iron without the substrate

[urville]

okay, i'lll be honest...
i hate the way iron substrates look, like laterite. eco complete is too rocky for me. i just dont like the look, which to me is as important as the systems i'm trying to create.
So does anyone have feelings about Flourish Iron in place of said substrate, or even any Iron based additive? How about RedSea's FloraFe?
Thanks

 

[TankGirl]

I dose iron in its liquid form (Flourish Iron) and that seems like an effective vehicle for it. You could also use root tabs, which contain iron and get shoved down into the substrate.

 

[malkore]

urville,

plant substrates like eco complete and flourite don't contain significant amounts of available iron by themselves...their strength lies in their ability to hold nutrients in the substrate so they're available to plant roots. they also don't pack down too tightly, allowing plant roots to easily spread (compaction is usually only an issue with sand substrates).

But in the long run, you are not doomed to needing $25 a bag substrate to have a successful planted tank. Root tabs are great. And laterite is meant to be the bottom layer of a layer'd substrate...so you could indeed use a little of it under neath your main substrate to get a little extra iron into plant roots.