i am thinking of getting pure laterite in my densely planted 10 gal dwarf puffer tank because the plants in there have not been able to form roots. the plants that have presented a problem are narrowleaf chainsword, red ludwigia, red longleaf Rotala, and Cabomba. their leaves look fine, but there are no roots, so they keep popping out of the gravel. the plant weights have led to rotting due to the bunching of the stems.
i don't want plant-specific substrates other than pure laterite because they either contain metals that could harm my ghost shrimp, or have pH buffering properties. i am planning on "seeding" the laterite with Flourish tabs, instead of having the substrate leach all kinds of metals and other stuff long-term.
my questions are:
-should i put the laterite under my gravel (i prefer the look of the river bed gravel), and push my plants all the way into the laterite layer so that their roots can take hold?
-how deep should the laterite layer be? the label says they recommend 1 oz of laterite per gallon.
-will dosing the water allow some nutrients to take hold in the laterite? in other words, should i continue with root tabs even after the roots grow to a satisfactory level?
-how far down should i put the tabs? i tried some root tabs in the gravel but it just ended up filling my tank with ammonia so i don't want to repeat this fiasco by putting the root tabs too shallow. i'm assuming the laterite will hold onto the nutrients better and prevent leaching into the water column.
Thanks in advance for your help, and for reading a long post
i don't want plant-specific substrates other than pure laterite because they either contain metals that could harm my ghost shrimp, or have pH buffering properties. i am planning on "seeding" the laterite with Flourish tabs, instead of having the substrate leach all kinds of metals and other stuff long-term.
my questions are:
-should i put the laterite under my gravel (i prefer the look of the river bed gravel), and push my plants all the way into the laterite layer so that their roots can take hold?
-how deep should the laterite layer be? the label says they recommend 1 oz of laterite per gallon.
-will dosing the water allow some nutrients to take hold in the laterite? in other words, should i continue with root tabs even after the roots grow to a satisfactory level?
-how far down should i put the tabs? i tried some root tabs in the gravel but it just ended up filling my tank with ammonia so i don't want to repeat this fiasco by putting the root tabs too shallow. i'm assuming the laterite will hold onto the nutrients better and prevent leaching into the water column.
Thanks in advance for your help, and for reading a long post
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