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Adding soil

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31 Dec 2021
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Hi new here, first post etc etc. I have a two month old heavily planted 80L tank with co2 and fluval plant leds - it’s going great, water is clean and everything is growing like mad, but most of it is still in pots or epiphytes on wood. So, I want to add aquarium soil to the existing mix to get a sensible depth and do some aquascaping. What’s there now is 1cm of tetra substrate two yrs old, with fine gravel on top. All from a few failed earlier attempts. Can I just add more substrate and soil on top, or do I need to sift out the gravel and/or remove the old substrate? Pic for attention
02E17A4C-0F93-4D6D-AF74-37C37400AF88.jpeg
 
Hi, your new choice of substrate will determine what you need to do for it really. Do you know what you are going for? It shouldn't hurt to just add the new on top of old.

Do you have any livestock in the tank? If you don't then it's perhaps easier to just strip the tank and start again, especially as I'm assuming the plants are being planted directly into the substrate this time.
 
Hi - thanks. Tropica soil going in, there are three Amano’s in there I will have to find, catch and put into smaller 2nd tank whilst doing So not inconceivable to do full strip down, but would rather avoid if possible given water quality is good and stable (first time ever achieved that).
 
The reason I asked about the substrate and livestock is because some plant substrates can leach ammonia into the water to begin with which can be very problematic for livestock. Tropica soil isn't supposed to but I have heard many times that it actually does. The only time I've used it was when I started a tank and had no livestock to worry about, I didn't add any livestock until 8 weeks after setup and I never tested the water before that, so don't know how good/bad it is.

There is a little more opinions on it in this thread here

Tropica soil in "running aquarium"

HI, all, I have a doubt, about subtract and amonia.. My aquarium (300ltrs ) is running for 10 months, I have 13 tetras, 15 barbs and 4 corydoras and 2 gouramis, the subtract is sand, fine sand. Because of this poor subtract I have few plants, I intend to change the subtract to "tropica soil"...
www.ukaps.org
 
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