Flourite or laterite. Which is better? - MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum

Spaceman Spiff · 06-11-2001, 02:19 PM

Which works better? I have a tank that has 10% laterite and that works well. In my next tank, I'm going to go Dutch style, which would work better?

Suggestions anyone? ???

arcflame · 06-11-2001, 03:07 PM

If you can afford Flourite, go with that. If you can't and live in the US or somewhere where they sell Schultz garden products (e.g., WalMart), I have a much cheaper alternative: You can get a 25 lb. bag of Schultz Multi-soil conditioner for around $5 at Walmart. It's a baked clay substrate like Flourite is but apparently without the iron. Almost all clays contain some iron, so there's probably some, just not as much as Flourite. Being clay, all other attributes will be similar, i.e., it will absorb and fix nutrients for plant roots. If you can't afford Flourite, get this stuff and a box of laterite, mixing it as you would with gravel. The Schultz stuff is fairly fine grained (about 1-2mm in size) and is a nice light reddish-brown color. You'll need to rinse it VERY thoroughly, just as you would Flourite.

Matt Nace · 06-11-2001, 05:13 PM

I have some of this shultz outside my house as we speak. Picked it up a while ago.
Thinking of redoing one of my 55 gallons.

I read it floats easy, so a thin layer of just gravel on top would be the solution?

What about just the soil conditioner and gravel on top instead of mixing it? ???

arcflame · 06-11-2001, 09:40 PM

It doesn't float for me at all. I know the bag says to put gravel on top of it, but I never had a problem and it's really nice looking too.

dattack · 06-12-2001, 03:27 AM

I use Schultz profile in my 20 and 60 gallon planted aquarium and the plants are doing fine.  You might want to mix it with some regular gravel so you can anchor your plants better.  I didn't use fluorite or laterite because I didn't want to spend like &gt;100 bucks for substrate, instead buying profile which is cheaper.  From this site http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm, it appears that profile contains the same amount of iron as fluorite, so I don't see the difference in these two except for the price of course.

Matt Nace · 06-12-2001, 09:07 AM

dattack---

Very intresting page. I just wish I could find the link to the one I had. I can't believe that the FE content in the Flourite, is as low as the kitty litter. That just seams a bit odd. I wish he would have a second tester, just to back all the results.

Anyway,  How much schults in a 55 gallon (4 inches front   5 inches rear)? Is it 50/50 mix with gravel?

dattack · 06-12-2001, 10:01 AM

Well, going to make a long story short. *My tank was already established with black aquarium gravel already and I really didn't want to tear it up because it was such a big tank already at 60 gallons. *Couldn't afford laterite/fluorite at this point so bought profile. *Place profile into pots/clear containers/plastic cups and and topped it with my black aquarium gravel to cover pots/containers etc. *I did this because I wanted to see if my plants would survive in pots and indeed it does and I keep adding plants on dailyu/weekly basis now where it is 1/2 filled. *When I have time, I will probably tear it all down and change to natural color gravel added with the profile=probably 50/50 is my guess also. *I see an article in that link which showed people applying "micronized iron" in their bottom layer to make their own substrate.  
BTW, the substrate analysis came from this original link http://home.infinet.net/teban/

Spaceman Spiff · 06-12-2001, 02:34 PM

I checked out a 10 kg bag of flourite. ~40.00 Canadian. I could get 40 oz of laterite for ~24.00.

Hmmmmmm. Which to choose?

The laterite is working well. The plants roots are well established and bushy. However I want to have this new tank completely different from the other tank. The new one will be heavily planted. Dutch style.

Any other suggestions or great web sites to do more research? :P

Spaceman Spiff · 06-14-2001, 01:16 AM

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?