Laterite

[Incitic]

I am planning on having swords, val and maybe some HC and some stems in my larger tank in the near future. Ive been looking into laterite and while I can still grow these plants in my tank without laterite, would they really benefit from a nutrient rich substrate so much as to counter balance the cost? Im looking to just replace 1/3 of the gravel with laterite at this point.

 

[macgyver]

I am planning on having swords, val and maybe some HC and some stems in my larger tank in the near future. Ive been looking into laterite and while I can still grow these plants in my tank without laterite, would they really benefit from a nutrient rich substrate so much as to counter balance the cost? Im looking to just replace 1/3 of the gravel with laterite at this point.

Since I redid my tank a few months back and put laterite and an undergravel heater cable things have been going swimmingly (excuse the pun! ) so if you have the money I would invest in some laterite, my plants have grown like never before with beatiful green leaves and foliage. good luck!

 

[Discomafia]

I'm interested in seeing how much of a difference would 1/3 laterite make? I might be doing the same thing, and want to know if I can get away with just replacing a portion of my substrate with laterite.

 

[Jen]

Swords suck up alot of nutrients from their roots. The root systems get huge as well. I don't know much about the HC, but I know val is a root feeder as well. If you don't plan on having a nutrient substrate, then you would have to add in root tabs quite often. Probably 3 a month for the sword, and probably 2 a month for the val, depending on how much val - maybe 1 tab for 10 plants, but as it sends off more runners, they tabs will get depleated faster. Check into the cost of the tabs, and weigh the cost of them over a year with the cost of the laterite.

I was told by a few members here that the laterite should set your tank for about 2 years.

 

[Incitic]

Thanks Jen. Would having 1/3 be effective though?

 

[George Farmer]

If you know where you plan on planting your biggest root-feeders then you can target the laterite in those areas.

Cut the bottom off a plastic yoghurt pot or similar
Insert pot into gravel
Siphon out gravel
Insert laterite/gravel mix
Top-up with plain gravel
Remove pot

Simple as that and mosre efficient than distributing the laterite over the whole tank.

Obviously it's better if you have an "end-plan" as to where you wish to plant.