# florabase - views please



## amitava (Dec 2, 2004)

Hi,

I am from India . TIll date I am doing my aquascaping with laterite and plain gravel as substrate. But with laterite it is a pain when I want to move plants . That will disturb the substrate and foul the water very much. 

So I was searching for some commercial substrate and found only Florabase . As no othere Commercial Substrates are available here, I am thinking of using that only. 

I want your suggestions regarding florabase . I intend to use it for my 4'/1.5'/1.5' tank. 

regards


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## amitava (Dec 2, 2004)

Hi,

Can anybody give some views on florabase please?

I want to use it in my 4'/1.5'/1.5' tank. 

Pls. tell me that can I use florabase alone or it should have a base substrate?
And how much florabse should I buy for the size of my tank ?

regards


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

It's similar to AquaSoil, so I would suggest a pumice base layer. Then add some peat and laterite to the pumice, and there's your base layer. Try adding some fish excrement from an established tank to help mature the substrate.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

There have been a few posts that say that Florabase lowers pH and that it therefore invalidates or throws off the pH/KH/CO2 table.

Do a search here on Florabase and you'll find lots of info!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Raul-7 said:


> It's similar to AquaSoil, so I would suggest a pumice base layer. Then add some peat and laterite to the pumice, and there's your base layer. Try adding some fish excrement from an established tank to help mature the substrate.


All good suggestions though I would not add the peat. There is already peat in the Florabase and adding organics to a substrate can be messy.


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

I'd add mulm and that's all.
It does turn to mush after a year or two.
You can ask Luis about it.
I've had turn mushy as well and have since removed it.
It does well though and you can vac out any mush also.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

grandmasterofpool said:


> All good suggestions though I would not add the peat. There is already peat in the Florabase and adding organics to a substrate can be messy.


But the peat in Florabase is for softening the water, while adding some to the base is for the bacteria to feed off.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Personally, I would use the Florabase as the base substrate and cap that with any fine gravel or coarse sand, like pumice. A few members of my local plant club have done that, with good success. I also used this technique for a fish store setup and it is workingout great. Using it as a base and capping it gives you the benifits of a nutrient rich, water softening substrate (that I would assume has lots of redox potential once it gets going) and capping it helps deal with its lightness, for planting and holding stem plants, and makes the mushy "fluffyness" of it a mute point.

I would think that organics in the substrate are organics in the substrate. Aas long as you add mulm the bacteria would feed off of any available organic food source. I would guess that anyway.


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