RED CLAY AS FERTZ???

[mike046]

Hope someone can help me out I'm planning to add sand to my BB tank(125gl) but I want to add plants....amazons,crypts,rotelas,I saw a few clips on YouTube Dustin's fish tanks and I see he adds a mexican red clay to the bottom of his tanks I was wondering ,if can be done with clay on the bottom and sand ontop or should I use fluorite and sand ontop.

[jerman]

If the tank has water n it already and your not going to fully drain it, then definitely go withe the fluorite. Pouring clay into a tank with water in it would be a disaster ....clay is always a risk because if it gets disturbed and into the water column your tank will take forever to clear up. Discuss hunting bloodworms/food in a tank (botton)with substrate can make a big mess

[Wahter]

Hope someone can help me out I'm planning to add sand to my BB tank(125gl) but I want to add plants....amazons,crypts,rotelas,I saw a few clips on YouTube Dustin's fish tanks and I see he adds a mexican red clay to the bottom of his tanks I was wondering ,if can be done with clay on the bottom and sand ontop or should I use fluorite and sand ontop.

Dustin? He has that video where's he's cursing about using an Eheim filter (because it leaked), but he only mentioned once that he got those USED. No telling what the previous owner did to them.

Only add clay if you're setting up a tank, if it's already setup, skip the clay.

Flourite will be dusty at first, but it can be washed and added to an existing established tank.

I'd skip the sand on top of Flourite idea. I don't know why so many people want to layer sand on top of larger gravel substrates? I see this so often on here. What will happen is that the finer sand is going to eventually trickle down into the bottom through the Flourite. An exaggerated example is like this:

1.) Fill a large jar halfway with marbles
2.) Now fill the rest of the jar with sand

See the sand going/ trickle down? As time goes on, more and more sand will go down. Don't forget, with a sand substrate, you potentially could have some dead spots, so you should periodically stir it up a bit. Stir up what's in the jar. More sand goes down.

Now imagine what happens when you have to remove a plant? Cap that jar up and shake it really well. Look at what's left - a mixture of sand and Flourite. Not quite what you wanted to see, is it?

The only way I think someone should mix sand and Flourite is like I did for my tank:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?94739-My-125-gallon-planted-tank

If you want, you can keep plants potted in Fluorite and then lay sand on the bottom of the tank.

Hope this helps,


Walter

[Jonnywhoop]

good info

[DerekFF]

Some people add clay in dirt tanks to act as a floculate and add a little iron into the mix. Usually not more than 5-10% of the total mass of the substrate should clay in any case

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