The 50/50 tank. Half dirt, Half no dirt. 75 gallon planted tank experiment

The experiment is simple. What is the difference between the growth of a tank using dirt under the substrate versus what at tank without dirt will look like.

That’s all.

The 75 you see is just that.

So I used this larger sized gravel on the right side to keep it somewhat balance with height… I love adding the gravel

I put the jungle val in the tank prior to all of the black gravel. Usually jungle val gets withered anyway so I am just going to make sure the roots are in good.

One thing I would like to note is that I have gone ahead and cut down the Jungle Val. This should be done anytime you are putting in new plants that the tops are looking bad on. Think of it like this. The plant is going to try to send nutrients to the parts of the plant that are already messed up. You are better off just cutting them off at the tops and letting the new growth come up, instead of trying to regrow on the dead parts.

I am not positive on all of the species I am going to be putting in this tank just yet. I am going for a “noah’s arc” type deal where I have two of everything. One on either side. So far we have Jungle Val and Ludwigia Repens and Baby tears…

I’d also like to add that this makes my 4 square of 75 gallon tanks complete. Spawning aquarium fish can greatly be increased by maintaining a heavy aquarium plant load. The more plants, the more likely your fish are to not only spawn, but to successfully house the fry.