Well, first of all, are you saying that the only reason that your plants are growing fantastically is strictly because of Flourite Black? This is how people get into trouble, by drawing incomplete correlation. I can grow fantastic plants using nothing but plain sand. I've even grown fantastic plants using marbles. Is the tank that these fantastic plants are in being enriched by CO2? Are nutrients being added to the water column? if the answer to these questions is yes then it's really not logical to attribute the success of the plants to Flourite Black alone. have you read the Akadama Sticky at the top of this section? JamesC demonstrated quite clearly that you don't really need overpriced designer substrates to grow fantastic plants, because at the end of the day they are all basically the same - just clay.
Secondly, clays are made of more or less the same elements listed on that website. That's what they forgot to mention. I mean, clay is made of Aluminum. There are all kinds of minerals in clay, just like any other rock or inorganic dirt. Different clays from different areas have different combinations of these elements.
Some animals, like deer or Amazonian Monkeys and Macaws actually find clay banks and eat the clay to get the minerals they contain and to absorb the toxins that are contained in the vegetation that they browse on, so it's hardly surprising or revolutionary that Flourite contains these elements. but the small amount of micronutrients contained in the clay is not what makes this product useful. What makes any clay substrate useful is the ability of clay to pull nutrients from the water column and to transfer them to the plant roots. That's why, in this sense, Flourite Black is not much better than kitty litter, which is also constructed of clay. If you get a lab to do a chemical analysis of Akadama you'll get a very similar list as that shown on your link. It's just not that big of a deal.
There are only a few substrates that are actually enriched with significant quantities of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium - and they don't just come out of the ground like that naturally. Those clay products are soaked in NPK and then they are baked to hold the nutrients in place. So if you compare the nutrient content of Amazonia with that Flourite Black or Red or whatever, you'll find that the Amazonia has much more of what plants need. That doesn't make Flourite bad, far from it. It just makes it not worth the inflated price because it's not in the same league as Amazonia.
Cheers,
