Low maintainence, long term sustrate

[Marais]

Troi, what brand or type of aquatic compost do you use? I am also looking for a low maintenance substrate. I was going to go Moler clay on top of Osmocote and moss peat but aquatic compost may be a better solution.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

What does this "CEC" phrase mean?

"Cation Exchange Capacity" <Cation-exchange capacity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia>, have a look here for more details (really PlantBrains link not mine): <Substrates for the Planted Aquarium>.

cheers Darrel

 

[BigTom]

What does this "CEC" phrase mean?

Cation exchange capacity. Essentially a measure of how well a soil holds on to nutrients.

Troi, what brand or type of aquatic compost do you use? I am also looking for a low maintenance substrate. I was going to go Moler clay on top of Osmocote and moss peat but aquatic compost may be a better solution.

I'm not Troi, but I can give an answer to this. The answer depends on whether you want hard or soft water. The vast majority of commercial soil mixes contain a lot of limestone and fertilisers which will raise pH and hardness considerably. Most aquatic composts available will fall into this category. I've used Westland's aquatic compost form Dobbies which worked very well.

If you want to keep your water soft, then your choices are rather more limited. Original Aquasoil is the only thing we found after a bit of searching that doesn't seem to raise hardness much. Alastair has used this with great success. Or, you could make your own mix with loam, peat moss, sand and gravel.