Cost Saving Aquarium Hack That Really Works!!
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- čas přidán 20. 05. 2022
- I want to find the best planted tank substrate. Will cat litter work as an aquarium substrate? And how will it compare to Tropica Aquarium Soil, Akadama Bonsai Soil, and Unipac Sand? In this video, you'll find out via a month long experiment to establish how well a range of different aquarium plants can grow in cat litter versus the other three substrates.
A few top tips for using cat litter in your aquarium:
- Only buy 100% clay based, and unscented cat litter. Ideally the non-clumping variety.
- Rinse your cat litter before adding to the aquarium to remove dust.
- Conduct a series of water tests to ensure the water is safe for your fish before adding to them to the aquarium.
Akadama Bonsai soil is also well worth exploring if you intend to setup an aquarium for a really long time and want the benefits of a high cation exchange capacity substrate that is long lasting.
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It’s nice to see somebody doing a video on my research that I did 40 years ago on the anoxic filtration system. And it’s also nice to see that cat litter which most people do not use, is less expensive than the manufacture aquarium soils that are out there.. the more people that start realizing the research I did, and the books I have written on it are true the more they will stop drinking the Kool-Aid from other people in the hobby. I’m also doing the same experiments on my channel and find the cat litter surpassing a high nutrient soil like Miracle Grow .
Dr Novak!! Glad you found my channel. I'm always learning, but have been amazed by how much better cat litter is performing versus aquasoil. At the moment I am obsessed with The Optimum Aquarium, and am just reading it for the second time as we speak. Since I've got your attention, I wonder if you could give me your opinion on the merits of a substrate heating cable?? 👍
@@AquariumShed you have a great channel and you articulate what you want to say better than I can.
We used heating cables back in the early 80s and the thing I found out is they will fail. They do not work in the summertime when homes are hotter than in the winter time. Therefore, once they stop heating anaerobic bacteria starts taking over the substrate. I myself could not wait to try heating cable’s several years ago only because I thought it was a great idea. Unfortunately, the failure of the cables just made them unsafe for aquarium use. Today, nobody in the US uses them.
The only thing I can say, is, slow down the bubbler to your substrate bed and keep the good videos coming . 👍👍
Thanks, that's really helpful advice. Actually makes me more intrigued since I keep a very constant temperature all year round in the basement of a Victorian house, but I certainly take your point too. Feel like there might be a new experiment on the horizon..... Thanks for the lovely channel feedback too, very kind!
I would've preferred to see a plenum added to this tank before substrates we're added. Allows the water to follow through the substrate and reduce the inevitable anaerobic bacteria that will develop at the bottom.
@@stevecox8066 Yes. Exactly the way Dr. Novak recommends.
finally a well- edited (and entertaining) video on kitty litter substrate. I'm shocked you dont have more subs, but keep it pushing out great vids like this and you/ll blow up in no time!
Thank you so much, that's really kind. I really hope that happens, thanks for the encouragement and thanks for watching! 👍
second one of your videos i’ve watched and i’m loving the content, love the scientific insight because most youtubers i watch and myself go for the “idk why it works but it does” approach
Fascinating results! Didn't expect the Cat Litter to do so well, and might have to try it in the future! Super entertaining, top quality video mate! Keep it up!👍
Thanks Lazarus, really appreciate it. Yeah, I was just as surprised tbh. Will definitley do a few more projects with it, and maybe even make a combination mixture with the bonsai soil since I have plenty of substrates to use up now!
Just found your videos, and am really enjoying them. Informative, humorous, and educational. Well done sir!
Thanks so much! Starting up with the Autumn season in September so new content isn't far off! 👍
Great video. I have used Cat litter as a bonsai soil. The brown Tesco one is excellent and cheap. Now I have just started keeping fish again, I will definitely be using it in my tank.
Nice time that is very helpful to know
Nice vedio 👍👍
Very interesting video. I make up bags using oil spill clay granules (pretty much the same composition as cat litter) and natural laterite.
They go in my canister filter and work great at absorbing excess nitrates and phosphates.
I'm not surprised that you can grow plants in it.
