Expanded Clay

[StevesPrettyCool]

Anyone ever use this stuff in their aquarium? Was reading a lil last night about the stuff, i guess its widely used in hydroponics. i was wondering if its fish safe? minerizing my soil now and was wondering if adding these expanded clay balls will help any.
thankks!

 

[aqua_chem]

Well, Fluorite is basically just fired clay, not unlike Ex-Clay. I would think the balls usually used in hydroponics might be a bit big for planted tank purposes.

 

[epiphysis]

I think they need to be a bit more specific what they mean by 'Expanded Clay'.

Vermucilite do expand when it gets wet and has been used in the hydroponics industry. Some people have used it as a bottom layer in their tanks. But it gets very light and will cloud up the tank if it gets even lightly disturbed.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

yes i have read about vermucillite clouds the water, also read that illite red clay is light and would be kicked about by the fish and current. actually read that from a scientific study researching the mortality rate in certain fish under short term. i guess the illite can de-contaminate water in polluted rice paddys or something about that.

back to the topic tho, i was just searching for clay on eBay and came across expanded clay for hydroponic systems, they look like pea sized, maybe marble sized balls of? clay? haha

i found some kentucky red clay on ebay i'll probably use. also found powdered red Moroccan Red Clay 100%, but its used for facias and health and herbal remedies and stuff of that nature, anyone know if that could be used as well?

 

[epiphysis]

No personal experience with it, but also seen on other forums that it has been used with success. Its got a load of iron in it which will help.

But Flourite also have lots of iron, so to be on the safe side I'll rather stick with that.

 

[aqua_chem]

IMO, one of the best substrates you can use it Mineralized Top Soil capped with something else. Clay is used in that recipe as well. You might look it up if you're curious about it.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

aqua chem thats exactly what im doing, i mentioned minerizing my soil in my OP. I was just entertaining the idea of expanded clay in place of the normally used red clay. if anyone tried either expended clay or clay powders I'd love to hear your opinions. but yeah im in the process of "wet, dry, repeat" on my MTS now, the plan is to either line the whole bottom of the tank and toss some sand on top, or to re-pot my plants and put the MTS in the pots, then cover the whole pot with sand (i do a lot of re-scaping and the movable pots would be nice)

 

[aqua_chem]

I think that you want to go with clay powder or art supply bricks of the stuff. I'm not sure on this, but I would think that the process of firing the clay (as happens with Ex-Clay) would change the clay enough that you wouldn't be able to get that sloppy texture that you're aiming for with MTS.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

yeah chem I would agree with you about that. I have worked with clay for many years (hobby started in HS, skipped everry other class and spent all day in the ceramics room.) I would think that the physical properties would be at least a bit different between fired clay and wet clay (commonly referred to as slip, really wet clay slop that acts like a glue to hold larger pieces together). I would think that no matter how fine you grind down the fired clay chunks, the wet clay would still have much more nutrients to offer...

anyways, back to the expanded clay. I found a website telling cabout expanded clay, and it basically says it is little fired clay balls with air pockets in them, making them so lightweight that some may actually float. so that doesnt sound to interesting any more...

ref. link - Simply Hydroponics - Growing Medium2