Substrate

[jamie2010]

hi all. i need some help please,my wonderful fiance badgered me into decorating our living room and changing my rio 125 to a 180. so i transfered all the water and matured filters over to the new tank and because i was being hasselled to get it done on the quick i just washed up some bags pf non toxic play sand and put that straight in.id been experimenting with planting my old rio 125 and really wanted to do the same with the 180.so the question i need answering is can i add a decent planting substrate as i already have just a plain sand one?what do you all think?

 

[14gtr14]

you want to add a planting substrate to your sand substrate? I wouldn't use ADA or eco complete to add. But I would use laterite, which has some great reviews on here and other places. I have it in a 15 gallon just now, testing it out really.

thanks, greg

 

[jamie2010]

yeah thats the deal'i wana add some kind of nutriant rich substrate to my sand.is it possible without making my sand look rubbish?

 

[14gtr14]

the laterite makes the sand look much more natural imo. they look like little red/brown pebbles...and there are very little of them compared to the sand as you only need a smallish box to go in a full tank.

 

[jamie2010]

and i do what?mix it with the sand?or lay it on top? i like the sound of this idea

 

[jamie2010]

oh and can i add this to an established aquarium?or will it upset the parameters?

 

[Themuleous]

given that the tank is already up and running, probably easiest to just mix it into the sand where you can. Laterite shouldn't affect the water chem as far as I know

Sam

 

[Squid]

given that the tank is already up and running, probably easiest to just mix it into the sand where you can. Laterite shouldn't affect the water chem as far as I know

Sam

I asked a similar question about how i would add further laterite to my established tank (with old laterite), so that i could get on with planting more. Jimboo advised me to target the laterite at the roots of the plant that you are planting.. he said....:

Drop it to 50% put everything in buckets apart from the fish and when adding the laterite use a gravel vac tube. make a ditch in the substrate along your planting areas, dig the tube into the substrate in the ditch, add laterite into the top of the tube (above water level) and kind of slowly sweep along spreading the laterite out. then quickly pull the sides of the ditch together burying the laterite.

if you just drop it in the water you wont be able to see a thing for the red dust. (rince it first obviously but not too much. just so the water is merky as opposed to thick and gungy red)

Hope that helps.
Squid

 

[George Farmer]

If you stick to sand then personally I'd go for root tabs or similar.

Laterite can be pain to work with and can leech excess iron into the water column if you retro-install it. It contain only iron too, where as other more modern products contain a host of nutrients.

Sure it works, but there are far superior products available. I know this from experience.

Root tabs etc. are easy, just target the plant in question or simply insert a load uniformly throughout the substrate.

http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...amp;cPath=8_221

The new Tropica capsules are excellent.

 

[jamie2010]

thanks guys thats pointed me in some kind of direction now.thats my weekend taken care of.so im ok just to plant straight into the sand and just suppliment most if not all the nutrients through root tabs and the like? i may need to add more sand though,im only about an inch and half deep.im running 2 nutrafin co2 units,i belive they're good for about 70 litres a piece.so they should handle my rio 180.