Thanks so much for the video. Fab content! Which brand of cat litter would you recommend for those in the UK?
Hey hey. Glad you enjoyed it. I've been having great success with the Pets at Home Essentials Non Clumping stuff in a blue bag. UKAPs has a lot of ppl talking about how Tesco used to sell the perfect akadama litter in a pink bag, but I haven't spotted it recently. 👍
@@AquariumShed thank you
This is top tier
Cheers!! 🥳 🥳
Very nice
Great informative video👍I have used cat litter in several og my setups fore some years now with great sucsess. Here in Norway we have a very cheap cat litter that is made og Danish molar red clay…..and it is hard baked so it does not turn into mush. I suppose og it’s red color it is also high in iron👍
Thanks for watching, really pleased you liked the video. That source of cat litter sounds perfect. Nice to hear about other success stories! 👍
You should have used 4 tanks, as they all would have different Ph and TDS. I love akadama, but for a higher ph tank I prefer crushed lava rock and using seiryu rock to raise the Ph up to around 7.8. Akadama will buffer down to 6 and it's best to use the 2mm to 4mm rather than the rocky stuff you used. Yes, cat litter is fine if you cap it with nice light-coloured sand. I always have low tech planted tanks. Dose ferts very rarely and there hasn't been a plant I can't grow, but saying that, I've managed to just kill off a big bunch of pearl weed in a holding vase, to use on another project.
New Subscriber here........and a Happy one too!!!.........super video mate :)
Thanks so much mate, really appreciate the support! 👍 👍
I am glad that you did this experiment, very interesting results; too bad that I can't find the right type of kitty litter in my country I really wanted to try it out.
Oh no, that's a shame. I thought it would be much more commonplace given how cheap it is! Glad you liked the video anyway. Cheers! 👍
Try special kitty litter
Akadama-Akadama Aquasoil... Sand! Best part 🤭
😂 Glad you liked it. I kinda regret not starting the video with it. That was the original plan but it seemed a bit silly. I think I'll pin your comment for a while and see if it confuses ppl or prompts them to search for it! 😁
Really enjoying your content. Sorry another comment by me, last for a while, promise!
Cat litter works a real treat, dismantled four years ago, a successful planted tank after 10 years plus that was set up with cat litter topped with builder's kiln dried sand. I used garden centre long lasting fertiliser beads, very lightly, in the cat litter when first creating the layered substrate. Cheap, cheap and cheap products. The only fertiliser I added to the eater column, was micro - sequestered Iron - cheap. There is a pattern here.
But disturb the cat litter and you do have a cloudy mess for a while and the clay can settle on fine leaved plants. Now recommend horticultural grit as a topping, pH neutral, Corydoras cope with it and is less likely to get caught in a magnetic scraper and damage the glass, same cannot be said for sand, which of course catfish love, they filter it and blow it out of their gills when feeding.
Have used substrate cables on several tanks, starting in the early 1990s, but never went for dual heater and cable controller because of expense and yet another bit of kit to wire into the system. In hot summers the heating cable needs to be turned off. Algae loves an overheated tank and with CO2 injection fish losses are very likely. Heating cables, like skimmers and electrolysis sterilisers are products which I have used but would not now buy. UV sterilisers for tanks with sensitive or new livestock are equipment I do recommend. Keep up the good work, off to walk the dog - finally.
Thanks for the lovely comments. Really pleased you are enjoying my videos. Heating cables are on my list of things to explore. Why would you not buy them now? Not looked into it yet, but do thermostatically controlled cables exist at all? Happy dog walking. I have a day off and am baking a bonsai in the oven.... Don't ask!! 😂😂
I follow some other Aquarium "specialist" people LOL, but your show is very useful. Not like the others who just want to sell something or show their achievements LOL.
