Re: [APD] Natural pea gravel, a high iron substrate

[Paul M Wallace <pwallace at u_washington.edu>]

With the quoted article in hand:

"Natural River Rock - (manufacturer unknown) - very hard calcined clay; light beige; resembles aquarium gravel; 2-5mm in size; no organic matter."

"Sand - sediment particles. Most common form is silicon dioxide (SiO2). Size 0.05-2mm. No nutrient or CEC value. pH-inert."

Which leads to the conslusion that sand (and pea gravel) is different than calcined clay.  If cost is an issue, there are products marketed a "aquatic soil" at home improvment stores.  Most report that that the material is very light and does not plant as well as fluorite.  If you do mix fluorite and playsand, keep in mind that larger bits tend to rise with time.

-Paul


On Thu, 6 Oct 2005, T. Bently Durant wrote:

> The reference for this question is http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm
>
> Jamie's tables on that page list a natural river rock substrate with
> outrageous values on all essential minerals.  It leaves fluorite in the dust
> (pun intended)  But can it actually be leached out by the plant roots or is
> it just there but unavailable.
>
> I'm about to set up a 140 gallon planted dutch tank and I want to do it
> right the first time.  My initial idea was a thin layer of sphagnum peat
> covered with fluorite and topped with playsand.  However, the pet store is
> selling the tank with several 50lb bags of blasting sand as substrate (which
> is a very fine river rock as I understand it)  So should I consider the
> blasting sand to be as fertile as the fluorite?
>
>
>
> T. Bently Durant
>
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