What fertilizers to use??

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abrage22

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 23, 2011
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Location
Minnesota
I bought a sword, and a green mondo grass plant today, for lighting I have a T5HO 2x24watt bulb fixture, 10000k bulbs in a 28 bf. I'm wondering, should I use root tabs, or the liquid fertilizers? Are all plants different for what types of fertilizers they need? Oh, and I don't have any special substrate, just gravel.
Thanks for any help/info you can give!!
 
Is it possible for you to return the mondo grass? It is non-aquatic and will rot and foul your tank.

An amazon sword is a heavy root feeder. A root tab would work well. A lot of plants take nutrients from the water column. That's when you need to add fertilizers.
 
Alright i'll try the root tabs. Darn, that disappoints me about the grass, guess I should do my research before I buy something... Also i'd love any suggestions of other plants that would fit my tank well...
 
IMO, a tank would look nice with a background plant. Search "rotala rotundifolia" or some "ludwigia repens(broadleaf)". Blyxa for foreground and/or star grass.
 
There are different kinds of root tabs. All will work just as fine. Here are some examples...
 

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Alright. The Jungle ones seem to be priced pretty cheap, I'll probably go with that... Thanks for the suggestions by the way, some sites are saying you should have high lighting for some of the ones you listed, but I trust you more than some of these other sites out there.
 
abrage22 said:
Awesome! Do you typically need one tab per plant, and how long does one last?

The instruction says to put one tab every six inches(If I remember it right). I don't follow that though(I used to). What I did with mine is I put 3 tabs(depending on the plant size) surrounding the heavy root feeder plants Every month. I only put them under a heavy root feeder plant. That's just me though.
 
Like Roy said if you have a group of plants, just kinda put it in the middle of them (3-6 inches away). I used them on any plant that was buried/rooted and dosed liquid ferts so all the plants had something to feed on :). Once a month seemed to work for me.
 
I use the API tabs, and they work well.. have tripled plant growth in the past 2 weeks alone.
 
I recommended the jungle tabs only because I used them and they worked great, plus every one of my LFS/PetSmartCo has them on their shelves.

I found these to be the best on the market and I don't have to mix them (just add laterite) like some of the high tech stuff others suggest: aqua forest aquarium
 
I use Seachem root tabs. I buy it at petsmart. My amazon sword has been shooting up 2-3 new leaves a day.
 
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I've heard mixed reviews on the odyssea fixtures, some love them and other say they don't last long. The fixtures at fishneedit.com have had rave reviews across the board.

IMO, fixtures are one of those things where "you get what you pay for" fits.
 
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