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Soil Substrate or Dirted Tank - A How to Guide

What are people's thoughts on putting the soil layer as the absolute base of the tank, below any substrate bulking with media bags? I've got 10mm gravel in the bags if that makes a difference...
 
What are people's thoughts on putting the soil layer as the absolute base of the tank, below any substrate bulking with media bags? I've got 10mm gravel in the bags if that makes a difference...
I think MD on You Tube does this on various set ups,often using months old- old substrate kept in sealed plastic containers
 
That doesn’t appear to make immediate sense. But roots will eventually reach though the gravel filled bags and find the soil.

However, wouldn’t it be better to layer the soil over the media bags and then cap? The plants then have almost immediate access to substrate nutrients. I’ve done it this way and it works well.

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I would be tempted to provide a base layer of gravel then place the aquasoil within the net bags and finally the layer of sand. In this way the soil is readily acessible to the plants but is separated from the sand and gravel allowing both to be reused. A gravel base layer also makes more sense to me than of finer soil being at the base and cut off from the water column and roots by a barrier of grit.

Or perhaps its just my Yorkshire 'thrift' ....
 
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Anyway, just noticed this article has over 200,000 views, coinciding with the UKAPS landmark of reaching 20,000 members. Who ever would have thought. . . 🙂
 
Having read all 300 pages as it was then, I discovered I'd been running 'dirtied' tanks (soil capped with sand or gravel) for years!
I erroneously thought they were plain soil, left to settle, then planted without stirring it up into a muddy mess!
How dumb am I? 😳
 
I was just trying to be sneaky and have the soil undisturbed while I mess around with scapes :pI think I'll just stick to the tried and true method!
If you follow Tim’s guide and use a “soil retainer” you won’t have the problem you’re referring to. I actually bag my soil and cap with sand on top of that, works brilliantly. I pull up plants weekly without any mess, prob less of a mess than pulling up plants out of AS. My success and continued use of dirt is all thanks to Tim 👍🏻 the only difference is I prefer to mineralize my soil first due to the lack of availability of true aquatic compost here in the US.
 
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