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What is the best substrate for a beginner
I asked this question as a Poll on Wet Thumb, What substrate would you
recommend to a beginner? The choices are Flourite, Eco Complete, Laterite and gravel, peat or soil, amd plain gravel. So far the results are Eco Complete 72% Flourite 11% !! gravel and laterite 6% peat or soil 9% plain gravel 11% Agree or disagree? You can cast your vote he http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.c...2&f=8796060812 |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
(Robert H) wrote:
Eco Complete 72% This is the small-grained black one that's packed wet? I saw it in the stores shortly after I set up my planted tank, but I had the impression it was new - I'll let other people experiment with these things for the kind of price that stuff had. But if it did all it says, I'd definitely consider it for my next planted tank. Flourite 11% !! Hm. I would have expected higher. The only problem I see at all with Flourite is the need for thorough rinsing, and that's a one-time concern. gravel and laterite 6% peat or soil 9% Both sound like a horrible mess to me. -- www.ericschreiber.com |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
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What is the best substrate for a beginner
I have had great success with Eco Complete. It has given me the plant
growth I had with florite with the following benefits: 1) It looks nicer. 2) It does not cloud the water like florite (this is HUGE). 3) It is not as sharp as florite (less likely to scratch acrylic tanks). I will never go back! I also like to put in a little Tahetian Moon Sand in the front for appearance. |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
Let us not forget about Prolfile/Turface/Schultz's aquatic plant soil.
The weight issue can be dealt with by adding 25-50% sand for added weight and ease of planting etc. "Excess"(?) Iron has not caused algae in any tank I have critically tested it on. Algae needs such a small amount and so do plants for that matter before it becomes limiting you simply do not possess a test kit that even comes close. Most researchers do not have the equipment to limit and test for Fe limitation for FW algae. Some Marine specialist do. You will not be able to limit an alga by Fe limitation because you cannot tell if there's enough Fe to become truly limiting or not. A plant leaks and dies/leaf is dropped and decompsed etc and leaks out a tiny amount of Fe and you would not even get a chance to test it before it was assimilated etc. A similar thing happens with NH4 but at higher concentrations. Regards, Tom Barr |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
I do not like the notion that Flora base and Eco complete claim saying that you do not need CO2 using their product. You must be thinking of Florabase, I know nothing about Florabase, but Eco Complete makes no such claim about C02 "Eco complete is new...untested" It is still fairly new, its been out about a year now. And lots of people are using it...several AGA contest winners One of the most favorite and simplest reasons why people like this over Flourite is it requires no rinsing. No dust whatsoever. Here is what they DO claim: Contains over 25 minerals and nutrients Is pH neutral, will not raise hardness or ph All natural, no dyes Is pre packed in two layers, a fine layer for the bottom and a course layer for the top (bi-modal grading automaticaly separates into two distinc layers no matter how you dump it in the tank) Fine layer for root development, course layer which brings oxygen and nutrients to the roots Is packed in Liquid Amazon Black water Contains live heterotrophic bacteria If someone like Tom wants the details, here it is iron 41,625.02 ppm magnesium 23, 116.30 ppm calcium 33, 065.61 ppm potassium 5,296.37 ppm zinc 77.78 ppm sulfur 360.81 ppm Manganese 975.71 ppm sodium 12,910.97 ppm aluminum 43,152.08 ppm silicon 4,498.92 ppm chromium 49.76 ppm cobalt 33.41 ppm barium 336.91 ppm strontium 278.09 ppm nickel 32.80 ppm titanium 4,486.78 ppm vanadium 239.01 ppm lithium 8.37 ppm boron 2.26 ppm cadium1.61 ppm Flourite contains: Iron thats it. Cost is not that much more than Flourite. But, I still use Flourite in some tanks. So, if you are a Flourite fan, come vote for it! It needs your vote! Robert Hudson www.aquabotanic.com |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
I find it hard to understand all the fuss about Flourite and the dust
it creates. Have we all lost our patience? Sure it creates some dust but it clears up in a day or two. I would have thought that color or growth quality would be the biggest reason why one would choose between the two. In my case the color is the only reason why I'm not using it, I prefer the more natural look of Flourite myself. Eco-complete seems to have many trace elements that Flourite doesn't have, I can see the benefit there as you won't need to add them yourself, obviously time will tell how long these elements will be available for, plus once the Flourite substrate has matured, chances are it will provide many of these elements too. But unless you plan on building sand castles in your tank, I think the dust factor of Flourite shouldn't be made into such a big deal. Messing around with any substrate will cause problems, and it's not the dust you need to worry about. If we're talking about best substrate for beginners, then perhaps the fact that eco-complete already contains some nutrients may give it the advantage, but I don't think it will make or break a tank, if you are successful with eco-complete I'm sure you would be just as successful with Flourite. Giancarlo Podio |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 06:21:37 UTC,
