My Planted Tank Journey

[paulc]

Journal Entry

I'm still on the search for my new substrate and things have changed a bit. Samoa is now out of the running with Senegal in second. The new entry at number one is Unipac's Limpopo



I have seen several images of this in tanks and looks pretty neat.

 

[paulc]

...covering the biology of plants.......feeding.....

I've not read the book, but always be wary of (older) books and the feeding part - They sometimes re-regurgitate the old skOOl ways or mix in a bit of CO2 knowledge with old info etc

Thanks mate, i'll bare that in mind. Publish date on this book is 2003.

 

[paulc]

Journal Entry

After chatting with Minnnt yesterday it appears that Unipac have changed their Limpopo to a darker mix. This can be seen over on Spurry's thread here. I'm not keen on this as it is practically black!

This pushed Senegal back to the top but then Minnnt mentioned Cat litter. Now having owned cats in the past I thought cat litter was either that nasty grey stuff or the posh white catsan stuff - but no - it comes in Senegal flavour too

I was pointed to Tizers thread in the members tank section where he set up his swimming pool large tank using cat litter (this is an excellent thread and well worth a read - pg 13 is where he starts using the Tescos cat litter).

I spent a fair amount of time looking at threads from various forums and plenty of photos and IMO this looks to be a very good substrate and it's flipping cheap and I have a Tescos 2 minutes up the road.

This is the stuff:



... and in situe (photo courtesy of spyderuk over on Planted Tank) :



Looks like it may be a pain in the backside to wash but at £3 a bag! I think I will get a bag and put some in my tank to see what it looks like.

 

[Tizer]

its worth a go, one thing i would do is order yourself a packet of root tabs to put at the bottom under the substrate, the cat litter has literally nada in it that's good for the plants, unlike all the planted substrates, so root tabs will help kick things off.

 

[paulc]

its worth a go, one thing i would do is order yourself a packet of root tabs to put at the bottom under the substrate, the cat litter has literally nada in it that's good for the plants, unlike all the planted substrates, so root tabs will help kick things off.

Thanks Tizer - any particular brand you have found works well? I'm guessing that once the nutrients build up that the cat litter will store the extra and there will be no need to keep adding root tabs? I am daily dosing with AE Nourish and Nourish+

 

[SO19Firearms]

Proper root tabs, as opposed to the clay ball jobs - That would be like putting clay balls under clay polygons
Or a nice thin layer of Osmocote

 

[paulc]

Proper root tabs, as opposed to the clay ball jobs - That would be like putting clay balls under clay polygons
Or a nice thin layer of Osmocote

lol - got it. I have some tetra plant crypto tabs - so dotting 10 around the planted area should do the job?

 

[SO19Firearms]

lol - got it. I have some tetra plant crypto tabs - so dotting 10 around the planted area should do the job?

Just read the PDF for them, it contains such comedy highlights as -

activates biological gravel conditions which lead to lush, healthy plant growth and increased
root formation.

and the best bit

It does not add nitrate or phosphate, avoiding over-fertilization of the water and
unwanted algae growth.

So no, not so much
Stick them in though if you've already got them, but attribute any of the above to your own green thumbs

IMO

 

[paulc]

Journal Entry

Popped round to Tescos and picked up a bag of cat litter. I thought I would do a quick test to see if I like this as a substrate so I washed about a litre of the stuff and boy it took some washing. I'm not even sure I got all the dust off as it seemed to produce more every time I swirled it around in the bucket. None the less I got it to a stage where I was happy with it.

My quick test was to simply put some down onto of the existing gravel to see what it looked like (pics below).







I like it TBH - it does look a lot better in real life.

 

[SO19Firearms]

Looks top notch to me

 

[Mcbenthy]

Journal Entry

Popped round to Tescos and picked up a bag of cat litter. I thought I would do a quick test to see if I like this as a substrate so I washed about a litre of the stuff and boy it took some washing. I'm not even sure I got all the dust off as it seemed to produce more every time I swirled it around in the bucket. None the less I got it to a stage where I was happy with it.

My quick test was to simply put some down onto of the existing gravel to see what it looked like (pics below).


I like it TBH - it does look a lot better in real life.

I quite like the look of that. Actually definitely prefer it to your current gravel...

I may have a look at this as my next substrate for either the large tank downstairs, or for my gf's new nano she is contemplating...

 

[paulc]

Thanks Guys

It really makes the plants stand out thats for sure and even the peppered cories are now clearly visible where as before they kind of blended into the gravel. It certainly is darker then senegal and less sandy - but i'm lovin it. Substrate - chosen.

A huge thanks to Minnnt for getting me to check it out - nice one mate

 

[paulc]

Journal Entry

Ok have bought 2 bags in total which should be enough. I have washed both bags and left them to soak over night as well. One thing I noticed, when putting the cat litter in water for the first time it left off a gass which stank. I'm guessing this is the Oder control? It wasn't dust. Anyway, tomorrow I will wash again.

The wife doesn't like the colour by the way - thinks it looks like red Tarmac! Once I showed her tizers planted version she accepted it though - phew, thanks Tizer

 

[Tizer]

lols I never smelt anything myself, but i did spend a LONG time washing it and you are right, it seems to constantly shed colour. Keep an eye on your water param, when i added it to my small tank, i ended up with a coating of red over the sponges in the filter and i cant be 100% sure but i think it slightly knocked my filtration for a few days as i had to do a couple of water changes. Simply go bananas cleaning it, i found stiring it with a wooden spoon in a bucket the best method, about 30+ times

 

[paulc]

lols I never smelt anything myself, but i did spend a LONG time washing it and you are right, it seems to constantly shed colour. Keep an eye on your water param, when i added it to my small tank, i ended up with a coating of red over the sponges in the filter and i cant be 100% sure but i think it slightly knocked my filtration for a few days as i had to do a couple of water changes. Simply go bananas cleaning it, i found stiring it with a wooden spoon in a bucket the best method, about 30+ times

Thanks for the advice, it's now in a big bucket and I have washed it again. I think every time you stir it it releases more colour! Did it stop turning the water red for you eventually?