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Aquarium guides/The dry start method

The dry start method: grow a carpet before you fill the tank

In a dry start you plant carpet plants in damp substrate, cover the tank with plastic wrap to hold the humidity, and give them light for several weeks before adding water. Grown in the air the plants root and spread with no algae and no added CO₂, since they take it from the air; fill the tank slowly once the carpet has covered most of the ground, often after one to two months.

Planting an Anubias with tweezers
Shown: planting an Anubias with tweezers. Photo: Abhik.Mazumdar.73, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Set it up

  1. Lay the substrate and hardscape as you want them. Wet the substrate so it is damp all through, with no standing water.
  2. Plant small plugs of carpet plants: dwarf hairgrass, Monte Carlo, moss or other plants that grow above water.
  3. Cover the top tightly with plastic wrap and run the light 8 to 10 hours a day.
  4. Mist with dechlorinated water every few days so the surface never dries.

What goes wrong

Mold on decaying leaves: lift the wrap for an hour each day and remove dead bits. Dry, brown patches: mist more often. Plants that only grow under water, such as hornwort, do not work in a dry start; add them after filling.

Flooding the tank

Fill slowly over a plate or bag so the water does not tear up the carpet, and expect some leaves to melt as they switch to underwater growth. A new tank has no filter bacteria yet, and nutrient-rich plant soils can release ammonia once flooded: cycle the tank before adding fish. Cycling and readiness · Plant melt.

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