I have a PFS cap over some worm castings for dirt and I've noticed that it's gotten crusty. Not just on the very top, but throughout. I try to stir and break it up when I plant in it, but it goes back to crusty pretty soon. I do have trumpet snails, but they don't seem to make that much of a...

Hi all, I got a new aquarium bowl for Christmas and wanted to try using soil for this one. I watched a lot of "Foo the Flowerhorn's" videos and am using this as a starting point. I'm going to use miracle grow organic choice potting mix (filtering out large pieces). My question is what to use...

Setup: Low-tech 3 1/2 gallon All of the plants I currently plan to use don't need to be planted in soil. Three of the four can be either planted or attached to rocks, ornaments, wood, and so on. The fourth is a moss. I've been doing a lot of web searches and reading old threads about...

Hello, new to planted tanks and redoing the substrate in my 72 gallon bow from huge gravel to dirt/STS. I was originally going to do 1'' dirt, 1'' STS, and 2'' of fine gravel, but I cant find affordable gravel anywhere. I was wondering if I could just cap it with STS? Im worried that it will be...

Hello All- So I started my first dirted tank last September. I was unsure on how much gravel cap to use and didn't use enough. I am constantly fighting soil seepage through the gravel cap. So today I decided to add about another 1/2" of gravel cap. My question is do i need to pull my plants...

I'm planning out a little 20G Long high-light CO2 driven tank and I'm trying to figure out my substrate. This aquarium will be set up for at least the next 2 years so I'd like to make a choice that doesn't have to be ripped out later. I'm debating between just flourite or a flourite cap on...

I unfortunately do not have access to the Walstad book, but have read people's discussions about the methodology used. I want to eventually try a soil substrate capped with gravel, but I've read that large gravel won't hold the soil down well and it will float up into the water column. So what...

What is the best sand cap over miracle gro that will support the thick carpeting of marsilea minuta? I have leftover Sakrete play sand from home depot, but I am thinking this will be too fine for the rooting of a dense carpet. Would Black Diamond be a better choice? I realize that Amazonia or...