Cat Litter Substrate?

[fifefish]

I'm have some cat litter lying around and was wondering if it was safe to use as substrate.
the litter is Bob Martin anti odour clump cat litter..
would this be okay or would it have some nasty chemicals that are harmful to fish?

 

[Rooster]

No... and YES

 

[Truck]

I'm have some cat litter lying around and was wondering if it was safe to use as substrate.
the litter is Bob Martin anti odour clump cat litter..
would this be okay or would it have some nasty chemicals that are harmful to fish?

is it clay based?

 

[dthoffsett]

I would imagine it has perfumes or dyes that would be harmful to the fish, aside from that since it is clumping litter it would clump as soon as it hits the water. I suppose you could do a post-apocalyptic cement rubble theme until the litter dissolved. Actually that sounds kind of cool.

 

[Truck]

I would imagine it has perfumes or dyes that would be harmful to the fish, aside from that since it is clumping litter it would clump as soon as it hits the water. I suppose you could do a post-apocalyptic cement rubble theme until the litter dissolved. Actually that sounds kind of cool.

a lot of people use cat litter that is clay based as an under substrate which is then capped with sand...its full of nutrients such as iron, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorous etc. which plants can use

 

[Spanerman]

This may be a silly question but why the heck does does cat litter contain all those nutrients?

 

[Truck]

This may be a silly question but why the heck does does cat litter contain all those nutrients?

it depends on the brand...if its a clay cat litter then it contains clay...lol...and the clay contains these nutrients...the clay will also bind any nutrients in the water

 

[dthoffsett]

a lot of people use cat litter that is clay based as an under substrate which is then capped with sand...its full of nutrients such as iron, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorous etc. which plants can use

I do understand that, but do they use a clumping formula? I would think being immersed would cause the litter to become cement like, I also know that a lot of litters have "perfumes" added to cut the smell, especially ones that claim to be anti-odor, at least the litter I have does.

You know I'm tempted to put some of the litter in a glass and add water to see what it does.

 

[Truck]

a lot of people use cat litter that is clay based as an under substrate which is then capped with sand...its full of nutrients such as iron, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorous etc. which plants can use

I do understand that, but do they use a clumping formula? I would think being immersed would cause the litter to become cement like, I also know that a lot of litters have "perfumes" added to cut the smell, especially ones that claim to be anti-odor, at least the litter I have does.

You know I'm tempted to put some of the litter in a glass and add water to see what it does.

remember it needs to be capped with sand or gravel to be valid...and the stuff im on about is just clay balls...not those compressed wooden chips or crystals

 

[Spanerman]

Thanks Truck.

 

[dthoffsett]

remember it needs to be capped with sand or gravel to be valid...and the stuff im on about is just clay balls...not those compressed wooden chips or crystals

Well, I have Fresh Step clumping litter and according to their site these are the ingredients:

Fresh Step® Scoopable contains odor-eliminating carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, fragrance and borates.

I don't have any sand or gravel laying around but I do have crushed coral so I added a thin layer of cat litter to a clear plastic cup and topped it with a thicker layer of the crushed coral, gonna give it a few hours and see what happens. I did notice that once I added the water aside from being cloudy (which I expected) I did get a strong whiff of the "perfume" they add. I'm sure it would dissapate over time but I'd be a little leary about adding that to a fish tank. fifefish hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread a bit, but I'll post back later with what's going on.

 

[Truck]

remember it needs to be capped with sand or gravel to be valid...and the stuff im on about is just clay balls...not those compressed wooden chips or crystals

Well, I have Fresh Step clumping litter and according to their site these are the ingredients:

Fresh Step® Scoopable contains odor-eliminating carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, fragrance and borates.

I don't have any sand or gravel laying around but I do have crushed coral so I added a thin layer of cat litter to a clear plastic cup and topped it with a thicker layer of the crushed coral, gonna give it a few hours and see what happens. I did notice that once I added the water aside from being cloudy (which I expected) I did get a strong whiff of the "perfume" they add. I'm sure it would dissapate over time but I'd be a little leary about adding that to a fish tank. fifefish hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread a bit, but I'll post back later with what's going on.

you dont want to be using this stuff then...ill see if i can find a good example EXAMPLE

 

[dave_oddballs]

why the hell would anyone want to put cat litter in their aquarium as a substrate anyway?
if you seriously cant afford to buy proper substrate which can be as little as a few quid then you shouldn't be keeping fish!
no cat litter i know of would be suitable for a fish tank and even the clay based ones don't only contain clay.
this comes close to one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my entire life!

 

[Truck]

why the hell would anyone want to put cat litter in their aquarium as a substrate anyway?
if you seriously cant afford to buy proper substrate which can be as little as a few quid then you shouldn't be keeping fish!
no cat litter i know of would be suitable for a fish tank and even the clay based ones don't only contain clay.
this comes close to one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my entire life!

as i have explained...you can buy cat litter for a planted aquarium and then cover it in sand! the plants roots will grow into it and take nutrients

would you pay £4 for some cat litter or £18 for some branded stuff that is exactly the same?

http/www.petsathome.com/find/category-is...#product-detail

look at the link...it is 100% clay which means there is nothing else!

 

[dthoffsett]

Thought I'd add the results of my unscientific little "test".

As I said above I added approximately 0.5" of cat litter to a 5 oz plastic cup and topped it with around 1.5" of crushed coral.

The water went cloudy (as expected) and smelled strongly of "perfume", Eau de cat litter.

After about an hour the litter had expanded to approximately 4 times it's original height and "surrounded" about half of the crushed coral. This makes sense as the litter is made to absorb liquid, though it was still impressive to see. There was still a strong smell of the fragrance so I poured off the water and refilled it a couple of times to (poorly) simulate the effects of filtration. The smell was still present.

About an hour ago I went to check on it again, the water and cleared up somewhat which means the free floating particles had a chance to settle. The litter had apparently absorbed its maximum amount of liquid as the substrate didn't appear to be any higher. I had originally thought the litter would become rock hard based on what it does in the litter box. Though if I would have thought it out it's not a very logical assumption since in a litterbox there are large amounts of litter with a relatively small amount of liquid, once submerged the litter can only absorb so much. It did however become somewhat solid, I'd say it was the density and firmness of modeling clay (hehe get it clay). Oh, and it did still faintly smell of the fragrance.

So, all in all and interesting little experiment, I don't think I would feel safe adding this particular brand to my aquarium. I would be interested to know if a pure clay litter would react the same as I think it would be a pain in the butt to clean out your aquarium if you decided to change substrates.