Flourite: Pure or mixed?

[Fuzz16]

For a 40b or 58g. Heavily planted.
If I use pure flourite then the seachem calculater said i need 30 bags!!!

Question is...
If I use pure Flourite then is it worth the money? Would I not need to suppliment with Iron or Flourish if I used Flourite, or I assume still suppliment because of the plants that don't respond as strongly to substrate nutrients.

Or can I mix it..but would it really save any money buying additive suppliments to make up for it?

I will have 96watts on the tank...possibly 132total watts if I get another strip.
And a DIY co2...maybe 2 2L just to be safe.
And for now a HOB...maybe 2 HOB.

And then there are diff. types of flourite, would I be better off investing in the onyx?

Money is....isnt an issue. I wanna do it right the first time so I don't have to spend more $ lately. But my budget isnt super great atm.

 

[OrangeCones]

For a 40b or 58g. Heavily planted.
If I use pure flourite then the seachem calculater said i need 30 bags!!!

If you FILLED a 40gallon breeder with Flourite, it would take 25 bags. Not sure of your tank dimmensions for the 58gallon tank.

Check the calculator again, and be sure to use desired substrate depth, not the height of the aquarium. For 3" of depth, you'd need 5 bags for a 40 gallon breeder.

 

[Fuzz16]

o ya i thought that was kinda off....

any input on the questons? i was gonna graba bag throw it in and get more if needed, not worried about guesstimating bag quanities atm as much as some other things

 

[OrangeCones]

I've never used the product personally, but know a lot that swear by it.

It depends on what type of plants, how much light and how much CO2 you will provide to determine if you would need to also supplement liquid fertilzer. This will be offset by the bioload of your fish/inverts.

Be careful with HOB filters, to keep the water level high in the tank. If the water splashes, you will offgas your CO2.

 

[Orion]

Ehh....I think I had maybe 3 or 4 bags in a 40b.

Personally I'm loving the ADA style of substrate for plants. Fluval has some that has a similar composition, as do a few other company's. I have some of the Fluval in a shrimp tank with Dwarf Hairgrass and it's grown like mad. However using the Onyx, glosso is having trouble covering all the way. In general, this stuff is more expensive depending on where you find it and what brand, but I love it. I know people swear by ADA, but I think just that porous type ball substrate is a big help.

 

[Fuzz16]

ive been hanging on on TPT more cause its a lot busier and learning a lot

you just use ada topped with something else or plain?

im thinking about just doing flourite as most the ground will be covered anyways.

 

[Orion]

The stuff I have isn't the Aquasoil, but it is similar in composition. And I just use it by itself, no cap and no mixing for me.

The ADA style seems to let ground covers grow better IME. I had tried Dwarf Hair Grass in the past with florite, Eco and anything else I could get my hands on and even with high tech tanks with lots of light and injected Co2, it wouldn't grow for crap. With the fulval substrate and not really that much light, no Co2 and not many ferts DHG has just covered the bottom in a few months.

 

[Fuzz16]

i was gonna try miracle grow ORGANIC (all-purpose) capped with what rocks i have to seed the bacteria and keep some of the muck down and not stirred up all the time

reading about flourite, people say its pretty pointless and doesnt hold the necccaries(sp?) i am hoping though that with this i can get the DHG to carpet and also getting some glosso maybe to carpet also by it

 

[Orion]

I've never messed with MTS substrate. I'm not into the whole set it up and leave it or else lol.

Avalon wrote a really good post about substrates some time ago. Yes, flourite will help, but yes over time any substrate will have mulm build up and will end up just as good as probably any of the specialized plant substrates. So in the end, I really think it comes down to the look and texture.

 

[Fuzz16]

MTS?...well ima try it cause specialty substrates are expensive..

hopefully i can leave the tank alone with out too much disturbance, planning on just letting plants cover all of it, so hopefully i can keep my hand out cept for trimming

 

[Orion]

MTS = Mineralized Top Soil

I know what you mean about the price. I just spent $20 for enough to cover a 7.5 gallon tank with a few handfulls left over. It would take quite a bit for a 40 gallon. TPT has a lot of good info on setting up MTS, there is a lot to it I think but the results are nice. There are options for premade stuff out there that's not as expensive as say Amano stuff, but it will still be a chunk just due to the size of the tank.

 

[Fuzz16]

ya ive been spending a lot of time on that forum and learning bunches...and ya there are some people who dig up dirt from the backyard. dont know if id even trust that! but ya a looot to learn...

if something works just as good as the expensive stuff...just add a few more steps a bit more work. then no biggie, i have no problem doing it