How long does Terta Plant Complete Substrate last?

[christo]

I have a tank that currently has this capped with Sand. Im stripping this tank down and starting again. I have some left over Akadama and so will be adding this to the tank as replacement - i might add a little Cat litter to this also. I will be dosing ferts and liquid carbon daily.

So the substrate has a initial kick of nutrients I wanted to stick something under the Akadama. Is it worth stripping out the current top layer (sand) and trying to leave the Terta Plant as a base?

I set the tank up initially around late may last year – question is will the nutrients be used up? Do I need to replace with more Terta Plant or some other (cheap!) product

Cheers Chris

 

[George Farmer]

It's a good idea to leave some old substrate as it not only helps provide nutrients but is biologically active. This should assist in helping the aquarium stabilise earlier when compared with a total substrate replacement.

It's impossible to tell how long nutrients last in substrates. It's dependent on many factors. The more the plants are fed via the water column, the longer the nutrients last in any substrate.

 

[christo]

Brilliant thanks for the reply. I shall leave some in place.
had not thought about leaving some to help the aquarium stabilise earlier. Make sense though.

 

[sussex_cichlids]

Hi Christo

Say you don't want to replace the substrate you could just use a few root tabs under the plants that need a little pick me up some good root tab can last up to 6 months so twice a year bang few root tabs in and will save the cost of having to replace any substrate

Root tabs costing about £10 for a box that will do a 200ltr tank got to be better then £80/100 cost of new substrate if you got a smaller tank a box root tabs may last you a year and a bit if not more