Aah thanks so much, appreciate it. I try my best to offer the sort of genuine advice I would like to hear. And not being a mouthpiece for a company is definitely useful in that regard. Not saying I wouldn't partner with someone in the future, but it would have to be the right fit.
thanks for sharing your experiment.
yesterday i made two bcb baskets using pets at home clay kitty litter plus a core of flourite (iron source) …. within 24 hours my 80 litres patio pond’s green tinge of algae cleared up! finally i could see the bottom of the container 😆
Is this kitty litter from pets at home the pink one ? Is it hard baked .? Thank you
You are a funny dude. Love it. 2 months for my to setups of kitty litter , laterite and organic soil pebbles and sand top off. Have a 1" slow moving plenum with CO2 Damn it my KH skyrocket to 13 from a tap kh 6. Not good but i am running a sump so maybe it is too much oxygen. Plants are taking off but that high of kh cant possably be good.
I've been looking into Akadama for a while. All the old fish stores in San Francisco and the Bay area use Akadama soil. Even if the tanks are not planted, it helps with the water chemistry.
I've been really impressed with it so far. Think I'm going to do a mixed substrate on my next scape combining the bonsai soil and the cat litter together! 👍
Just found your channel, and I will never everrrr leave you.....😂🏴🥃
🤣🤣 That's awesome! Been prepping a whole bunch of projects today in fact, plan moving forward is to have a Spring and an Autumn season so that I have enough lead in time to prep some interesting experiments. For example, I have a low budget Dutch Style aquarium that I can't wait to share. Watch this space! 👍
@@AquariumShed looking forward to it..😊🥃🏴
Hi, great video. Really tells a good story. We need good solid stories like yours...
You really put some thinking into your test, and made it scientific with the comparisons.
I am planning to establish a fully PLANTED 250cm x 100cm x 70cm discus/red angel tank using an anoxic filtration system utilising an undergravel filter (UGF). Saved for 7 years to achieve this.
I plan to use kitty litter from Australia (I live in Sydney) which contains ZEOLITE and no other chemicals (AU$10 per bag of 15 litres). There is another type from the same brand that contains BENTONITE but provides clumping - which I assume it not good.
Is ZEOLITE the right stuff that would hold a charge?
I did some research and found out that ZEOLITE is used in the sewerage industry in filters. Not sure if it is suitable for aquariums.
I was around in the 70s and 80s when aquascape aquariums were the thing across Europe with big competitions were held in Holland. They were using undergravel coil heaters and some even used UGF with coils underneath to provide warmth to plant roots. Although the UGF did not use aeration (air bubbles) but rather pumps to circulate the water from the updraft pipes back into the tanks. The reason for not using air was to maintain the levels of CO2 in the tank which was injected while the lights were on. The did use air bubbles when the lights were switched off.
I would be interested and most thrilled if you were to do a comparison of using UGF and plant growth (like in this video) with and without heating coils under the UGF. I think that using kitty litter as the substrate for both would be the way to go.
I suggest that you do not use air to circulate the water but pumps so that you do not deplete the CO2 levels required by the plants. TEMU has small USB pumps that could do the job since the volume of water flow would be minimal. I bought 2 for AU$1.89 each and achieved a flow rate of only between 1.8 litres and 3.0 litres per minute.
Looks like TEMU will be playing a huge role as a retailer in the aquarium industry in the near future... i have asked they to source clean and safe kitty litter for UGF and anoxic filters. They are considering...
Regards
The kitty in Australia can be bought from Woolies or Coles and is called "Smitten Feline Care". As you pointed out, it comes in 15kg bags with zeolite (non-clumping) or bentonite (clumping) in the same designed bag both for $10
Fun fact:
In french, MTS stands for Sexualy Transmitted Deazise or STD. (Maladie Transmissible Sexuellement).
I'm not judging your habits or secret garden... so you've got a thumbs up regardless!
😂😂😂 Well that explains why I'm not selling much Merch in France!!
@@AquariumShed I'm Canadian, french speaker, from Montréal, Canada!
But, yeah, most of the frenchy won't wear MTS merch! lol.
Have a nice day, great video content, as always!!!
👍GOOD 👍
Great experiment and surprising results! I was wondering about how easy it is the plant in each substrate, was cat litter easy to plant in? If so, I might give it a go!
