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Substrate/CEC research



Hi All,

I've got a little more research to share. Chris Coleman sent me a 
sample of Natural River Rock. His LFS sells it and he wanted it 
tested. Pete Rose sent me a sample of Turface. I tested both for 
total metals and CEC. Both samples resembled each other almost 
identically, except the NRR had small, dark colored pebbles 
included. Both crushed rather easily with the mortar and pestal into 
a beige sand, unlike the brick-like Fluorite sample. Total metals 
were analyzed from the crushed sample and the CEC was 
anaylzed from the intact sample.

Element      Turface(mg/kg) Natural River Rock(mg/kg)

Al                  6590                  9740
As				8.0			         <
Ba                  124                    217
Be                  0.7                     0.9
Ca                 3640                  2560
Cd                  0.3                      <
Co                  2.6                     4.2
Cr                  15.8                   27.1
Cu                  4.1                     2.1
Fe                10700                 14300
K                   3210                   3500
Mg                 2730                   3150
Mn                  96                     104
Na                  574                    642
Ni                  11.8                     8.3
Pb                  6.6                      <
Sb                   <                        <
Se                   <                        <
Sn                   <                        < 
Tl                    <                         <
V                   10.4                    10.3
Zn                  33.4                    30.6
Ag                   <                         <

CEC Values:                     Turface   29.8 meq./100g
                                        NRR       34.6 meq./100g

Old ones for comparison:    Sand     <0.1 meq./100g
                                        Topsoil   24.3 meq./100g
                                        Litter      27.0 meq./100g
                                        Fluorite   1.7  meq./100g
I know there are probably dozens of commerically prepared 
substrates (Dupla, Substrate Gold, etc.) for sale out there. Anyone 
that has a COMMERICALLY prepared product they want tested 
(metals and CEC), and are willing to share the results with 
everyone on the list, contact me off-list and we'll see what we can 
do. I won't test any "home-brews" since there are probably millions 
of them out there and I am doing this at work on my spare time. I 
hope I haven't bit off more than I can chew! 

Jamie
Greenwood, SC
jjohnson at davisfloyd_com