plant fertz

[rilock4]

I am currently using flourish comprehensive in my planted tank. My tank has corkscrew valisneria, cambomba, water wisteria, and red ludiwiga. I am wondering if I need to add any other fertz for my plants.

 

[Maxw47]

What is your substrate? Dosing ferts is good, but feeding plants where they eat is great. Also what are you lights? You've gotta balance light and nutrients in the tank, preferably co2 as well but I find it more trouble than its worth, especially with hardy plants like you have.

 

[rilock4]

What is your substrate? Dosing ferts is good, but feeding plants where they eat is great. Also what are you lights? You've gotta balance light and nutrients in the tank, preferably co2 as well but I find it more trouble than its worth, especially with hardy plants like you have.

I have gravel substrate and I am running the Satellite Freshwater LED.

 

[Maxw47]

I'm not too familiar with the satellite LEDs, but they sound good. If you just have regular gravel I would definitely get some root tabs in their. Other than that the flourish comprehensive is a great base fertilizer.

 

[rilock4]

I'm not too familiar with the satellite LEDs, but they sound good. If you just have regular gravel I would definitely get some root tabs in their. Other than that the flourish comprehensive is a great base fertilizer.

Is there any specific brand of root tabs that are better than the rest, or are they all about the same

 

[Jkeating8]

I find the best thing to use for root tabs is osmocote pellets like these. Just press them into the gravel. I use them in my high tech tank.

 

[Maxw47]

I've heard great things about osmocote, never used it though. I am a big fan if the sea hem root tabs, that's what I use and my plants love it.

 

[Jkeating8]

I just use osmocote because its so much more economical, but in a smaller tank it doesn't really matter.

 

[Maxw47]

Yeah that seachem stuff is expensive! You get like ten or so for like $10. With a $20 bag of osmocote you can make hundreds of little capsules.

 

[dragonfisher33]

but i heard osmocote doens't contain iron, which a lot of plants need

 

[Jkeating8]

I'll check the ingredients but I'm fairly sure it does. I'll get back to you on it.

 

[Rivercats]

All the plants you listed are stem plants which absorb nutrients from the water column. They do not need root tabs. Seachem Flourish Comprehensive is good but also using API Leaf Zone which is only iron and potassium will help a lot. What size tank do you have? Dry ferts are more economical especially if you have a large tank.

 

[Maxw47]

Almost all plants absorb from the water column...but they absorb nutrients from their roots much much more.

 

[Rivercats]

Actually stem plants have very poor root systems and take the majority of all nutrients from the water column. I've been doing planted tanks since the 80's. Heavy root feeders are Swords, Crypts, and most bulb plants. These plants actually need root tabs as they absorb very little nutrients from the water column.

 

[Maxw47]

But the roots are made for taking in nutrients. Might as well feed the plants where they eat. The Val will definitely benefit from it even if the stem plants do not. My best advice would be to add root tabs AND flourish comprehensive. If there are any obvious nutrient deficiencies from that point on, it is most likely going to be either iron or potassium, especially if you go with osmocote, and you can dose some of the API fertilizer from that point on.

 

[Rivercats]

Roots in stem plants are actually more for anchoring a plant. They are very small and take up very little nutrients. For them it is more important to have nutrients available in the water. I keep almost all stem plants in my 100% planted 220g high light tank. Many of these plants are rare and difficult to grow and I can tell you in no uncertain terms that without proper ferts in the water column they would not thrive. I do not use any root tabs except on my Red Tiger Lotus and keep my nutrient levels at 10ppm nitrates and 5-10ppms phosphates. My plants not only thrive without root tabs but have exceptional color since about 2/3's of my stem plants are non-green. The stems don't need root tabs so we will just agree to disagree. And Val's are stem plants.

 

[Maxw47]

Alright. I just thought adding nutrients to the substrate should be his first priority because his substrate has no nutrients at all, but I see where you are coming from with the nature of stem plants. And I didn't know Vals were stem plants?! Guess ya learn something new every day. Anyways, I've always been a big Diana walstad, dirted aquarium fan, so the nutrients in the substrate thing has always been a priority of mine in my tanks. The only stem plants I have are water wisteria, star grass, and dwarf sag (I am guessing if Val is a stem plant this is?) I keep all of these plants in the same tank with inert sand, root tabs, flourish comprehensive, and seachem equilibrium. The plants do great in this setup so that's what I recommended.

 

[Rivercats]

My 220g tank is dirted and capped with Eco Complete. The big difference is dirt and commercial plant substrates have high CEC, cation exchange capacity, which means the substrate can absorb nutrients from detris and the water column and hold them for use by plants. Sand and gravel are inert. A rich substrate is helpful with some plants that like being in a nutrient rich substrate along with getting proper micro and macro nutrients from the water column. But most plants with the few exceptions don't require a nutrient rich substrate. Even with the Walstad method the fish waste and fish food adds macro nutrients of nitrate and phosphates to the water column. Each tank is different and what works in one tank may not work in another. A lot depends on the lighting, the use of CO2 or liquid carbon, and they type of ferts used along with the type of plants. The higher the light in a tank, the greater the need for CO2 or liquid carbon, and an even greater need for proper macro and micro ferts in the water. The OP has a low light or maybe med low light tank that has no CO2 or liquid carbon, which means the plants will grow slower and need less ferts. Using Seachem Comprehensive is good in this scenario but adding API Leaf Zone which is iron and potassium gives plants, especially his red ludwigia which may turn green over time without enough light an added boost.

Are you using RO water? Is that why you use Seachems Equilibrium? Planted tanks do great with a Kh and Gh of 4. Most tap water contains enough calcium and magnesium to achieve these levels.

 

[Maxw47]

Yes I use ro, my house has a sodium water softener that is horrible for aquarium use. Unfortunately I learned first hand. I used to keep my gh around 4-6 but on some of my live bearer tanks I've bumped it up to 12ish and the plants are exploding! It's awesome. I do keep it at about 4ish for my South American tanks and such though.

 

[rilock4]

I have a 38 gallon tank. Also, do I need to be turning off my filters when I'm adding the flourish? Or will the plants still get the fertz with the filters on?