Hey you all. I have had my planted tank for almost a year now and I have only ever used root tabs and liquid fertz. They are not looking like I want them to. I have also tied a DIY co2 infuser and that has been futile. I've been reading bout adding phosphorous and other additives. My question is what besides flourish excel and flourish should I used?
Getting serious about my plants
- Thread starter Justahamm
- Start date
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Austin.b
Aquarium Advice Addict
In my opinion, i would start the tank over again and use a plant substrate. Its better than constantly buying root tabs. I use Flora-Max planted tank substrate and i have nothing but good things to say about it. Another popular substrate is EcoComplete
IME, substrates don't really make that big of a difference. I had a high tech setup running with just playsand. I switched to eco and noticed some swords were showing deficiencies. I still had to supplement with tabs. Most of my plants, except the swords were stems and benefited more from the autodosers than the substrate.
Would just like to add that having the expensive "plant" substrates does not mean you don't need to use root fertilizers. All they do is hold on to the available nutrients better, you still have to restock them with those nutrients every so often.
I actually do use a specialized plant substra. I have a few swords and crypt wendtii plants so I wanted to make sure they were fertilized correctly. I also have anubius, java fern, Pygmy chain sword, ludwigia reopas, and money wort. I originally had an idea for an aqua scape but I had to battle BBA and now it's a random assortment as you can see
ChizerBunoi
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I agree with meegosh. You don't need substrates (although I do use them now).
Don't bother with root tabs. Just dose in the water column. Make your own ferts using dry fertilizers. I use the seachem dosing schedule on my community tank and have had great success for over two years.
You 4 items:
Macros - NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium)
Micros - Trace elements (seachem flourish)
Most importantly, control your co2 and keep it level. Use seachem Excel with a syringe and spot treat your BBA. All other problems will go away.
Don't bother with root tabs. Just dose in the water column. Make your own ferts using dry fertilizers. I use the seachem dosing schedule on my community tank and have had great success for over two years.
You 4 items:
Macros - NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium)
Micros - Trace elements (seachem flourish)
Most importantly, control your co2 and keep it level. Use seachem Excel with a syringe and spot treat your BBA. All other problems will go away.
