River gravel substrate.

Discussion in 'Planted Tanks' started by Firefly, Jun 21, 2011.

  1. Firefly

    Firefly Pleco

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    Hi all.

    Well, one of our local rivers came down with a flood and deposited this nice river gravel that looked easy to get to. I collected a bit and want to use it in my tank as a substrate. What do you think?
    Would it be suitable for plants and catfish?
    Here is a pic with a ruler as a scale to size the gravel.


    DSCF0614.jpg

    Thanks:bigsmile:

    DSCF0614.jpg
     
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  3. oscar freak

    oscar freak

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    i used something similar in my 3foot once and besides the obvious benefits of hiding detritus my amazon swords grew the biggest i had ever had.they were'nt lush by any means but they were big
     
  4. Go-Big

    Go-Big

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    Nice looking substrate. We also had some floods here and you must have seen all the driftwoods at the beach, like tons and river sand in the road at every bridge. Now, are we allowed to collect or not? The minisipality(k@k word to spel for a boertjie) took loads away so i recon it fine at certain times.
     
  5. OP
    Firefly

    Firefly Pleco

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    @Go-Big . There was TONS of reed and bamboo like stuff washed up on our beach's too. My friend lost a boat and people lost barges that were in the river.
    I got 2 small pieces of drift wood, the gravel is such a mission to clean though.
    Here is a link for a youtube video of the river that flooded, I collected the sand a little upriver.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZjRoDwDpec
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 2, 2016
  6. Go-Big

    Go-Big

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    Jislaaik, thats lots of water! We didn't have it so bad. But as some of you know im in the short term insurance game.......we had moer of a lot of claims!
     
  7. shihr

    shihr Glosso

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    thats the exact gravel im using.. only diff was i bought it for R200ish for 20-30kg.. not bad but not free either :( hehe.. just be careful of the legality of taking the stuff.. nice find though! :)
     
  8. Go-Big

    Go-Big

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    Hi Shir. As i mentioned above; i really dont think this is a issue in flood situations. I have clients with river sand in there livingrooms.
     
  9. shihr

    shihr Glosso

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    Sorry go-big.. Didn read ur post.. I'm sure if Its part of cleaning up then Its fine.. But at a river on a regular basis I'm sure in the long run there would be problems.. Sorry to hear about ur situation..
     
  10. TankMaster

    TankMaster Apistogramma

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    Looks smooth enough for catfish. Looks cool for an amazon tank.
     
  11. OP
    Firefly

    Firefly Pleco

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    That's the plan...Thanks
     
  12. TankMaster

    TankMaster Apistogramma

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    I wish I bought flourite natural instead of flourite black :) . .. we shall see how my tank turns out :) . . .
     

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