Re: [APD] Refreshing old substrate (repost)

["Louis Lin" <lhclin at tickquest_com>]

I am also waiting a response for this as I have almost exactly
the same setup as yours (except my tank is 6 years old with no peat),
and I am considering replacing the old substrate with flourite.
My main motivation is the old substrate does not hold fine root
plants very well.

I am leaning towards a complete substrate replacement for
the following reasons:

- I don't think a flourite mixed with substrate will
   look nice in my tank.
- Seachem recommends at least 50% flourite.  If I am going to
   put in 50% flourite and taking out 50% of old substrate, I
   may as well do a complete replacement.
- It will not be possible to re-separate the substrate if I don't
   like the result of 50/50 mix.
- While flourite is not cheap, I figure 7-10 bags will be enough for
   me (check out www.mops.on.ca, their list price is lower
   than Cdn$25).  The flourite probably will last several years and
   the per year cost is quite reasonable.
- It is a good opportunity to catch fish I don't want and do
  some replanting.
-----------------
Louis Lin
TickQuest Inc    www.tickquest.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pete" <peteal at sympatico_ca>
To: <Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com>
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 9:57 AM
Subject: [APD] Refreshing old substrate (repost)


> Hello, sorry for the repost but was really hoping someone would have a
> some info on cleaning up old gravel and maybe adding some Flourite.
> Thanks
> Peter.
>
> Hello, I was thinking of adding some flourite into a 4 year old 90gal tank
> at the same time as refreshing the gravel.  Tank is heavily planted, CO2
> 350Watt MH lighting,  med fish load, no substrate heating.
>
> Toying with the idea as the substrate at present is regular gravel 2-3mm
> grain size with peat at the bottom that may or may not still be their
after
> all the times I'v pulled plants out and gotten a chuck of peat with it ;).
> It's also old and while I haven't hard any real root problems sometimes I
> plant comes out with some black roots mixed with the good.
>
> So I'm thinking of somehow refreshing the gravel without tearing down the
> tank.  My basic idea was just to remove all plants/driftwood, stir
> up/vacuume the gravel deeply.and replant (fireup the diatom filter for
water
> cleanup ;) ). I thought while I was doing this I could also remove some
> gravel and mix in some flourite. So questions.
>
> 1. Any suggestions about refreshing the old gravel?
> 2. Is it worth putting a couple of bags of flourite mixed in with regular
> gravel? Freeking expensive stuff (seachem. CDN $24.99 for a 15lb bag)
> 3. I'v seen old posts saying this stuff is light. Won't it then slowly
shift
> UP through the gravel and be the top layer which is basically useless for
> plant roots?
> 4. Any other idea ;)
>
> Many thanks
> Pete.
>
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