any pool supply store. Its something like $7 for 50 pounds of it and it looks great in a tank.


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