Hiya, yup Cat Litter is just as easy to plant in as any of the other substrates. The only thing is that I would definitely cap it with sand in the future as no matter how much you rinse it, it remains quite a dusty substrate! 👍
@@AquariumShed Thanks for the reply! :)
this was quite interesting. have you considered doing this for a longer time scale and checking the root growth as part of the final analysis? on short term, i dont think just the visual appeal of the plants aesthetic is super indicative of its long term health and viability.
Very good point. I think I need a multi tank experiment setup too since the impact on the water column is a variable this experiment didn't really address too. I'll add a follow up to the idea list! 👍
@@AquariumShed yea from what i understand, aquasoil already has nutrients so those probably leached into the water column as well
Wow here we go...
Hi guys welcome to your daily dose of all in one fertilizer
It should add to aquarium air Babul at night is it right or worng
What about using kiryuzuna or sepiolite with seachem fluorite?
Not something that's commonly available in the the UK I'm afraid so can't really comment. From what I've read about Kiryuzuna it's some sort of pumice type stone, so would most likely work in a similar way! If you get round to testing, please let us know the result! 👍
Meow that’s how it’s done on the cheep cheep! 😂
The proper experiment requires different tanks for each soil as soil leaches nutrients into the water column.
I agree! Will have to do another follow up.
True.
SAFETYSORB or OIL-Dri is a solid choice it's a darker clay that looks very nice and has a darker brown and red color which probably indicates a higher iron content.
Aah yeah, I've read about this on the UKAPS forum I think. Must give it a go sometime. Thanks for sharing. How did it work out for you in terms of plant growth etc.?
@Aquarium Shed , well not so good as of yet, the brown algae aka diatoms is killing even val, amazon swords forget it. I can't keep up with cleaning every single leaf of the brown slime. 😢
the cat litter was at a disadvantage because the main reason cat litter is used so good imo is because it's designed to absorb cat waste. whilst in the aquarium it absorbs fish waste in that process it's absorbing ammonia and holding on to it and the plants roots then feed on that ammonia. in fact cat litter actually attract the ammonia. so I think the experiment might have shown better results for the cat litter if you had fish in it. or dosing with ammonia
AQUARIUM SHED AND DR. NOVAK Had either of You thought about using a Heat Mat for an Experiment? I use for Bonsai in Winter in Basement.
I'm sort of on the case. I'm using a substrate heating cable on an upcoming Dutch Style Aquascape. Video will be ready in March! 👍
Would dirt be the best opposed to cat litter?
Depends on the setup. Like I explained, the benefit of the cat litter is the high cec value so it is able to store the nutrients you add to the water column and make them available to the roots. This makes the nutrient availability much more controllable. Whereas with the dirt you don't necessarily know what the nutrient composition will be so lack that control. 👍
Thanks for watching, just to say that the T-shirt competition has been won. Hope you enjoyed the video anyway! Cheers. 👍
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
The best plants I ever grew were in bunker sand from a golf course and EI dosing.
How long were you stuck in that bunker!😜
I use another reasonably cheap substrate that has high cec called JBL Manado. I think its made from iron smelting waste products because it is magnetic which is a problem when cleaning your glass using a magnet. but it works very well with my plants roots.
I use Manado a lot in my undergravel filter projects. It's a great substrate! 👍
@@AquariumShed yeah it’s probably best to use it under another substrate because it’s very light and can get washed around by fish swimming. I ended up putting a layer of gravel over mine to keep it from moving and getting sucked up in my gravel siphon.
Well I'm glad about that. But I have a question about the scented cat litter. Is it bad because it was made out of something else of because of the chemicals? Can the chemicals be washed away? My cat has such pretty white and blue litter and it would have looked so cool in an aquarium
Hiya. Yes, it's bad because of the chemicals both from the scent, and also the clumping agents. I don't think you could ever be 100% certain that it was safe, even after repeated rinsing. Definitely best to avoid. 👍
MD sent me here!
Whoop whoop!! You found it. Drop me an email and let me know what T-shirt design and size you would like from my merch store! 👍
I tried to wash the cat litter,it got soft and mushy? Is it the wrong one?
