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Re: Does bentonite make a good substrate additive for cation exchange? (nt)
- To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
- Subject: Re: Does bentonite make a good substrate additive for cation exchange? (nt)
- From: Wright Huntley <huntley1 at home_com>
- Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 05:01:43 -0700
- References: <199809290748.DAA01999 at acme_actwin.com>
Bob wrote:
> Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 21:03:43 EDT
> From: Zxcvbob at aol_com
> Subject: Does bentonite make a good substrate additive for cation exchange? (nt)
Probably depends on what kind you mean. The "sodium" type that swells
and gels like mad is probably truly great for CEC. The "calcium" kind
(aka Fuller's Earth) is maybe not much good, as the sites may be bound
too tightly with the divalent metals to provide the high CEC. IDK.
Interestingly, most of the Bentonite I have worked with (drillers mud)
is also fairly rich in iron. It would be interesting to see if the
bizarre physical behaviour is or is not a problem in aquaria. If you
have some and try it, I hope the results appear here.
This could be an incredibly cheap replacement for laterite! Maybe even
much better.
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntley1 at home dot com
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