# Using Laterite



## fishfan (Feb 19, 2006)

Hello when putting a layer of laterite under aquarium gravel, does the laterite need to be a certain depth for it to work? I don't want to put too much under the gravel in case I have to move plants and the laterite gets all mixed up with the gravel on the surface.


----------



## shake (Feb 26, 2006)

About 1/2 inch is all you will need.


----------



## Leonard (Mar 4, 2007)

What is laterite really doing? Gives micronutrient to plants (that is what I thought)?

I have an aquarium, which is allready started (it's allready sand in it). Can i put something like this in the sand (and it will help, give micro)? : http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_221&products_id=6
JBL Laterite balls? How many shall I use, if it's something good?


----------



## Glouglou (Feb 21, 2006)

This is a good resume of Laterite property:



> I'll add yet another definition I know of for laterite: a soil formed in
> tropical/sub-tropical environments where just about all the original rock
> has been eroded, dissolved, weathered, leached away, leaving only those
> soil components that are really insoluble - gibbsite (Al(OH)3), goethite
> ...


My Resume:

1- Laterite have a medium CEC ( cation exchange capacity)

2- Laterite will leach a very small quantity of nutrients ( mostly iron) direcly to the root in reducing low oxygen, acid environnment ( Iron complexing)
http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm

3 - It look good


----------



## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Glouglou, where are you quoting that from? Laterite contains very high concentrations of oxidized iron and aluminum . What you are quoting I guess is a analysis of the iron ore. Your quote makes no mention of the high aluminum content of Lateric soil, which has no benefit for plants, but is there none the less. Any clay substrate material, or any form of clay at all, provides no other kind of iron except oxidized iron. This includes Flourite, Ecco complete, Onyx, whatever... its all Fe3+, which plants can not use, but it can and is converted to Fe2+ by organic acids in the water. So laterite provides iron the same as any other substrate material. It does not provide any other minerals.

Jamie Johnson did a lab analysis comparison of different laterite and clay substrates for iron and mineral content a few years ago. You can find it here:

http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm

Glouglou makes mention of the url, but you should check it out if you want to do a comparison.


----------



## Glouglou (Feb 21, 2006)

I find this here:
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9508/msg00280.html

Yes, it's not the chemical composition, but more the mineral composition.

Chemical composition here:
http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm

Most of the iron we add are or become Ferric (FeIII) relatively rapidly.
Good stuff on Iron here:
http://2the4.net/iron.htm

As we se the iron in laterite is mineralized and in the most unsoluble forms as goethite and hematite. Even when complexed with ligand the release of usable iron will be probably small. In a very densed planted tank on pure laterite, I beleive, you maybe have to add some iron to keep up with the demand. But the beneficial effect to having iron distributed directly in the roots systems is probably the reason to have laterite in the first place.



> Ferric hydroxide (Fe(OH)3) is the direct result of ferrous iron oxidation and precipitation. With time, ferric hydroxide is mineralized. The principal forms of mineralized ferric iron found in soils are:
> 
> amorphous hydrous ferric oxide (Fe2O3•XH2O),
> maghemite ( gamma-Fe2O3),
> ...


----------



## Dantra (May 15, 2007)

For those who are interested: *Laterite*


----------



## Christian_rubilar (Jul 21, 2005)

The CEC of laterite is relative to the kind of laterite you use. I have seen one brand of laterite that is sold in the US and it seems gravel laterite. That kind probably has low or medium CEC. But if you use laterite soil from rain forest, then the CEC is high as soon as that kind of soils has high levels of clay. That kind of soil has also some Po4 and no3 but in low levels. 
In Brazil they use mainly the gravel laterite but they add one picks of washed humus (1-1-1).
About how much you need, it depends of the kind of plants you want to have. I have seen in streems in the rain forest that echinodorus horemanii red grew small with 1 or 2 inches substract and huge with 3-5 inches. I use 10 cms of laterite substract for my echinos but laterita is quiet unexpensibe here. We blend laterite with river sand 50/50.

I took this picture of the soil in the frontier between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, near Iguazu city.










This is a colected Horemanii from Paranay Guazu river. It was on 10/15 cms of laterite soil. All echinos under this conditions were as huge as this one (50/60 cms):










This one was in 1 inch of laterite. All the others in the same place were as small as this one (10/15 cms), even very old mother plants:










And this is the small one in an a tank with 10 cms of laterite.









This is the unión between Paraguay and Paraná river:









And the Iguazu Falls:


----------



## Sushi Monster (Jun 10, 2007)

> Jamie Johnson did a lab analysis comparison of different laterite and clay substrates for iron and mineral content a few years ago. You can find it here:
> 
> http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm
> 
> Glouglou makes mention of the url, but you should check it out if you want to do a comparison.


He tested cat litter. Now I know its made up of clay BUT what about additives they put in there?!? Harts pH5 for example. Who would put that in your tank? Lord knows the additives in there and what it could do to the water properties. My fish would probably be dead.


----------

