best way to lay substrait

RockabillyChick

RockabillyChick

Kilt-lifter
Nov 5, 2005
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Washington state
i am kind of limited to the type of substrait i can use. this is for a 45g african biotope tank with plants such as ammannia senegalensis and mdagascar lace, zosterella dubia, various anubias, and some other african plants.

i'm going to be using Schultz aquatic plant substrait, but i was wondering how i should go about layering the substrait. i've heard that its good to sprinkle peat moss on the bottom of the tank before putting down the substrait. also, what is lateralite, and how is it used? i was going to layer the schultz and put similarly sized gravel on top, since the schultz is rather light and i might have trouble keeping plants down if they're the type of plant that wants to float away. i'm going to have the substrait about 4" thick in back and about 2" in front. i also have acess to flourite, but its rather expensive. is there anything special about flourite that would make it worth it to pay about 3x more for it than the schultz?
 
I'm kind of wondering about plant substrate as well, but will not steal your thread. I'm thinking of using laterite myself, and from what I understand, it is a mineral that is naturally high in iron. It is also porous, so readily absorbs nutrients from root tabs. It then holds onto the nutrients which are used up gradually by plant roots, rather than being released into the water column (which is what happened to me when I used root tabs with gravel, I got ammonia spikes, yikes!). I believe most plant-specific substrates work this way.

Other ones (like Flourite, I believe) are baked clay that are impregnated with nutrients, so you don't need to use root tabs. But they operate the same way. I'm choosing laterite because it's cheap and doesn't contain copper which would hurt my shrimps. (Altho the root tabs probably contain copper, too, so I dunno)

I am thinking of having a layer of laterite on the bottom, and either mixing laterite and gravel for the top layer or just spreading a thin layer of gravel like you said.

I've had peat recommended to me once. It's supposed to be laid between the plant substrate and the gravel, because it produces a buffering layer. for more info, see my thread http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80096
 
I just did a substrate change in my 55 about a month ago, and it goes something like this. I bought a bag of Special Kitty cat litter from Wal-Mart. It's just straight bentonite clay, similar to laterite without the large iron content. I poured the cat litter in, 25 lbs, which made a 2" or so layer. Then I put 1 1/2" layer of "Black Beauty" sandblasting grit, a black slag product I got from the local Ace Hardware. Added water, ran the Vortex filter... then ran it again... then ran it again. With water I could see into I inserted 12 Jobe's Houseplant spikes evenly throughout the footprint. Added plants, ran the Vortex one last time, and voila... cheap plant substrate. I believe Schultz's Aquarium soil is clay based, so I would imagine it is similar to using kitty litter. Laterite is a clay from tropical regions, leeched of all mineral content except iron and aluminum oxides. Dupla preaches its merits highly, and charges quite a price for it. The theory is that it will supply all the iron needs of your plants for an extended period of time, although I'm more inclined to inject about 15mL of FLourish Iron around the substrate of my tank, near the roots of my needier plants. Locking nutrients out of the water column seems to be a logical way to reduce algae, allowing only the plants with roots to access the majority of the nutrient content in the tank. This is how I do it anyway, but every keeper has their own spin on things.
 
cat litter? so it won't hurt the fish? i buy special kitty for my cat already.

so if i do peat moss, cat litter, insert some root tabs, then layer some gravel over it for looks, that would work as well as a more specialized substrait?
 
I'd be concerned about kitty litter, too, because of anti-bacterial chemicals and fragrances they would add. I use a special cat litter, too, that's all natural bio-degradable wheat stuff with no added chemicals or fragrances. Would that work? This is silly, but it's clumping. So would it just clump into a hard, impenetrable layer?
 
no, the plain special kitty cat litter is the uber cheap stuff they sell at walmart. no fragrance, it's not clumping, its just clay like goatman said.

the kind of litter your talking about would not work. its wheat, you want a clay substrait. all the specialized plant substraits are clay, wheat pellets wouldn't work.
 
As far as I've read, it's the really inexpensive kitty litter that's used.

the dried clay with no additives of any kind. perhaps it's just the name of 'Special Kitty' that's proving to be a misnomer.

I'm sure there are people with first hand experience, perhaps they'd be gracious enough to add to your topic. :)
 
eco complete is not available locally and i'm not going to pay a ton for the product, plus a ton more to have it shipped.
 
If you want a good, clay based substrate that is very, very similar to flourite but at a fraction of the cost, check garden shops or seed store for a product called TURFACE.
I just re-did my 40 gal. tank with it and it's great stuff. A bit lighter in color than brown flourite, but with almost exactly the same properties. I bought a fifty pound bag for $25.
I've used the stuff in the past with excellent results. There is a special type that they use for re-surfacing baseball fields that is finer than some of the others, and I'd recommend looking for that type just for the finer quality.
BTW, this is the exact same product that is also manufactured by the same company and labeled as Schultz Aquatic Soil, but costs far less money and it's also finer than the Schultz substrate.

Len
 
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