Cat litter

[greenink]

Cheers

Have ordered the moler clay from here - no perfume and pretty much the same price as tesco

http://www.kaizenbonsai.com/shop/index.php?cPath=84_87

Comes in a 'powder type' too so have got 30l of that - want to see if works better with carpet plants. After all ADA seem to think its worth doing...

So the moler clay has arrived:

Am doing a planting test in my journal if that interests anyone with more pictures, but don't want to cross-post! (This bit starts on page 3).

 

[biffster]

i use tesco cat litter
as any body had any funny test readings
when first using cat litter when i first
used it i got a high nitrate reading like
off the scale

 

[Antipofish]

i use tesco cat litter
as any body had any funny test readings
when first using cat litter when i first
used it i got a high nitrate reading like
off the scale

The cat litter would not contain cat litter, but your tap water can contain a fair amount. Added to that, nitrate test kits are notoriously useless. If its off the scale then I would say you have a problem with the test kit rather than the cat litter. Try testing just your water

 

[biffster]

tap water is nearly no trace of nitrate
my tank with sand substrate is 20 ppm
and now the cat litter tank as had a few
water changes it is about 20 ppm
it was only off the scale when i first
put it in its now seam to have settled
down

 

[foxfish]

Are you sure your cat didn't try it out before you used it
To the best of my knowledge clean baked clay cat litter does not leach anything!
However test kits are very unreliable & the majority of us don't trust or use them.

 

[hinch]

quick question relating to cat litter.

I'm thining of putting in a couple of ottos in my little tank but having never kept them before I have no idea how they rummage around in the substrate and distrub it.

Since cat litter is so light and easily disturbed I don't want them digging up my plants but I do need some kind of bottom cleaner/feeder in there to clear out any waste food the shrimp don't eat etc.
So what are otto's like with cat litter? and how do they handle shrimp/shrimpletts

 

[roadmaster]

Otocinclus are algae eaters almost exclusively, and without their primary food,, many slowly starve. Some adapt to alage wafer's and or vegetable matter but many don't.
Your shrimp would be much better clean up crew for food particulates .
Less food's perhaps would equate to less need for scavengers.

 

[hinch]

the food is algae pellets as both the shrimp and the fish feed on them I assume otto's would eat algae pellets in place of live algae would they not?

 

[PeteA]

Ottos and shrimp go together very happily, I've got them in my smaller tank (which has a gravel substrate) - in fact they're probably the safest fish you can have with shrimp of any kind. I can't see the Otto's having an issue with the cat litter but don't have them in the larger tank that uses it, the Starlight Pleco's I've got don't have an issue with it and haven't uprooted anything. If you have waste food then you're overfeeding, the Otto's certainly won't help you with it, shrimp will eat some the rest will break down and form food for plants

I've heard that Otto's don't eat algae food automatically and that you might need to feed them on cucumber for a while before they'll have the algae food. However mine eat algae wafer without any problem

 

[malawistu]

the food is algae pellets as both the shrimp and the fish feed on them I assume otto's would eat algae pellets in place of live algae would they not?

mine always have and every now and again I put in some blanched cucumber

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I always (24/7) have vegetables (cucumber, courgette, cooked carrot, pepper, sweet potato or blanched french bean) available for both shrimps and Otocinclus. I fasten them to a vertical Bamboo cane (with an elastic band) and that way the Otocinclus will find them, they like the veg when it is very soft (I believe they mainly eat diatoms from the biofilm rather than more visible algae). I usually stud the cucumber or courgette with dry food, once the fish are eating confidently from it, and they very occasionally get a prawn as well.

Otocinclus are quite sensitive fish, and I wouldn't keep them in a small tank unless you were confident about your water management skills. Shrimps, Corydoras pygmaeus and Otocinclus are a very good mix for a ~50 litre planted tank. I've had my oldest 3 Otocinclus for about 4 years now, so they are potentially long lived for a small fish.

If you have dead leaves in the tank, both shrimps and Otocinclus will graze on them. I have some Magnolia leaves in the Apistogramma tank (so no shrimps), the evergreen M. grandiflora, and the Otocinclus have skeletonized them completely over Christmas.

There was a thread about this leaf feeding on Planet Catfish recently <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34911>.

cheers Darrel

 

[hinch]

good to know I always keep stocks of cucumber and courgette in anyway for the plec's (one a day between all the tanks)

The tank is only a 35 litre tank so its small but I'm able to keep the water stable thanks to many years of practice the fish keeping part i'm good at its the whole planted thing i'm new to I was just concerned for the ottos over disturbing the cat little because its so light and fly away (its also the reason I havent stuck some corys in there)

 

[biffster]

will it be OK for me to cap cat litter with
silica sand

 

[foxfish]

Yes but over time the sand will end up underneath the larger grain CL!
If you have bottom dwellers this wont take long either

 

[Antipofish]

You used to be able to get something called a gravel tidy I recall, which kept gravel and sand separate. Maybe that would work for this application too ?

 

[foxfish]

Any form of gravel tidy fine enough that stops sand particles would be restrictive to root formation surly?

 

[Antipofish]

Any form of gravel tidy fine enough that stops sand particles would be restrictive to root formation surly?

Hmm, you could have a point, LOL. Though I thought in this case it was more to keep the cat ;litter from rising up as its so light ? You will get some sand settling into the underneath substrate but a courser grade gravel tidy should stop the cat litter rising but still allow root formation I would expect. I will leave one of the more experienced planties to confirm or refute that though. Don't take my word as gospel.

 

[foxfish]

Mate it is great to throw ideas around
CL is quite light, that's because it is full of microscopic holes & that is why we like it because withing these holes we can store lots of plant goodies but, it is not that light!
CL sits nicely on the bottom & because of the irregular shaped grains, interlocks within itself, I have never had issues regarding its buoyancy.
Sand, on the other hand can easily be wafted around with the sweep of a hand or at least the top few mm can be.

 

[Antipofish]

Mate it is great to throw ideas around
CL is quite light, that's because it is full of microscopic holes & that is why we like it because withing these holes we can store lots of plant goodies but, it is not that light!
CL sits nicely on the bottom & because of the irregular shaped grains, interlocks within itself, I have never had issues regarding its buoyancy.
Sand, on the other hand can easily be wafted around with the sweep of a hand or at least the top few mm can be.

OK, I thought the concern was that the cat litter would end up on top ? Thats what someone wrote earlier. So I thought the mesh would stop that happening. I know what you mean about that (play) sand. Im wondering if the Unipac 1mm sands like senegal, samoa etc might be a tad heavier and stay in place ?

 

[biffster]

just had an idea what about a split layer
of filter mat this fine enough to let plant roots
to get through but is coarse enough to hold the sand
on top an CL on the bottom or is that to restricting