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Has anyone found a good "Coarse" silica sand?

  • #21
APS or APM contains acrilite and zeolite. And if I remember correctly Turface is just a brand name for one of them (i think acrilite?) It will work fine.

The only potential mentioned by members here and there is the leaching of aluminum from substrate in the acidic environment of peat. I have not experienced any issues over 2 years span with the soil that contained peat and turface (for cephs and even grew Sarrs in peat:turface mix). If you are using it for pings only, do not use Peat at all. Pure Turface(APS) or Turface(APS) : perlite will work wonders for plants's roots.

Think of MVP and Pro as just particle size. MVP is the largest. I was not able to find MVP in local John Deere stores though. And APM/APS from walmart/nurseries has a mix of nice grain sized stuff
 
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  • #22
There shouldn't be any harm in Mixing the APS w/other stuff in equal amounts i'd assume then? IE: Perilite/Pumice/Lava rock/Possibly Pool Filter sand. (More for the visual aspect, but I figure it can't hurt to have different stuff in the mix). I mean if it's all inert i'd assume it wouldn't matter.
 
  • #23
Yeah it should be perfectly safe. I had some elaborate mixes similar to what you are describing and as long as you wash everything thoroughly it can sit in water for weeks on end and never develop any slime or moss. And if you start having issue just cover the top layer with some sand and forget about moss for a while :)
 
  • #24
Awesome, I have no doubt MVP mix by itself works, but just for looks i'd sorta like to mix it up. None of these should really "break down" from what I mentioned I would think. Thats one reason why im avoiding vermiculite (since apparently it DOES breakdown relatively quickly). An all mineral mix like this I would think wouldn't need changing very often at all.


Silly question: But on these sort of "Coarse/Gravely" mixes (Heck i've even seen pure perilite mixes).

How do you go about...planting it? Since there isn't really any soil? I mean do you just sort of make an impression and sit the ping on it? I know their roots aren't big but it seems like there isn't really a good way to actually plant them into a hole. Since the media is relatively large compared to soil.
 
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  • #25
Some people just place the ping onto wet mix. I used to make a little mound with a cavity on the top and place the plants rhizome in that cavity. I only did it because some pings tend to "lift" themselves with the leaves out of the soil and sitting on top of something mediated that to a degree.
 
  • #26
There are tons of aquarium sands, although a lot don't really seem to display an exact set of ingredients. I wonder if any of them would be suitable.

Since it seems like from a lot of tests (If you look at the flytrap forums website) that a lot of the sands (Such as quikrete) will continue to leech contaminants even after being washed a ton. So im sorta hesitant about any of the big box store sands.
 
  • #27
Go for silica sand or quartz sand for aquariums find the one you like the look of and email the company that makes it as they will know if it would leach anything as they can't be selling Sands untested as they could kill someone's expensive fish. I mentioned unipac as that's who I get mine of and I know that the maui and silica are completly inert.
Hope this helps

Mark
 
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