) wrote: "Excess"(?) Iron has not caused algae in any tank I have critically tested it on. Algae needs such a small amount and so do plants for that matter before it becomes limiting you simply do not possess a test kit that even comes close. Most researchers do not have the equipment to limit and test for Fe limitation for FW algae. Some Marine specialist do. Not quite my experience. A commercial low-iron test kit will read 0.1 ppm nicely enough; and if I let the concentration get below that, my crypts get ugly. But certainly there are lots of algae that will grow at that concentration, so stopping algae by limiting iron isn't a useful idea. A lot of people talk of _hair_ algae, specifically, being promoted by high Fe concentration. I wonder if there's something to that. (But what does it matter? If people are adding iron in order to grow plants, they surely have algae-eating fish, and they'll never see hair algae. If they don't have algae eaters, it's hopeless anyway.) -- Dan Drake http://www.dandrake.com |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
"Robert H" wrote in message
om... Flourite contains: Iron thats it. Let's not oversimplify things... The content of a substrate is not necessarily the most important thing. Ya gotta ask if the minerals are very AVAILABLE to plants... Check this out: http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Engle DFW, TX USA Independent Associate Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. http://www.prepaidlegal.com/go/dengle |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
"Robert H" wrote in message
om... Flourite contains: Iron thats it. Let's not oversimplify things... The content of a substrate is not necessarily the most important thing. Ya gotta ask if the minerals are very AVAILABLE to plants... Check this out: http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Engle DFW, TX USA Independent Associate Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. http://www.prepaidlegal.com/go/dengle |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
"Robert H" wrote in message
om... Flourite contains: Iron thats it. Let's not oversimplify things... The content of a substrate is not necessarily the most important thing. Ya gotta ask if the minerals are very AVAILABLE to plants... Check this out: http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Engle DFW, TX USA Independent Associate Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. http://www.prepaidlegal.com/go/dengle |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
"Robert H" wrote in message
om... Flourite contains: Iron thats it. Let's not oversimplify things... The content of a substrate is not necessarily the most important thing. Ya gotta ask if the minerals are very AVAILABLE to plants... Check this out: http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Engle DFW, TX USA Independent Associate Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. http://www.prepaidlegal.com/go/dengle |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
"Dan Drake" wrote in
news:vhIsdqY67dTD-pn2-4tZMfVbxteyh@localhost: A lot of people talk of _hair_ algae, specifically, being promoted by high Fe concentration. I wonder if there's something to that. (But what does it matter? If people are adding iron in order to grow plants, they surely have algae-eating fish, and they'll never see hair algae. If they don't have algae eaters, it's hopeless anyway.) I have seen this in action. One of my eels (a yellow-tailed spiny eel) dug up a laterite ball inadvertently. I only noticed because hair algae came in like mad, fast enough that I could see lots of stubble despite the two large and industrious SAEs in the tank. When I buried the laterite again, the hair algae ebbed. ~Empty -- 'You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.' Spike |
What is the best substrate for a beginner
"Dan Drake" wrote in
news:vhIsdqY67dTD-pn2-4tZMfVbxteyh@localhost: A lot of people talk of _hair_ algae, specifically, being promoted by high Fe concentration. I wonder if there's something to that. (But what does it matter? If people are adding iron in order to grow plants, they surely have algae-eating fish, and they'll never see hair algae. If they don't have algae eaters, it's hopeless anyway.) I have seen this in action. One of my eels (a yellow-tailed spiny eel) dug up a laterite ball inadvertently. I only noticed because hair algae came in like mad, fast enough that I could see lots of stubble despite the two large and industrious SAEs in the tank. When I buried the laterite again, the hair algae ebbed. ~Empty -- 'You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.' Spike |
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