Kitty Litter Refugium?

[RamPuppy]

Hi Guys,

I have been sidelined for a while due to a divorce and moving and what not, but I am getting back into the swing of things and setting my 120 gallon cube back up.

I wanted to do a mineral mud fuge, so i was googling around searching for peoples results w/ miraclemud, caribsea, and walt smiths stuff.

A few times I ran into people saying to just use "100 % fragrance free CLAY kitty litter."

Now, I started off in the planted tank hobby, and kitty litter wants out of line there, but saltwater is obviously different...

Anyhow, has anyone done this? if so, what were your results?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if there is allready a topic on this out there, havent joined as a premium member yet so search is unavailabl.

[RamPuppy]

I am guessing that no one here has tried it after 58 views and not a single response.

I wasn't in love w/ the idea, just curious.

I think I will stick w/ sugar fine aragonite and garf grunge lite.

[fishysteve]

I used the mineral mud (not the miracle mud) and the Walt Smith's refugium booster when I set up my fuge a while back.

[acrodave]

I bet the litter will brake down and be a mess

[mille239]

It'd be a neat experiment if anyone is willing to try in a 10 gallon tank.... just put a little kitty litter, chaeto, a snail or two, and a small light and hang on penguin filter. the snails and pods will tell you if the tank remains habitable as the litter breaks down into 'mud' let it run for a month or so and do some water tests... I bet they laughed at the guy who invented the protein skimmer too..

just make sure the litter isn't 'used', lol.

[aastretch64]

No more mess then Walt's mud. I placed it in my fuge when I first set up the tank. It got swept up and made such a mess that 3 weeks after setting the tank up the water was still so brown you could not see through it. The only remedy was t completely remove all the water and start fresh. Thankfully at the time I did not have my rock in yet.

I hear using the recommended tablespoon every month or so is fine, but I don't recommend using it as a fuge substrate as the can perscribes.

Alex

[RamPuppy]

well, fromt he other forum i was reading, clay unscented kitty litter is almost chemically identical to zeolite, which is a mineral clay if memory serves...

so it's probably safe.

but, i just want to get the tank up and running safe, not be a trailblazer right now.

besides, the sooner i get this one up, the sooner i can get my 215 planted tank up.

[PSam]

Kitty litter usually made of kaolinite clay, if i recall my geo101 corrctly.

[GARFVolunteer]

My concern with the kitty litter would be it's ability to absorb calcium. From what I understand, Zeolites absorb ammonia which makes it good kitty litter but most zeolites absorb calcium better. IMO it would not be worth the risk...

Thanks,

Scott

[IceWish]

i think it might get messy once that kitty litter dissolves into the water column

[discocarp]

I've never heard of this in SW, but we used to use kitty litter substrates in freshwater planted tanks back in the day. Its REAL messy if it gets stirred up at all. As long as its not disturbed though its just like a fine mud consistency.