# Is Turface a good cheap substrate for Plants?



## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

i really do not feel like spending too much money and rather buy a cheap substitute instead of eco complete or flourite, and plus i figure you wont see the turface anyways since it will be covered by plants..


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

I've used it. If you are into intensive plant tanks, it has the particular virtue of having a high CEC (cation exchange capacity). For more info on CEC etc, try www.thekrib.com.

It's a reasonable color, about like clay flower pots. I believe it's essentially the same kind of terracotta, but not fired at as high a temperature so it's more porous.

I've used it in several low-tech planted tanks and it works well. The only problem is that it's not as dense as conventional gravel, so you may have to use pebbles to weight down rooted plants until they get established. Also, you have to be more careful in siphoning dirt to avoid sucking up the turface as well.

IIRC, it takes a fair bit of washing. I suspect that the particles grind dust off each other as you stir them, so less agitation may make for less need to wash.


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## jimmyjam (Nov 6, 2007)

check out my 75 gallon link for a cheaper alternative.. you can also use red gravel and add the azoo substrate nutrient pellets.. they desolve very slow.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

Turface, Soilmaster (other similar products) don't offer plants any nutrients you don't add, so it's not going to grow plants on it's own without additional fertilizers added to the water column or substrate enhancements (mineralized topsoil, fertilizer pellets etc). It's also quite light apparently, I see people on several forums mentioning that it's a bit difficult to get plants to stay rooted.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

It's OK. But depends on the currents in your tank. The good is that it's very easy to plant. I really wish all the other substrate was that easy and stays in the substrate without you having to do several tries.
The bad is that it's light, so it takes twice as long for plants to take up root propertly. Also, the plant won't stay if you have high currents in the tank as well. If you have any diggers fish, no plant is safe.

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## DaFishMan (Dec 19, 2006)

Turface offers a bit of ferric iron (flourite has more), as well as nutrient holding/exchange properties typical of porous baked clay substrate or substrate additives (flourite and laterite for example). As part of a layered substrate requires less rinsing and more iron then laterite. It's a tan neutral color with a smaller rounded grain compared to flourite, darker then sand, lighter then but not as bright as river rock pea gravel.

When my 10g was planted I had trouble holding stem plants in but crypts were doing great, no problems. 

Cheers


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