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Laterite
>However, for our practical purposes (i.e., growing aquatic plants), is there
>really an *observed*, rather than *hypothetical*, advantage to using bona
>fide laterite rather than Substrate Gold?
It is my understanding that Substrate Gold _is_ laterite. If you're
talking about red "art clay", that's something else again. Remember, that
even all laterite isn't made equal. For those interested in one person's
experiences with a number of different laterite products, here's a list of
the products I've used, and how they have compared some of these products
are not currently available, but I've included them in case someone finds
some in a dusty corner of a store somewhere.
Dupla laterite:
Excellent plant growth
Easy to use
Stays put well
Settles out quickly even when plants are uprooted
Expensive
Now (at least temporarily) not available in North America
Aquarium Products laterite:
Good plant growth
Easy to install initially if left in balls - messy if crushed
A little more likely to cloud water when plants were uprooted
Much less expensive than Dupla
No longer produced
Thiel laterite:
Good plant growth
Funny texture, less clay-y and less red than other laterites
No problems that I remember with either installation or uprooting plants
Sounds like Albert has dropped the product
Substrate Gold
Excellent plant growth (comparable to Dupla)
From what I've read here, the directions say to use more than recommended
by Dupla. I didn't bother to read the directions, and used Dupla-like
quantities with excellent results
_Slightly_ more likely than Dupla to cloud water if you're not careful
filling the tank, but no worse than any of the others.
No problem uprooting plants
Much less expensive than Dupla
Shipped damp, so shipping costs (based on weight) are probably higher, but
less dusty to work with
Can be purchased in big plastic containers, making it easy to store
Tetra Initial D
I have not been happy with growth
_REALLY_ hard to get out of the water if you let it escape from the
substrate during set-up. Not only clouds the water, but turns it green
(not algae, the stuff itself is green)
Cheap
Easy to obtain
Maybe others can fill in their opinions of the other commercial substrate
products, particularly if they've had experience with more than one. It
sounds like the people who are using Flourite are happy with it so far,
though it's been around for a short enough time that it doesn't have much
of a track record yet. I have personally seen beautiful tanks set up with
the Sera product (is it Flora-depot?) and I know Olga and James have
expressed satisfaction with Terralit. Have either of you had experience
with Dupla laterite so you can give us a comparison? Has anyone tried the
Red Sea laterite yet?