problems... help!!!

[vvlr3]

i'm from the philippines and we don't have that much of things needed to set-up an aquarium like a planted one... i have a tank with measurements of 36x16x24 and an overhead mechanical/biological filter... but we lack other things needed like substrates, plant nutrients, etc. please guide me find a better alternative... thank you.

1. substrates --- we don't have the branded one like fluorite, onyx, first layer, etc... the only thing we have are those common aquarium gravels... i experimented some days ago using volcanic rocks the size of m&m's candies as my substrate on my 2.5g tank with a cabomba and a betta in it... i've seen on a magazine that there's a brand called Volcanit who used aquarium gravel of volcanic origin, so i think it's worth to give it a try... do you think it would work on my 2.5 as well on my main tank??? any other ideas???

2. nutrients/fertilizers --- i've searched almost every store and the only plant supplements i saw were plant gro and flora pride... do you think a planted tank will survive using these products???

answer 1., go ahead and try the volcanic rock, but if you can get smaller pieces I think that would be better, like half the size you mentioned. If you use the large gravel, then any solid fertilizers (root tabs or the like) will leach out between the large spaces between the rocks and likely cause algae problems. Volcanic rock is also excellent for additional biofiltration, as it has tons of surface area for the good bacteria to colonize.

answer 2., Personally, I haven't tried either plant gro or flora pride, but have heard good things about both. I don't know the cost difference, but Hagen makes Plant gro, I'd try that first. They are similar products, so you definitley don't want to use both, either one or the other. I use Leaf Zone, which is similar in nutrients, and my results are great! I even only use half the dose recommended, as the full dose made my plants grw way too fast!

One other product I would like to reccomend is a houseplant product, Jobe's plant sticks for palms and ferns (ONLY this kind of Jobe's) it is formulated as a slow release fertilizer which has the correct chemical formula for root feeding aq plants, such as Amazon Swords. Only use this if you get the smaller size gravel mentioned above. Put 1/2 stick 2 inches deep in the gravel, about 2 inches away from a root feeder and watch the plant grow like mad.