Do these plants need fertilizer?

[Fin35]

I have a 10 gallon planted tanks, three crypts, Anubis, haves feen, a little miss, and Christmas moss. I have jungle Val but it’s super short and not really growing so I may pull it out. I bought a grid so I could attach the Christmas moss hoping it will grow and create a bushy backdrop in aquarium. I bought thrive liquid fertilizer because fertilizer because I have snails and it’s copper safe. At first I dosed once a week after water changes for about 3 weeks, I had a huge algae bloom from it. I’ve dimmed my grow lights and stopped fertilizing for about a month now and finally the algae is more under control. Do I need to fertilize at all? The java moss is covered in algae and the nerite snails don’t seem to be censor much or it’s to much for them. I wanted to fertilize to help the Christmas moss grow thick but maybe I should just do it once a month? Any suggestion? I don’t use CO2 and they are all low tech.

 

[fishingBuds]

Some plants get their nutrients from the water but others get their nutrients from the soil, so u are "feeding" some of the plants while others need rich substrate to grow

 

[Enchantress]

Adding fertilizers only makes sense if you have enough light and CO2, otherwise the plants won't be able to use them efficiently & you'll just end up feeding the algae (or if you use RO water). The plants you have are all low light, slow growers that don't typically require fertilizers. For the time being I wouldn't dose anything, at least not until you get the algae completely under control. Watch how the plants grow on their own, and if you notice symptoms of deficiencies you can then add the appropriate fertilizer and build from there. All-in-one ferts like Thrive don't always work, as they have a fixed amount of nutrients and you can't really adjust the individual components to suit the needs of your particular tank.

Basically it all depends on how many animals you have in the tank and the contents of your tap water. Your algae bloom was probably due to the fact that you added macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) to a tank that already has animals and probably had enough macros to start with. The plants' metabolism was too slow to absorb them all, and the algae started growing instead.

Don't sweat it, it's perfectly possible to grow these plants without any fertilizers at all. You just have to observe them and see how they do.

 

[Fin35]

Thanks! One of my crypts is growing really large while the one is small, but I think the algae covering them wasn’t helping so now that’s it’s more under control itbshkukd improve. Oh I’m also getting a banana plant but they are low tech too. I have betta fish and 9 ember tetras, 2 mystery snails and 3 nerires so I assume their poop will fertilize the water? Java fern is growing like crazy as is. I tried root Tabs for the crypts but I only have 2 inches of substrate and the myster snails found them and ate them! I have some fluval soul I could add around the plant, but then I was told not to mix that with sand.

 

[earhtmother]

Amano shrimp will clean the moss up quickly and I find the cooler you can keep your water the better the moss will like it..Mine actually grew best in an unheated tank I had it in while deciding where it would go

 

[Fin35]

Unheated isn’t an option, I have tropical fish.

 

[earhtmother]

Heat is fine but I would try to keep the water as cool as your fish will take.

 

[Enchantress]

Christmas moss shouldn't be damaged by warm temperature, it may just grow slower. It's true that it thrives in slightly cooler water (around room temperature), but it can live in temperatures that go up into the 80s range. So don't worry about it. If it doesn't grow well you can always try another variety that may be more suited to your water, or go with a species of liverwort (like Pellia) instead of moss.