I put special kitty litter and lava rock in the bottom of my aquarium and top it with sand can’t wait to see what happens
Also will be updating on the results
Hello. I do not comment much but I saw lower views for your videos and decided to show appreciation for this video and thank you
Aah thanks. Glad you are enjoying my content. Last couple of videos were always going to be slow burners as there more geared towards search. But it would be nice to get in front of a few more eyeballs for sure! Next weeks is a cracker! 👍
@@AquariumShed you should do the "shocked face" thumbnails and click bait titles😂
🤣🤣
It's funny, my click through rate (frequency that people click when shown a thumbnail) is really high compared to what is apparently average. I get around 12-14% CTR on most videos. But CZcams doesn't widen the reach despite this performance..... Hey ho. I enjoy making them and it helps with the electricity bill!
Is the cat litter a pain in the ass to use like say safety zorb? Super light flys around all over and can’t get near it with a gravel vac because you’ll literally suck it all up in a split sec?? Appreciate your work!
Hiya. I'd say that is an accurate description when using the cat litter uncapped. But, aside from this experiment, I have always capped with sand/gravel and had no issues. I think the best way I could describe it is "chalky" if that makes sense?
Cat litter and akadama will both disintegrate eventually just like any other baked clay. In Bonsai pot akadama survives about year and half before it turns into mush. Do not bother with either, just use deep layer of sand or tiny gravel or mix of them.
It's good to see practical experiments like these - but you are muddying results by putting each in the same tank. Roots can reach into neighbouring compartments, and water leeching is gonna bring nutrients from each substrate to all the plants. A handful of jars would have been a more direct test.
Yeah, I agree entirely. I think I did mention this concern in the video. I didn't notice any roots reaching when I broke the tank down, but was certainly aware that water leeching would impact results. You live and you learn......
good video mate, you can go into your settings and block links on youtube so you dont get the spam comments 👇👇
Cheers Mark. I'll sort that out now! 👍 What did you think of the cat litter results? I've got an awesome Shrimp project on the horizon! 👍 👌
I just use top soil my plants grow to fast
major audio issues with syncing = unnatural.
CASHION EXCHANGE CAPACITY. CASHION???
Lol. I know your correct. But it still baffles me that "cat" "ion" is considered correct pronunciation. Ration is not "Rat" "Ion" .... Hey ho! 🤣
say his name
cation = cat-eye-on
Unfortunately this isn't even my worst mispronounciation...... 😂
Aquarium substrates affect the water column, so doing this experiment in a single tank is, in my opinion, not the best way to go about it. I'd love to see a similar comparison using four different isolated tanks with comparable water, light and equipment.
Yeah, I agree. Should have separated it out really, although I was really thinking of this as a CEC experiment and I think we definitely saw how the more inert substrates struggled to supply and develop a healthy root system. Thanks for the feedback, I will have a think about dividing the experiment tank with acrylic for future videos! 👍
@@AquariumShed Thanks for the reply! I didn't expect it on a 5-month old video. I'm subscribed and have the notifications on, so if you ever do that experiment, I'll rush to watch the results. TBH, I had to google "CEC", but I now get what you mean. Keep up the good work! I follow plenty of aquarium CZcams channels and, IMHO, you hit the sweet spot between hi-tech and lo-tech (which also translates into $$$) that I want to achieve.
Watch this space, an exciting low tech / high tech project in the making as we speak! As long as it actually works that is..... 🤣 Thanks so much for the positive feedback, really appreciate it! 👍
It is called Cat Ion, not Cashon/Cashayon.
🤣 🤣 Well that is rather perfect!
@@AquariumShed Yeah I just remembered the video is aboit CAT litter 😂
🤣 🤣 I've always been terrible at pronouncing things. Should hear me reading a wine label! 😂
The cat litter that I used, my cat used it first, I was 😡
Ha. They truly will go anywhere.....
I what this acronyms! What a fu%^&$c is CEC???????
😂 Cation Exchange Capacity. Just think of your substrate like a battery. The higher the CEC, the more nutrients it can store! 👍