Beginner questions; please bear with me!

[Jetstorm369]

If I only plan to have a moderately planted tank, as in there will only be about a dozen plants in a 55 gallon tank, will I need to use any fertilizer?

 

[reefdiver]

Depends on the plants you will have. There are low light and high-medium light plants. The first will do fine without them but the later you will need CO2 and stronger lights.

 

[boadams87]

It also depends on which substrate your using.

 

[Jetstorm369]

Can you please expand on that?

 

[boadams87]

Can you please expand on that?

Which of us?

 

[BBradbury]

Planted Tanks

If I only plan to have a moderately planted tank, as in there will only be about a dozen plants in a 55 gallon tank, will I need to use any fertilizer?

Hello Jet...

Any plant needs three things: Light, water and nutrients. Plants won't grow if you don't provide these. So, you need to match the lighting to the plants, make sure the water is changed out regularly and the plants need to be fed properly.

I keep the low light plants like Anubias, some of the ferns and mosses and swords. I have moderate lighting, nothing fancy and for the most part the fish produce enough fertilizer for these plants. I do dose a little micro nutrient liquid regularly, but that's all and the plants grow somewhat slowly, but are healthy.

B

 

[Jetstorm369]

Which of us?

Sorry, I meant to respond to your comment about substrates. Can you expand on the relationship of substrate and plants?

P.S. I plan to use gravel

 

[Jetstorm369]

Hello Jet...

Any plant needs three things: Light, water and nutrients. Plants won't grow if you don't provide these. So, you need to match the lighting to the plants, make sure the water is changed out regularly and the plants need to be fed properly.

I keep the low light plants like Anubias, some of the ferns and mosses and swords. I have moderate lighting, nothing fancy and for the most part the fish produce enough fertilizer for these plants. I do dose a little micro nutrient liquid regularly, but that's all and the plants grow somewhat slowly, but are healthy.

B

Thanks! So if I plan to have low-light needing plants, I shouldn't have to worry about fertilizer, or anything of that sort?

 

[boadams87]

Sorry, I meant to respond to your comment about substrates. Can you expand on the relationship of substrate and plants?

P.S. I plan to use gravel

Some substrate have nutrients in it. But like sand has no nutritional value and root tabs need to be used. But with gravel you couldn't use tabs, it would leech into the water.

 

[boadams87]

All plants need fertilizer. They can't get all they need just from fish waste and what's in the water.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Some substrate have nutrients in it. But like sand has no nutritional value and root tabs need to be used. But with gravel you couldn't use tabs, it would leech into the water.

I have gravel and root tabs work fine. They just need to be buried deep enough.

 

[boadams87]

Guess it depends on how small the gravel is.

 

[BBradbury]

Low Light Plants & Ferts

Thanks! So if I plan to have low-light needing plants, I shouldn't have to worry about fertilizer, or anything of that sort?

Hello again Jet...

Research the requirements of your plants. Low light plants will do fine with a couple of T5, 6500K bulbs. I use these in my 55 G tanks. Stock you tank well with fish and feed them a balanced diet. They'll provide the macro or "bulk" fertilizer for the plants. Research the micro "trace element" fertilizers. Those need to be dosed weekly. The micro nutrients come from a commercial source in liquids, dry, granules or tablets. You can get these at the LFS.

Let the fish do their job and you just need to keep the water clean and give the plants the proper lighting and dose the micro ferts.

This is just what I do and the time and effort is minimal.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'm never too busy to chat about planted tanks as I understand them.

B