Colorquartz S grade in planted tank

[nugpuffer]

I'm upgrading my planted 10 gal to a 29 gal and will be buying a new substrate. I have black colorquartz S grade in my big CA/SA cichlid tank and love the look of it, as well as the ease in which it can be used in aquariums.

Since I can obtain it locally on the cheap, I was wondering how well it will work in a planted tank. Since it is inert, I figure all that will be needed is to dose ferts and use root tabs. Do any of you have any experience using this as a substrate in your planted tank?

[jptjpt]

I have a mix of S and T grade in my 55G. First inch: Earthworm castings. Next 2-3": 1:3 mix of Earthworm castings to S grade. Last inch: T grade. Also added powdered clay to the soil for iron. Haven't dosed fertz since setting it up in Oct 08. Tank has pressurized CO2 and a little more than 2wpg lighting. Plants are growing well. Red ones are showing their colors nicely. I might even reduce lighting to 7 hrs. since some of the stem plants are growing a little too fast. If you're interested in mineralized soil substrate, head over to gwapa.org and read the article.

[SuBXeRo]

There are alot of ppl that haveused colorquartz in they planted tanks. When u buy a plant substrate they general come with nutrients in the soil already. However, those nutrients get used up in only a matter of months so you wind up having to do ferts anyways as you should be doing ferts to help keep your plants healthy.

If you put in root tabs and stuff like that you should be good to go.

[Fresh04]

I've used it in my 30g tank that I set up this spring. Overall I really like it, the initial cleaning of it was a bit of a task but well worth it. Very much like sand, the plants seem to like it. It doesn't have any nutrients but I've put in root tabs and dose every other day so that isn't an issue. The fish don't seem to mind it either, no issues with them as well, including cats.