Hi,
Does Seachem Onyx needs additional fertiliser? Went to Seachem site to read and still not very clear. Is it good to be used as substrate for planted tank? How is it different from Flourite and Flourite Red beside the colour?
Thanks.
The sand is finer grained. It is more Ca and Mg than Flourite.
So for SG folks, it's better.
Soft water........
I add a little ground peat and mulm to any substrate on the base, but it needs nothing other than that, the rest will be from water column ferts.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Thanks for the information.
I'm not familiar with peat & mulm. Are they easily available? Found these definitions:
peat - partially carbonized vegetable matter saturated with water; can be used as a fuel when dried.
mulm - organic sediment.
Peat and mulm are added to help kick off the substrate, since it's part of the ecology in a planted tank.
Mulm is the stuff that collects in your filter... the brownish clumps of dirt. Take those, and add them below your substrate. Peat is decayed organic stuff, it's something like food for the bacteria and nutrients for the plants if I'm not wrong.
Both are beneficial to the substrate. Add just a little small area of peat and as much mulm as you can.
I'm seriously considering getting either flourite or onxy but am in a dilema. The onxy gravel is definately out cos it's too BIG. Wonder whether it's practical to use a hammer to try and "crash" it to smaller bits. The sand is too fine and i'm afraid it may "accidentally" be sucked into the canister and spoil the impeller. Heard from NA chan that if you're using onxy sand, use lesser cos it's very fine size will cause circulation problems in the substrate if it's too thick.
As for the flourite... the red colour one is too big. The normal one though is a bit smaller but is still about 6mm in size!
Frankly after reading alot of people from foreign forums exulting the goodness of seachem substrate i wonder why not many people in s'pore use them??
Probably due to relatively higher price as compared with Lapis/JBL and other "non-branded" substrate, and less easily available at most LFS.Originally Posted by aquarius
I've not seen Seachem gravels commonly, and yes the price is a factor. A couple of people here have used Flourite though, maybe they'll post.
Lapis sand is still the way to go here, especially for larger tanks. 2ft substrates are pretty ok to get.
Peace & Tranquillity
I am presently using Seachem Flourite. The plants loved it. Growing pretty well. Needs to be patient initially as the water may be quite cloudy. Rooting is a problem for foreground plants like glosso as the gravels are silghtly larger than others, hence creating gaps in between gravels resulting in poor holding. My glosso gets uprooted easily at early stage of planting, so were my hairgrass.
I am using Seachem Flourite also. Totally agreed with Cbong.
Planting very short root plants is almost impossible. Other than that, no complaints.
My substrate is 100% flourite with no peat or mulm underneath. So far so good. Cloudiness is only for the first one or two days.
I'm using onyx gravel mainly for the plants with rhizhomes, like japonica, nanas, ferns and anubias, they are doing very well. I guees for plants that you want to bury but not kill them by burying their roots/rhizhomes, the gravel is a very good choice.
lighter plants like glosso and hairgrass would defintely be better planted in the onyx sand.
No additional fert needed for both.
I am using Onyx sand... quite good stuff.
However, I faced one problem. I had 1" layer of peat under the Onyx. The peat (acidic) interacted with Onyx (high in carbonates and Ca/Mg) and caused the GH and KH of water to rise uncontrollably.
So just do like Tom Barr said: "add a little ground peat and mulm"
BC
Hi Cbong and Ruff... you mentioned your difficulties in planting glosso and hairgrass with the flourite substrate. So how long did it take b4 it manage to take root on the substrate?
Hi bclee... How thick is your onyx sand substrate and is it suitable for most of the plants that people generally keep cos it's soo fine won't it be unsuitable for certain type of plants?
Hair grass does great, but the onyx does better IME.
You folks also have cheaper pricing for the ADA stuff, go with that also if it's cheaper.
I suggest what is effective and fair in price.
SeaChem is local company here.
Regards,
Tom Barr
I don't have any problem with hairgrass. May be because I inserted them in deep enough. The hairgrass is growing very fast like weed.
Peace & Tranquillity
For almost 2 weeks from planting, I had to replant the glosso plantlets whenever they float to the surface. Not sure if it was also becos of the presence of Yamatoes and Cories running around.
Quite likely the corys...
How about a mixture of Onyx Sand and Seachem Fluorite? Would that help rooting and growth?
[QUOTE=Plantbrain]Hair grass does great, but the onyx does better IME.
a) How deep/thick did you use the onxy sand?
b) From your experience do you have to put the ADA base fert if you're using ADA soil or is it optional?
c) I understand that ADA soil breakdown/disintegrate after sometime or from frequent rescape/replanting? Do you throw away and replace the soil or you just leave it as it is?
[QUOTE=aquarius]Generally about 4-10cm
Sometimes deeper in the rear.
Some tanks have only 3-4 cm.
Yes, I would certainly recommend it.b) From your experience do you have to put the ADA base fert if you're using ADA soil or is it optional?
Most leave it as is, Amano claims it does not break down, the power sand does not, but the soil does mulm up and mush after some time.c) I understand that ADA soil breakdown/disintegrate after sometime or from frequent rescape/replanting? Do you throw away and replace the soil or you just leave it as it is?
If you uproot and replant often, it may be an issue for oyu, if not, it'll be fine.
I do not like the ADA soils because they are light weight, this makes planting more difficult, but not impossible etc.
Here, they are much more expensive than SeaChem. I can add peat and mulm easy enough.
But there may be a different market, so give a choice where ADa is cheaper, I'd likely suggest that and not bother with the SeaChem stuff.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Actually in s'pore Seachem is about the same or cheaper than ADA soil depending on where you get it. But if you add the ADA power sand with the soil as recommended by you than it is definately much more expensive than the Seachem.
Thanks guys for all the info. It definately answered alot of my questions and concerns regarding the use of Seachem substrate. I guess after all the feedback that you guys have given, i think i'll go with Seachem.
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