Large tank plant substrate option

[Chrona]

Pro's Choice Soilmaster Select is a soil additive made for landscapers, but it's also used in planted tanks. First off, it's cheap, 50lbs for only 16 bucks. This will make a 3 inch layer in a 55g tank. As for properties, it has a high CEC (nutrient holding ability), doesn't cloud water, and contains iron. Unlike Flourite and Ecocomplete though, it doesn't contain various traces, but that is fairly easy to supplement. Also, it comes in black, which is very nice :)

http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Soilmaster-Select-Substrate/26/

http://www.lesco.com/?PageID=27&ItemNumber=083365
(Call your local Lesco to see if they have it in stock or if they can add it to the next order)

[cocoa_pleco]

Thats actually really cool!

[hungryhound]

Pro's Choice Soilmaster Select is a soil additive made for landscapers, but it's also used in planted tanks. First off, it's cheap, 50lbs for only 16 bucks. This will make a 3 inch layer in a 55g tank. As for properties, it has a high CEC (nutrient holding ability), doesn't cloud water, and contains iron. Unlike Flourite and Ecocomplete though, it doesn't contain various traces, but that is fairly easy to supplement. Also, it comes in black, which is very nice :)

http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Soilmaster-Select-Substrate/26/

http://www.lesco.com/?PageID=27&ItemNumber=083365
(Call your local Lesco to see if they have it in stock or if they can add it to the next order)

Thanks Chrona. I definitely may check this out. I am going to be setting up two more tanks and one of them is going to be planted as I am planning on doing a shrimp tank, but if I can get the substrate for both tanks for the cost of one bag of eco complete it may be worth it to go this route.

I am going to assume that by adding traces you are talking about flourish. Is this correct?

On a related note: Have you used the Plantex CSM+B that rex sells? I was thinking of switching to this as it seems like this would be a more economical way to go, and wondered if you had tried it yet.

[Chrona]

Thanks Chrona. I definitely may check this out. I am going to be setting up two more tanks and one of them is going to be planted as I am planning on doing a shrimp tank, but if I can get the substrate for both tanks for the cost of one bag of eco complete it may be worth it to go this route.

I am going to assume that by adding traces you are talking about flourish. Is this correct?

On a related note: Have you used the Plantex CSM+B that rex sells? I was thinking of switching to this as it seems like this would be a more economical way to go, and wondered if you had tried it yet.

I have a bag of plantex but I haven't used it yet. Tropica Master Grow is supposed to be the best trace supplement (but very hard to find), Flourish the second, and then plantex is down there a bit. Since I only have a 10g tank, one 100ml bottle of Flourish lasts me a while. Maybe sometime later I'll try switching for a week or two and see what happens.

Yep Flourish basically = traces. It also contains iron and some macro nutrients, but not in significant quantities when dealing with high light/CO2 tanks.

[hungryhound]

I have a bag of plantex but I haven't used it yet. Tropica Master Grow is supposed to be the best trace supplement (but very hard to find), Flourish the second, and then plantex is down there a bit. Since I only have a 10g tank, one 100ml bottle of Flourish lasts me a while. Maybe sometime later I'll try switching for a week or two and see what happens.

Yep Flourish basically = traces. It also contains iron and some macro nutrients, but not in significant quantities when dealing with high light/CO2 tanks.

Thanks for the reply. With at least 20 more gallons becoming a planted tank (I might be adding two more tanks instead of one), I am not sure that I want to be buying a bottle of flourish every other week. Treating 70 to 100 gallons week with flourish might get to be little to much on the wallet.

Thanks again.