Tap Water Beneficial To Aquatic Plants?

[Shugo]

So I have been running Live Plants for a little over a Year now and my plants go through spurts of doing well and not really dying nor growing at all. I have a 150 gallon aquarium with LED Doublebright Lights, a UV Sterilizer, and 2 Emporer 400 Canister Filters (For now... working on getting a Fluval FX5). I understand I lack proper filtration for the size of my aquarium.... anyway I do a 30 gallon water change at least 3 times a week. I was just curious... I know that tap water has ammonia and stuff in it ~ could the tap water be supplying my plants with enough nutrients to stay alive? My money is tight due to being the only one living in my apartment to pay bills, I have a dog, a ferret, and a daughter (hence why I'm broke) so I can't really afford to keep buying the liquid fertilizers like I know I should be doing and I don't have a CO2 system (don't really plan on getting one either; at least not until I buy a house and upgrade to either a 220 or 440 gallon aquarium).

I know this post may seem a bit stupid to most... I'm only curious is all.

 

[jmeheliboy]

Dry fery cheap as chips and last a long long time and DIY co2 the most I'm important suger and yest

 

[bigbanker]

Tap can go either way as it depends on what plants you're keeping and the quality of your water.

Tap water does contain some nutrients and elements that are beneficial to your plants though....

I'm not too familiar with where you are on the "lighting scale" with the fixture you currently have. I know my grandfather has led on one of his tanks and his plants didn't grow.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

You should invest on dry ferts, especially in an aquarium your size. The "green ferts pack" from Green Leaf Aquariums have just about everything you need and would save you loads of money and last much longer than liquid ferts purchased at the LFS. I recommend getting the 1000ml dispensers from GLA as well as it would make it easier to measure out the doses. Speaking of dosing, I recommend using the PPS-PRO dosing method as it's pretty easy to learn and provides you a recipe to mix the dry ferts into two solutions, a macro and a macro mix. Since you are not injecting co2, I recommend supplementing with a liquid carbon. The most popular liquid carbon in this hobby is Excel. However, for a tank your size, I'm afraid that Excel is going to turn your wallet into a blackhole.. so lucky for you there's goods news... you can buy a much cheaper alternative called Glutaradelhyde. It's sold as Metricide on Amazon.com by the quart or gallon. It's about 2.5 times stronger than excel so you should dilute it with distilled water. An AA member perfect to help you with this is Rivercats. You should check out her thread on her 220g to get a clearer picture... it's awesome!

Anyway, my other concern is the type of plants you're keeping with that Marineland double bright fixture?I don't think that light is that strong on a tank your size and you may be limited to low and moderate light tolerant plants. I'm not sure... I need to know plants and how tall your tank is.

Edit: Link to Rivercats' 220g build... Glut and the dry ferts will be your bestfriend
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f70/220g-planted-newly-rescaped-231568.html

Link to GLA ferts:
http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/micro-macro-fertilizers.html

Dispenser bottles (note: buy two, 1 for macro and 1 for micro mix. You can buy 3 if you want to use the third for the Glut, liquid carbon)
http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/dispenser-32oz.html

Link to Glut:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=B000XYVEDA

 

[jetajockey]

I would avoid dosing ferts with that particular fixture since it's really low light. The short answer is yes, tap water usually has a lot of nutrients in it. Your plant growth issues likely stem from a lack of light intensity rather than a lack of ferts.

 

[Shugo]

lol thanks everyone i stick to simple plants : hornwort, dwarf saggitaria, anubias nana, and another low-light stemmed plant i forgot the name of.