Alternatives To Florite

[Piperbella25]

I have been reading up on subatrates to use for planted tanks and come across using kitty litter (special kitty in the red bag form Wal-Mart was the number one choice). I was wondering if anyone has tried this? Did it need to be washed first? Does it ever turn into mush? It would be great if it worked because its so cheap! Also, does it need to be mixed with other substrates? I currently have play sand in my tank and have decided to use plants and I need a substrate to mix it with.

 

[three-fingers]

If you already have the tank set up and running, I would just save the bother of ripping the tank apart and use root tabs (which are fairly cheap, but you need to replace them every few weeks or months depending on brand).

I've not read much about why kitty litter is supposed to be good yet actually (though I've heard of a lot of people using it), something I will have to look into.

 

[SuperColey1]

Shouldn't really matter what plants you have really. If you already have an inert substrate in there then you can stick to water column dosing and let the plants take from their leaves.

Root Tabs and nutrient rich substrate is a fall back which we all use to give us a little lee-way if we underdose.

Most of us use nutrient rich substrates but plants don't really need them, even the supposed heavy root feeders!!!

Add to that an inert substrate will take in some of the water column nutrient anyway. Not as much as most decent nutrient substrates because they will also be based around substances like clay which will soak in substrates (for a rainy day)


Ac

 

[Piperbella25]

Shouldn't really matter what plants you have really. If you already have an inert substrate in there then you can stick to water column dosing and let the plants take from their leaves.

Root Tabs and nutrient rich substrate is a fall back which we all use to give us a little lee-way if we underdose.

Most of us use nutrient rich substrates but plants don't really need them, even the supposed heavy root feeders!!!

Add to that an inert substrate will take in some of the water column nutrient anyway. Not as much as most decent nutrient substrates because they will also be based around substances like clay which will soak in substrates (for a rainy day)


Ac

Okay, maybe I sound dumb, but I didn't understand anything you just said except plants don't really need nurient rich substrate! lol. Could you explain that to me please?

 

[susankat]

Nutrient rich substrate is great for ground cover plants like HC, glosso, and such but they also require high light and co2. Kitty litter from walmart contains iron and will also absorb nutrients from the water column for plants to utilize through the root system. Most plants are water column feeders, some like swords and crypts will feed from the substrate also, in fact a little more.

Kitty litter to me wouldn't make a good substrate if using it alone. You would want to cap it with sand or gravel for a better look, Will get mushy over time and will cloud when ever you want to move a plant to a different location.

 

[aaronnorth]

I'll break Andy's post down into simpler terms:

Shouldn't really matter what plants you have really. If you already have an inert substrate in there then you can stick to water column dosing and let the plants take from their leaves.

If you dont have any nutrients in the substrate, the plants will still take nutrients from the water by their leaves.

Root Tabs and nutrient rich substrate is a fall back which we all use to give us a little lee-way if we underdose.

When we use a nutrient rich substrate, this allows plants to take nutrients through their roots, so if we go away for a few days, and nobody is dosing the water column, then they still have a source of nutrients as a 'back up'

Most of us use nutrient rich substrates but plants don't really need them, even the supposed heavy root feeders!!!

Every plant can take nutrients from the water by their leaves, even the 'heavy' root feeders (echindorous, cryptocrynes etc) if there is no nutrieents in the substrate, they wont die, they will just use their leaves instead.

Add to that an inert substrate will take in some of the water column nutrient anyway. Not as much as most decent nutrient substrates because they will also be based around substances like clay which will soak in substrates (for a rainy day)

Most nutrient rich substrate have a high CEC (cation exchange capacity). This means the substrate can take in positive elements (cations) from the water like K+ (potassium) Mg+ (magnesium) Ca+ (calcium) etc. and make them available to the roots. 'Proper' nutrient substrates do this better than inert substrates.