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I've used it in the past and my main complaint was the weight. Safe T Sorb is a lil light so if you're using thinner stem plants you might need more of it to hold stuff done.
I’ve gotten to play with this over the last couple of days. I sprinkled a bit of it over PFS in a small tank and really like the color and texture. Today I added to an old 20H that I’m going to set up soon.
I added the STS to a kitchen strainer, a few cups at a time, and rinsed it briefly with a hose on the “shower” setting. I really just wanted to get rid of the dust and some initial sludge so wasn’t aggressive at all. This is what it looks like now.
No filter. I’ll just let it settle for a few days and see what happens.
lighter than uns controsoil at least. I'll have to weigh em out one of these days .
I just know it was a lot more annoying to keep Hygrophila polyspema sunset, Persicaria sp. Kawagoeanum, and Cabomba Furcata from floating in safe t sorb than uns.
if it aint the weight it's something to do with how aquasoil and safe t sorb layers themselves.
It’s been a month and I think this tank is about ready for fish. I really like the substrate as far as looks go. It kicks up a cloud when I move something around but settles back down in minutes. I’ve been checking the KH every couple of days. When it’s zero, I add a couple of grams of KHCO3 and recheck the next day. It usually holds for a day then goes back to zero.
I’m thinking I will add Ember Tetras soon and see how that goes. It also may turn into a wild betta tank someday. So … do I quit worrying about the KH after the fish go in and just let it ride? I guess if I ever want to add shrimp it will need to be caridina which I’ve never had before. And no snails which are in all my other tanks. A new adventure, for sure.
This is the tank a week ago. I’ll be removing some plants and adding some crypts from Daku in a few days.
In essence the substrate will continue to scavenge as it finds compound to scavenge until it is filled…
When I dark start I hit it fairly significantly. Ie I dose 10 ppm phosphate and test daily and redose as needed until I stop seeing uptake.
I forget how many DKH I dosed to, but I have a feeling it was probably 6-8 degrees.
Once they are satiated .i do a deep water change and stop dosing high amounts. Ie my tap water is 2 DKH and I leave it at that. Fir phosphates I dose 2 ppm on frontload.
I have heard people opine that since the substrate has po4 in it from predosing, it isnt critical to ensure it is filled since plants can get it from the substrate even if the wc is stripped. Well, fine and dandy so long as they have roots in the substrate,., anubias and Java fern and the like sort of need to get it from the water column.. I have had Anubias so affected by Green Spot algae that the leaves end up melting away…
I dont have any scientific data to support my suspicions, but I am inclined to dose until it stops getting scavenged from the water column. I tend to stay in dark start with no plants until the substrate stops scavenging. As such I dose pretty heavy at 10 ppm po4..
I could change my mind if presented with a reasonable argument.. in essence I am not absolutely convinced I am right., But I am convinced enough to continue in this vein until shown to be incorrect…. And I seem to have reasonable success with plant growth…
Turface MVP is a lighter brown color and is basically the same stuff but doesn't break down. Used both, safety sorb did fracture pretty easily with some dust tho.
Another source for SafetySorb the auto part stores like NAPA, O'Reilley, Discount, etc. It's commonly used to adsorb spills of oil, etc. Usually in stock.
Since the clay increases the cation exchange capacity, wondering if the material would benefit from a soak in weak aquascape fertilizer to charge it?
Also I wouldn't trust kitty litter as some dissolve to a fine mess.
John
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