inert substrate/soil

Anyone? :icon_smil

Black flourite sand is one of my favorite inert type sediments, but the color issue is more aesthetics really.

Water falls make a lot of racket, unless they are small, then they do not look as good , but if you work at it, you can still pull it off well without too much noise.

A cascade might be interesting also.
Lava is very light weight.

Making your own styrofoam background and scape might be a wise option.
Takes some Crafts and DIY skill, but the pay off is really good.

It got me to thinking about some other possibilities.

Coal Slag?

Sandblasting beads?

Anyone have thoughts about these products?

Keep in mind that it is for a tarrium with no fauna of any kind.

@ Tom -- With regards to the falls being noisy --The total drop will only be about 14 inches. Also I plan to have some protusions that will slow / impead the cascading water which will only flow at about 150gph through a spray bar at intermiten points across 5 feet of tank. So I am thinking I will get barely a trickle from each point.

Somebody a couple weeks ago started a thread indicated he/she had access to ceramic beads. I think the thread title was "ceramic substrate" or some variation.

cggorman said:

Somebody a couple weeks ago started a thread indicated he/she had access to ceramic beads. I think the thread title was "ceramic substrate" or some variation.

Click to expand...

I found that thread.

Posted a PM to the OP still wating. Would like to know ore about them.

Thanks for that info. might be what I could use, however I was leaning toward something a litte more natural looking.

I suppose I could use Pea gravel but I wanted to move away from the weight ... I have that in there now.

Thanks again.

Best wishes,
Wes

I think that flourite would be fairly erosion resistant being as it's been kiln fired. Regular clay (kitty litter, etc.) would probably wear away much more quickly.

I'm putting waterfalls in the paludarium I am building, and have been thinking about noise reduction also.

What I have come up with so far is to construct them in such a way that the water flows down a wall with many levels of rocks jutting out of it. In a way, it's running down a wall rather free falling. I am hoping this will reduce splashing also.

I think that the greater distance you allow the water to freefall, the louder and messier your waterfall will be. Having the wall radius in towards you waterfall may help also.

Just some thoughts that I think might be helpful. If you followed my paludarium thread you know that I haven't actually tried any of this yet. Hopefully you'll work out all the bugs for me.:hihi: (kidding)