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Premoistened Kitty Litter




>It would seem that washing the kitty litter prior to use would remove 
one of
>the biggest negative points to using this substance - its habit of 
fouling
>the water column with colloidal clay particles when disturbed. Is there 
a
>reason for recommending that kitty litter NOT be washed prior to using 
it in
>a substrate?
>
>Would any of the "kitty litter brigade" care to comment? Do any of you 
wash
>your litter prior to use? Would doing so affect/remove anything 
valuable
>from the material?

I used kitty litter several times, On it's own I don't really like it, 
as uprooting creates a awful mess.  getting it wet before hand I 
actually reccomend!  Getting the stuff saturated with water BEFORE you 
put the gravel on top of it is necessary, because otherwise the stuff 
swells and causes dips and hills in your lovely substrate as it expands 
when it takes on water.  (I had a 2" layer turn into a 3 1/2 to 4" 
hellish mess.) This made a teardown almost 100% necessary, as the gravel 
was uneven and the water had gone all cloudy from exposed areas.
Now when I use it in a subsrate (I use it for clay balls too) I mix it 
with other substances.  Currently I'm only using it on a ten gallon 
setup using equal parts of sand, kitty litter (premoistened) and peat 
moss, (with a little bit of micronized iron, and dolomite for ph 
reasons)  I haven't had any differences in plant growth from 
premoistened kitty litter, I don't think it makes much difference at 
all.  

Hope this helps,
Kevin


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