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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #804



>Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 02:08:45 -0500
>From: "James Purchase" <jpurch at interlog_com>
>Subject: RE: Clay Balls in the substrate

>O.K., seems that my experience and observation here is not unique - the 
>clay should probably dissolve and migrate within the substrate.

Perhaps the fertilizer is causing the clay balls to not hold together as 
regular clay does. The Duplarit-K balls held their shape for months and did 
not dissolve and drift much at all. But they did have plant roots in and 
around them when we pulled up plants for trimming. 

>George, would you care to comment on "massive laterite layer" vs "Dupla
>substrate"? 

When I set up a tank, the "bottom 1/3 of the gravel" (50-70 pounds) gets 
about 1 pound of Duplarit-G. It gets mixed in (a very messy job, BTW) and 
it acts as kind of a coloring for the gravel. In no way does it form a 
clay-like layer. The texture of the mix is still that of gravel - it is 
just more red than plain gravel. I can't think of an analogy right now but 
I'm sure there is one.  When I've torn down one of these tanks, there is a 
solid thin layer of red "dust" on tne bottom (some has settled) but there 
is still laterite in the gravel. It does get stirred and mixed into the 
upper layer a bit as plants are uprooted but settles out within hours. 

>Assuming of course that the laterite in Substrate Gold
>(mined in the USA) is similar in properties and form factor as the Dupla
>product (mined in S.E.Asia I believe),  

Sri Lanka

>would following the higher
>application rates be more or less effective? 

Based on my experiences, I would not want "more effective" even if it were 
possible. Are you asking if more Duplarit should be used or if less 
Substrate Gold could be used? I've never used S.G. but I would NOT use more 
Duplarit than recommended - that amount seems to work just fine. And, as 
Pushack points out, it ain't cheap. 

>Substrate Gold also has an
>additional fertilizer component which is absent in Duplarit G.

We don't really know what is in Duplarit-G. When you set up the substrate, 
they include some "root-starter" tablets (which I assume is a simple N-P-K 
fertilizer) to be mixed in with the laterite. I assume this is used to 
create some initial fertility until the heating coils can bring water-borne 
nutirents into the substrate (if, in fact, they do).  

George Booth, Ft. Collins, Colorado (booth at frii_com)
  Back on-line! New URL! Slightly new look! Same good data!
    http://www.frii.com/~booth/AquaticConcepts/