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Baked Clay substrates

3290 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by  Seattle_Aquarist
I've done alot of reading on substrates over the last few years and i've come to some realizations.

It seems to me that using a substrate like Safety-SOrb, Oil Dry or the baked clay substrates, would be the best bet for a very long lasting substrate, simply due to their high CEC ratios.

My question is, since the substrates are good at storing nutrients, would column fertilizers act as root ferts as well seeing as how the substrate will store the unused portion of those ferts?

All opinions welcomed.
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Hi gt turbo,

My experience has been that the Montmorillonite clay substrates such as those you listed do an excellent job absorbing nutrients from the water column and making them available to the plants in the root zone. BTW, I dose using the Estimative Index (EI) method.

That does not mean that I don't use root tabs for the heavier root feeders that I keep such as Pogostemon helferi, Cryptocornes, and Echinodorus angustifolia 'Vesuvius'. However most of my other species they seem to do well with just regular EI dosing. All the tanks below are clay substrates.

75 Gallon
http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35%3B%3C%3Dot%3E245%3A%3D878%3D355%3DXROQDF%3E278%3C966465247ot1lsi

45 Gallon


30 Gallon


20 Gallon; no CO2


10 Gallon; no CO2; low light
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