special additive for bleheri?

[hbeth82]

I have two bleheri plants on my tank and will likely be upgrading to a few more, but I've seen somewhere that they need special nutritious root tabs. Is this true & can anyone recommend a particular kind? Right now they're just planted in WalMart-quality gravel.
Thus far, the amazon sword bush-like plants & the anachris have done great. Right now I have a 15W bulb but don't know what it will be for the new tank.

 

[mgamer20o0]

swords and crypts are root feeders meaning they get most of their ferts from the substrate. you can make your own or buy some. they are not a must but sure does help.

 

[fort384]

You can pick up root tabs usually at petco or petsmart. It would definitely help root feeder plants, but may not be an absolute requirement. Sometimes adding extra nutrients in a low light tank can bring more trouble than benefits (i.e. algae).

 

[gheitman]

I recommend using Seachem's Flourish Tabs. You should be able to find them at your local Petsmart or LFS and they last about three months.

 

[DragonFish71]

I just use seachem flourish liquid for ours. They are in a 14hex with low light and are doing fine. I only dose them once a month.

 

[hbeth82]

Thanks. My bleheri are looking rather bad right now but that may just be from having moved them several times in less than a month. I'm using the API's Leaf Zone but as soon as that's gone (which will likely be soon, as it takes so much to dose the tank) I'll switch to Flourish. The regular Flourish is okay for anachris, right? I thought there was one version that will kill the stuff.

 

[gheitman]

The regular Flourish is excellent for stem plants such as Anachris. Flourish Excel, Seachem's carbon supplement, isn't really recommended for Anachris and some vals.