Plant in Pot, Fertilizer, safe?

[deranged chipmunk]

No worries. the fluorite I used was basically crushed pumice. In fact, the red even looks like gravel. The difference in spelling, btw, was apple's demonic autocorrect's fault! Lol

Now, I admit, I haven't used flourite in about 5 years, so they may have changed it. The ones I remember being clay based were fluval's stratums (shrimp stratum and plant stratum), red sea's florabase, and all the ada subs.

A CEC (cation exchange capacity) is the ability to retain nutrients in the substrate for the the plants to feed on. Gravel has too low a rating (there are no actual ratings, I just use the word to make it a bit easier to understand), the granules are too large, so nutrients flow through it too easily. Play sand, the granules are so small, that barely any nutrients get through to the roots of the plants. The specialty substrates are the right sizes to retain nutrients for the plants. Now. This is really only important when you are adding nutrients to the water, such as seachem's flourish, or dry, powdered fertilizers. When you run a dirt tank (crude, but that's really what it is), the CEC really doesn't matter because the plants are feeding directly from the soil under whatever cap you so choose. When I set up any planted aquarium/paludarium, I always use a peat moss base, with a play sand cap. I also grow a lot of heavy root feeders, such as cryptocoryne species. Some aquatics feed mainly through the roots, but others, like anubias, Java ferns and rotalas, feed primarily via their leaves.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[deranged chipmunk]

oh, i just realized, i never answered about whether it is good to use or not. if they changed flourite to a more stratum style substrate, i wouldn't hesitate to use it. i have used both the fluval stratums, the red sea that i mentioned and a few ada substrates. i like the fluval stratums and the red sea. the ada, i thought were over rated and not worth the cycling times of about 6 weeks, when following ada's instruction. it goes through massive ammonia spikes before it finally stabilizes.

i really need to brush up on my planted aquarium knowledge, i didn't know they reformulated flourite, so i am glad you were persistent about it

[flipper]

Thank you, I didn't know thats why I wanted a second opinion. You still very might be right. I asked these questions on the Amazon page and this is what I got.

Q: Is this Chemically Inert. Will this provide any nutrients. Can I use Flourite alone for my plants to survive

A: There is supposed to be nutrients. I planted a variety of plants that are just out of control in my tank. I uprooted several plants about a week later and found many of the roots on plants well over 10" long (They were appx. 2"-3" when planted).

A: Well,chemically speaking, the term ( inert) is to make reference to substances that don't have a chemical reaction in presence of others.
Yes, definitely, this will help your plants in the growing process.

I just asked the guy what he meant by the first answer. There is supposed to be nutrients meaning you have to add nutrients or theirs nutrients already in the substrate. I'll keep you posted.