Has anybody out there tried this type of substrate mixture??

[briankgarrison79]

I'm planning on setting up a 125 planted aquarium shortly. I was thinking about using floarite and onyx substrate from seachem for my substrate, I was told by a pretty reliable friend that I was wasting my money. He knows a friend that tried clay cat litter with nothing added to it on the bottom layer, the second layer was fake sand, and the final layer small/fine gravel. Has anybody tried this idea??? Is he just plain out of his mind or what?? :argue:

[brewmaster15]

HI Brian,

I have not heard this done with the kitty litter. Others here may have heard otherwise.

I never trust advice from a friend of a friend!..Too far removed from the source to have all the details intact. IMO :) Maybe you can have your friend get you their friends contact info and talk direct?

-al

[Don_Lee]

I have heard of people using this method, but it has become less popular the last few years. I would just say that you get what you pay for, and cat litter could theoretically possibly work...but then again, maybe not. If the cat litter has any potentially dangerous substance...bye bye fish and start over with the tank. Seachem Onyx and Flourite is safe and proven. You only buy substrate once, so I would go first class personally. I agree with Al, there are always those out there who want to be different...too bad you cannot see pics of their tanks, lol.

Don

[Larry Grenier]

I just bought Flourite 15 lbs. at ThatFishPlace for 13.49 shipped for what thats worth.

[ShinShin]

Alot of European discus keepers use cat litter as mentioned in their "Dutch" style tanks.

[tpl*co]

I'd worry about additives in kitty litter (fragrance, etc.). I used fluorite and then that Ecco complete. My biggest beef is that it is dark and causes the peppering to come out in my fish :(. So maybe keep this in consideration with the onyx sand since it's dark too (fluorite I think is red?).

[vickie s]

I originally used Onyx and Fluorite in my 125. The Onyx is grey, which I do not like with the red/black Fluorite. I later removed much of the front substrate and mixed in Ecco complete to reduce the grey of the Onyx. I like the darker substrate better. The only issue I have are that the leopards are dark blue. I was lucky, as my golden pigeons have very little pepper and are striking against the plants and dark substrate. If the goldens were really badly peppered I would have been disappointed.
vickie

[briankgarrison79]

Thanks for all of the input on this. The only thing is, if the litter is pure clay without any additives added. What would make any difference from using cat litter thats clean verses florite. With the exception of color?? It should helps the plants grow correct???

[Don_Lee]

Thanks for all of the input on this. The only thing is, if the litter is pure clay without any additives added. What would make any difference from using cat litter thats clean verses florite. With the exception of color?? It should helps the plants grow correct???

If the litter was pure clay then you may have a point....but I would think there are different types and grades of clay. Flourite and Onyx, nor Ecocomplete, are just clay. I would think it could make the plants grow...I would recommend doing a google search on it. Or, you could check out thekrib.com or actwin.com, do searches that might give you some ideas.

Don

[briankgarrison79]

Well, it's been three weeks with some of the clay gravel in my 38 gal with fish and live plants. So far so good, none of the fish died off. It really clouded the tank really bad at first. Thank God for Hot Mag's with micron filter's.

[Condor]

What type of clay did you end up going with?

[briankgarrison79]

Cat's tail's unscented, all natural clay litter. 25lbs for only $5.00 that's not bad at all. :)

[Don_Lee]

Let us know how it works out, I will be interested to hear!

Don

[briankgarrison79]

Well it's been about a month and half, so far no reprecusions on using Cat's tail's unscented. My Java fern and Crypts are doing well with this substrate. On the other hand, I don't know if it's the substrate or the lack of lighting or co2 since I use diy injection threw a powerhead, is killing my mondo grass and corkscrew vals. Any suggestions???? :confused:

[shalu]

lack of nutrients would be the culprit. what's your fert routine?

[briankgarrison79]

Twice a week I use flourish, potasium nitrate, proplant, and tetra pride. :confused:

[shalu]

How much of those are we talking about?

[briankgarrison79]

On the potasium nitrate 1/2 teaspoon twice a week
flourish 1 cap full twice a week
proplant 1 cap full once a week
tetra pride 1 ounce twice a week

On a 38 Gallon Tank

[shalu]

I don't think mondo grass is even an aquatic plant, so no surprise it is not doing well. but corkscrew val is pretty easy plant for me, even under low light/no co2.

I assume you have medium light, with DIY CO2. Then KNO3 takes care of potassium and nitrate. While I don't know anything about tetrapride and proplant, I assume combining them with Flourish gives you enough trace. Why do you use so many different brands of commercial ferts anyway? Diversity here is not necessarily better. The only thing missing obviously is Phosphate(PO4). It can be dosed with KH2PO4, or enema. Keeping it high at 2-3ppm level takes care of lots of algae problem, especially green spots on glass and on anubias leaves. But I can't say for sure that is the problem with your Val, plants usually don't die from low PO4. by the way, what's your kh and gh?

[briankgarrison79]

Just out of being noisy, what fertizers do you use for trace and where can you buy them. Other than the ones I have listed above??? Regular store bought enema???
:(

[shalu]

I buy most of my ferts as dry powder from gregwatson.com, it is about 5% of the cost long term compared to commercial liquid ferts. For macro(NPK), I buy KNO3(for N and K), K2SO4(for K), KH2PO4(PO4, a bit K). In heavily stocked tanks(discus), you need very little to none additional NO3, so you use more K2SO4 than KNO3. For trace, CSM+B and 10%iron chelate(optional) from gregwatson.com. Some experienced aquarists like Tom Barr prefer Tropica Master Grow or regular Flourish(both can be bought at bigalsonline in 2litre to 5litre containers, much cheaper that way) over CSM+B, I use a bit of both.

If your GH is really low(<5, soft water), you need to add some Ca and Mg. If kh is low(<3), be careful with CO2 due to possible ph crash, better buffer it up a bit.