Ilikefishes
Aquarium Advice Freak
Does fluorite gravel lose it's nutrients over time? Because I am not looking forward to buying more anytime soon!!! I've had mine for about two months now, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to change it soon.
Fluorite Gravel
- Thread starter Ilikefishes
- Start date
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mgamer20o0
Aquarium Advice Addict
long answer no since it really doesnt have much in the terms of nutrients from the start.
Ilikefishes
Aquarium Advice Freak
Really?
JustOneMore20
Algae Fighter
All the nutrient rich substrates will eventually "run out" of nutrients....some of them are better at holding in nutrients you dose/fertilize than others....but the ones that are there from the beginning will eventually be gone. It is hard to say how long it would take for it to run out. I would let the plants be the judge of that and instead of replacing it, I would just supplement by dosing ferts if you don't already.
Ilikefishes
Aquarium Advice Freak
Thank you Kristin, I really appreciate it. I have been dosing ferts daily, I also have the Eco Complete which takes fish waste and turns it into plant food (I really hope that is true), so I'll just let time tell. Thanks again!
WhiteDevil
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ive had 100 pounds in for 2 years now and my root growth is still something to write home about. One sword has 12" long x 5" around root ball on it.
Ilikefishes
Aquarium Advice Freak
HAHA!! That's awesome! I'll definitely keep using this substrate then.
mgamer20o0
Aquarium Advice Addict
what makes eco and fluorite better is the ability to take in ferts and release them back to the plants unlike inert substrate like pea gravel/sand and so forth. the only substrate that really has real amount of nutrients is ada soil. justonemore is on supplementing is the key.
WhiteDevil
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yep, and Ive noticed that my flourite tank that has inverts in it that it tends to stay alot cleaner at substrate level(and this is the tank with the growth like whoa)then my 10g flourite no invert tank.
IMO the flourite is great, I have two different kinds, the black and the regular(black looks 10x better) I also have a tank with eco complete in it and that stuff in the short 30 day time I had plants in it did well, actually had some swords flower in that tank and an anubias is flowering as well.
I find it almost vital to have some sort of cleaning inverts in a planted tank especially with the right substrate.
IMO the flourite is great, I have two different kinds, the black and the regular(black looks 10x better) I also have a tank with eco complete in it and that stuff in the short 30 day time I had plants in it did well, actually had some swords flower in that tank and an anubias is flowering as well.
I find it almost vital to have some sort of cleaning inverts in a planted tank especially with the right substrate.
mgamer20o0
Aquarium Advice Addict
though there stuff out there you can find that are cheaper and have a higher CEC which should grow plants better. i have a lot of tanks and i use them all. though in most of my tanks i try to go for cheap yet good.
WhiteDevil
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yes, I got some AP.com substrate only to find out I can get 40# for 11 bucks instead of 30# for 65 bucks. John Deere makes the stuff, I forgot the landscaping term but its the exact same stuff.
Stuff like flourite and laterite will still maintain their shape though, yeah? One of the big reasons I put in my laterite was to give my swords something a tad better than my gravel to grab onto. Hoping this logic prevails anyways! XD
mgamer20o0
Aquarium Advice Addict
they shouldnt break down.
