# Pictures of Tanks Using Cat litter Please



## ale36 (18 Jul 2013)

Hello I've seen a lot of post of people using cat litter as a substrate for their tanks, i decided that i want to replace the gravel in one of my tanks so wanted to see some pics of your tanks using cat litter as its something i never used or seen before, if you could post your pictures and brand names would be very helpful


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## Samjpikey (18 Jul 2013)

Go for this , bargain and looks like jbl manado ( probably just as good) .
Needs a lot of rinsing but I found of you do very small amounts at a time it rinses better and quicker .
Cheers


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## Alastair (18 Jul 2013)

Samjpikey said:


> Go for this , bargain and looks like jbl manado ( probably just as good) .
> Needs a lot of rinsing but I found of you do very small amounts at a time it rinses better and quicker .
> Cheers



Yep this is the one most use myself included when I originally set my old high tech up.  Ill find the pic if I can.  

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## Gill (18 Jul 2013)




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## ale36 (19 Jul 2013)

Is this what most people use to cap soil substrate like john innes no 3? I'm thinking to do this as I want a low maintenance tank as I keep forgetting to dose my tank with ferts. Help me get this right If the cat litter is used on its own I would still have to dose EI as it has no nutrient but a high CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) so when combined with a nutrient rich soil ( john innes no 3) this would mean that I wouldn't not need to add any nuttiness as the plants would feed from the soil and the cat litter would replenish from the water column any used up nutrients?


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## Michael W (19 Jul 2013)

Well the soil will provide the nutrients for the cat litter. You shouldn't find yourself dosing EI for a very very long time as soil substrates will contain more than enough nutrients in my opinion to last for ages!


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## BigTom (19 Jul 2013)

ale36 said:


> Is this what most people use to cap soil substrate like john innes no 3? I'm thinking to do this as I want a low maintenance tank as I keep forgetting to dose my tank with ferts. Help me get this right If the cat litter is used on its own I would still have to dose EI as it has no nutrient but a high CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) so when combined with a nutrient rich soil ( john innes no 3) this would mean that I wouldn't not need to add any nuttiness as the plants would feed from the soil and the cat litter would replenish from the water column any used up nutrients?


 

Personally I use sand to cap soil, purely for aesthetic reasons - cat litter always looks like cat litter to me! The soil itself has a pretty good CEC so an inert cap is fine. I dose almost nothing in my soil tanks, unless the floating/emergent plants are looking a bit sad, which is rare.


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## ale36 (19 Jul 2013)

BigTom said:


> Personally I use sand to cap soil, purely for aesthetic reasons - cat litter always looks like cat litter to me! The soil itself has a pretty good CEC so an inert cap is fine. I dose almost nothing in my soil tanks, unless the floating/emergent plants are looking a bit sad, which is rare.


i think i read your post some where saying you use play sand? how is this compared to pool filter sand? are the grains in pool filter sand bigger?


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## BigTom (19 Jul 2013)

ale36 said:


> i think i read your post some where saying you use play sand? how is this compared to pool filter sand? are the grains in pool filter sand bigger?


 

Erm, I have used play sand in the past and it was fine (and cheap!). I've got various black sands and micro gravels now which are a bit more expensive. Pool filter sand I've never used (never found a stockist locally)  but it gets recommended a lot, I think the grain sizes tend to be larger than play sand, yes.


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## ale36 (23 Jul 2013)

Any more pictures?


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## tim (23 Jul 2013)




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## zebradanio (24 Jul 2013)

Moler Clay


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## awood85 (24 Jul 2013)

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