[Rob Zamites]

Howdy all! I'm Rob from MI, and happy to join the community. I just spent days reading the NPT sticky and will be setting up my system in a few weeks.
This will be based on a Fluval Flex 15, Liqui-Dirt Hand Crafted Naturally Organic All Purposing Indoor Potting Soil, Seachem Black Flourite Sand, Seachem Onyx Sand and a bevy of stem plants to start.
I found the sticky quite comprehensive, and though I know I can stock with a Betta and shrimp/snails immediately after planting, I will likely hold off until the soil/cap/plants are well established. Any input is welcome as far as to that facet of my plans!
Glad to be aboard this forum!

Cheers,

Rob

 

[betta4ever!]

Welcome to the forum!! We're glad to have another fishkeeper! I have no imput on the plants, i'm TERRIBLE at keeping them alive, but i'm sure someone else here is going to know! I'm looking forward for updates on your tank!

 

[BettaloverSara]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Eridanus]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

It sounds like you're going to have a beautiful tank!! Looking forward to see how it turns out!

 

[Rob Zamites]

I think I may have erred with this "Liqui-Dirt Hand Crafted Naturally Organic All Purposing Indoor Potting Soil", as it seems to have natural, but non chemical additives. Any NPT advice?
Here's the ingredients:
"PERFECT BLEND - Our composted ingredients include: Bark fines, Sphagnum peat moss, coco nor, rice hulis oyster shell dolomite, poultry litter, feather meal, bat guano, kelp meal, earthwork castings, alfalfa meal, forest litter, beach sand, perlite, vermiculite fine and chunky coco nor husk all soaked in our best selling liqui-dirt plant food."

I'm telling myself to relax!

Rob

 

[bettagirl100]

Hello! Welcome to the fourm!

 

[Rob Zamites]

Thanks! I'm going to do my best to be active here!

 

[KatieMR]

Hi @Rob Zamites! Welcome to the forum! I've never done a dirted tank before, but it looks like there are some things in there that could leach into your water column. I don't know if anything is actually toxic to fish, though. Hopefully someone with more experience in that sort of thing can advise you.

If it were me, I would research those ingredients to confirm they are not toxic, then I would get media bags to put the soil inside of and just make sure the cap was pretty deep. MD Fish Tanks has a YouTube channel and he does the dirt in the media bags in all of his tanks. Then I'd make sure to test the pH levels frequently once the tank is set up to make sure you aren't getting big pH swings.

Good luck! I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your tank!

 

[Rob Zamites]

Thanks for the input!