Flourite

[keprydak]

I was wondering - what do you all think about flourite as a substrate in a planted tank? I'm about get a planted one, and I've heard good things about flourite over laterite. And also, if my tank is 25 gallons, about how many pounds will I need?

i would reccomend flourite if you are going to do a planted tank. wash the he.l outta it though - it will really cloud up your water. the plants thrive in it and it provides alot of nutrients to them. might want to consider a mixture of gravel and flourite..you will get better results. it really depends on what you decide to do. if you mix with gravel i would say a 15lb bag of gravel and a 15lb bag of flourite should do nicely. other than that - i would go with 30lbs of flourite. that will give you a nice thick layer to plant into. hope i could help

[Matt Nace]

100% flourite is the way to go. Only mix it with gravel if you are trying to cut costs. You wont need laterite..if you use flourite.

Flourite has Iron in it, and also adsorbs nutrients from the water for the roots.

30# is not enough, unless your tank is a high tank.

I wanted 4 to 6 inches in depth. I used 60# in my 29 gallon. It gave me great depth in the gravel, which I wanted. I say 45#(3 bags of seachems) You may have some left over, but then you have it if you need it.

Discus is right..you will need to wash it real, real, good. even then, your water will cloud...but will be fine in a few days. I used a micron filter to get the dust out.

8)

[keprydak]

45lbs?! eek, lol. Yeah well, I am trying to cut costs cause I don't have a very large budget. I only want some warf saggitarias and bacopa or vallis or something, so nothing hugely deep rooting. No swords or anything like that anyway. this is my first planted tank (the tank itself is also 20" high). Well thanks for the advice  ;D

[SegaDojo]

Try to have atleast 2" of substrate for your plants.

I have two tanks (one 100% Seachem Flourite, other mixture of Aquarium Pharmeceutical's First Layer).  The growth in both tanks are comparable.. and one thing to consider is that Aquarium Pharmeceuticals recommends using 1oz of their product per gallon.  So in your 25g, all you'll need is 25 oz.  I suspect that the AP First Layer is more rich in nutrients than the Seachem Laterite.

One bonus of using the First Layer is that you can use your choice of gravel to mix with.. I'm not all that attracted to the Seachem Laterite's red/black colour, and the shape of the laterite makes it harder for the plants to root.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Ok ok, what's going on.

I checked out some laterite and fluorite prices today and the LFS shows me this new stuff.

I'm tempted, tempted........

It's the newest stuff........

It's pure clay mixed with iron............

It's what everyone in europe is using..........

I lifted the bag. 10K of pure clay mixed with iron suppliments and baked to a yummy small 3 - 5 mm size. It looks like clay. It smells like clay. It is produced by Red Sea products. This looks like it would replace fluortie. The only problem is that it costs $ 60!

Has anyone heard of this stuff from Red sea? It looks like a replacement for laterite and fluorite.


Comments?

[clothahump]

If you want to save money find your self some pond plant compost, it is used for water lilies, this makes a good base layer for the planted aquarium.
It is usually a mix of clays and sand that do exactly the same job as Florite/Laterite. 8)

[Matt Nace]

I just put schultz multi-soil conditioner in...and it is working well. The gravel was actually not needed. The trick is to have a thick substrate. Mine is 5 to 6 inches. The roots have a lot more room to grow, and they havent come up(even the bunch plants like camboda, foxtail, anachris)

Sure is "dusty" . It is way more dusty than my flourite....but not as big a job to clean like the flourite was.