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Black Bonsai Soil

L

leecasey

Seedling
Joined
23 Sep 2012
Messages
15
Hi, would this make a suitable substrate to grow most types of plants? I don't mind the idea of cat litter etc but I really wanted a black substrate.

http://www.kaizenbonsai.com/shop/produc ... ts_id=1821

My tank is 600mm x 350mm so to get a 75mm bed of something like Flourite Black or Eco Complete I am looking at around £50. I didnt want to spend that much.

If anyone else has a better suggestion for a suitable black substrate that would be great.

Thanks
Lee
 
Hi,
This should be fine except the ad mentions that it is very light, so you might have difficulty with it floating. The ad shows that it weighs 465 grams per liter. Water weighs 1000 grams per liter so this would initially be buoyant until perhaps it soaks a bit.

Cheers,
 
Hmmm, I didnt realise it was so light. I think I might just have to cough up for some Eco Complete, Flourite Black or Fluval Stratum £££ :/
 
Well, I mean, the name of the product is "Supalite..." so that kind of gives you a clue right there.
As I mentioned, I don't know exactly what form of clay this is. They just refer to it as a "clay aggregate" which basically means nothing, other than the fact that it's clay. For example, vermiculite is a very light product and is difficult to use as a result, but it has one of the highest CEC of all clays. If this product has good water absorption and retention it may be that it will sink after a while. Just get a small amount and test it out to see for yourself. It's too bad you only want black because there are some excellent calcined molar clay products on that website at really good prices.

I would advise against the products you listed because you are not getting what you pay for. If you want to spend that kind of money then you might as well get enriched clay substrate such as ADA Aquasoil or the Oliver Knott equivalent. JBL may have a similar product.

Of course, you can always try the Supalite and cap it with a thin layer of black aquarium gravel from your LFS to keep it down.

Cheers,
 
I'm currently using bonsai akadama, 2m-3mm granual size. Its light but settles and have never really. Had an issue. Its very clean too. I washed it twice so may be why. Its brown though not black. I got 10l for 16 quid. I also used John innes no.3 compost with a very small amount of Irish peat moss.. check out my new nano link underneath buddy. I think overall I spent about 20quid on all this and it would of done a 3ft tank easy. The one issue I had was I needed to let it settle before adding shrimp etc. Took about 4-5 weeks. Fish and plants went straight in though.

Check my journal out mate its the jungle one :) hope that helps

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks Jack, but this stuff is very different from Akadama!
Its black & made from hard baked clay, my issues with akadama is it become very soft after a certain time & breaks down into a mush - I have been using it for my trees for over 25 years.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=741
 
oh ok, I just thought maybe I would suggest a cheap alternative :) mine seems fine, although is only 3 months old. but saying that you can buy different types of akadama. I think what I had was advised my BigTom. you know best buddy :) Ill et you know if I see any mush though! dont want that :twisted:
 
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