Cat Litter Substrate

[jojouk]

It took me HOURS! Gave up in the end and only did one bag!

I thought about soaking in ferts, wish I had now!

 

[LucyB]

Can someone just explain - Why would you use cat litter in an aquarium? Do you use it like gravel, or like when you dirt an aquarium and put it underneath another substrate to provide nutrients for the plants?

 

[SO19Firearms]

Why would you use cat litter in an aquarium?

Think of it as an uncharged battery - It will charge up with nutrients from the tank - added or natural making them available 24hrs. It has a high C.E.C value - a lot of clays do.

 

[DrRob]

It's also rather cheap, which is nice sometimes in this hobby.

I've just used some as a substrate in a holding tank. It was never really designed to look pretty, but it does need to grow some plants. The cat litter isn't actually a bad look, but a little pink for the fish in there (they tend to the orange/pink in colour and it's washing them out to be honest), but it would look great with greens and blues. As a planted medium for the price though, it's great.

 

[Salam]

Can someone just explain - Why would you use cat litter in an aquarium? Do you use it like gravel, or like when you dirt an aquarium and put it underneath another substrate to provide nutrients for the plants?

A - It's cheap.
B - It looks pretty.
C - My plants have grown like never before.

 

[LucyB]

Okay thanks guys I understand now

 

[hensonc4098]

Can someone just explain - Why would you use cat litter in an aquarium? Do you use it like gravel, or like when you dirt an aquarium and put it underneath another substrate to provide nutrients for the plants?

And you use it like a gravel - you don't need to top it off with anything unless you really want to.

If you look at Salam's journal then you'll see it in action. Minnnt also uses it in his journal.

It took me HOURS! Gave up in the end and only did one bag!

I thought about soaking in ferts, wish I had now!

I've just left it. I think if it kicks up in the tank I'll just chuck plenty filter floss in the external and that'll sort it out. I'll have enough flow kicking through it to clear it up pretty swift anyways

Seems like a good idea in theory, not sure how much it will actually soak up in practise but it's worth a go. I've got the substrate just covered with water (about an inch depth over the top of it and one bag per tub. Then dechlorinator to a rough guess and 10ml TNC complete in each (mega overdose but no fish in there so don't matter )

 

[DrRob]

I was a little lazy washing mine but, as you said, a filter (in this case a spare internal), packed with floss, cleared it in no time, although it did need the floss rinsing once or twice on day 1.

I'm probably going to cap some in the main display, again on colour issues.

 

[hensonc4098]

I'm not too bothered about the colour since for one the tank is going to be heavily planted high tech, so you're not going to see a lot of it, and for two I'm planning on things like cardinals, emperors and threadfin rainbows which are mainly blue and black

 

[minnnt]

Best thing to do is to mix in some osmocote plant fertiliser.

 

[hensonc4098]

Best thing to do is to mix in some osmocote plant fertiliser.

Instead of soaking in ferts? I have time to spare anyways as far as that goes until my drop checker arrives. Then I'll order plants and get the ball rolling

 

[minnnt]

Yep. It is slow release. The cat litter will eventually take on excess nutrients that aren't used up by the plants, but that can take a while. The Osmocote will start to feed the roots straight away.

 

[shrimply]

Yep. It is slow release. The cat litter will eventually take on excess nutrients that aren't used up by the plants, but that can take a while. The Osmocote will start to feed the roots straight away.

Hi kinda hi-jacking here so I apologise but it is relevantish. I'm hoping to set up a low tech planted tank, in my new Vicenza 180, I was just going to go with cat litter but now I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to get some nutrients in there initially. Getting Osmocote here in the UK seems to be pretty difficult and pricey though, and there is so many different variants that my head began to hurt shortly after starting reading different peoples opinions about which type was best.

Miracle-gro have a slow release product which is very similar to Osmocote, for those that don't know Miracle-gro is a brand name used by Scotts as is Osmocote.
The product lable for the miracle-gro product can be found here

http/www.lovethegarden.com/files/mg-sr-ap-pf-label.pdf

Comparing it to Osmocote Plus ( which often seems to be the recommended product) there isn't that many differences

https/docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:EmauHwP-jzMJ:www.alliedbotanical.com/pdf/Osmocote15912.pdf+osmocote+plus+label&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh0VvRGWTT1JenqvuUA1YPtzPpjesnAbuhcBJPuglQKn0Slm_omdGzIZTD_pXK0wImitH3t3boiJ7e_RXRuX59gefNwxjBWqrSGSPSkD-Ai3GHtcCbeZSLme2_9BtUBPbs4gcrP&sig=AHIEtbQnQDlPUe2Hw1KdEnt0hNXMwXiSEg

Pretty much everything is there although the quantities differ slightly, anyone got any thoughts?

 

[minnnt]

Any slow release fertiliser that is peletted should be fine. Osmocote will always be more expensive as it is the leading brand and commercially used by plant nurseries, garden centres and growers alike.

 

[hensonc4098]

I've got root tabs already to put as a base instead of osmocote. Same thing really - more expensive, but I already have them And the clay is soaking in ferts, so should be all good.