# ESTES - Flora-terra



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Anybody every hear of this, anybody ever use it.
what are your thoughts on it.
I saw it advertised in the April 2007 Aquarium Fish International Magazine.
Page 25, this is the first time I have seen it, or the first time I noticed it anyway.

*It says it is a:
Course sand coated with true laterite
Special time release coating gradually releases laterite
coating makes the substrate clean, no dust, no dirt
clean material allows use even into established aquariums*

What are your thoughts on the time release claim, how plausible is that?
What do you see the benefits being to this product?
and obvilusly if you have used it before or are using it now, HOW IS IT?
Thanks


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I can't see a reason to want to release laterite, whether time release or sudden releast. Laterite is just an iron rich clay that helps bind nutrients so roots can get to them easily. It isn't a fertilizer, even though it does contain iron.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

No body else has any take on this.
I guess it won't be worth a try then. (not that I really had any intention, just curious about an ad that I saw)
I do tend to agree with your statements Hoppy, Not that it would be bad for plants, but it is probably just a marketing ploy to sell a basically nutrient poor, inert substrate for more then it is worth.


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## fishfan (Feb 19, 2006)

I have seen the ad recently as well. Maybe it isn't on the market yet. "Time released" may just be a fancy way of saying the roots of plants just suck up the nutrient (or something like this). The color of it in the magazine ad I saw looks somewhat red.
I could see maybe the benefit of the color/texture but otherwise I wonder if it really isn't different than what is already available, such as Flourite.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Time release and controlled release fertilisers are fairly common in the horticultural world. Osmocote is widely used to release fertilisers in compost over periods of up to two years. They also have ones that release different amounts of fertilisers at different points in time, e.g. not too much to begin with then increasing over time, by using different coatings on different granules. These are the little orange or other coloured balls you sometimes find in compost. They are very effective and when I grew plants for a living we used them for all our plants so we didn't need to use liquid feed. I still use it for all the terrestrial plants I grow and have tried it with an emerse Echinodorus cordifolius, but it's too early to tell yet.


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## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

Yeah I saw this ad. It just struck me as some wanna-be product trying to break into the hobby. I've never heard of it and I'm not going to be the guinea pig so unless and until it starts getting good word of mouth from other trusted hobbyists I'll stay away.


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