Plant Food?

[chrisjg04]

Hey everyone I have a one gallon tank in my dorm room at college with a Male Betta in it. I wanted to give him a live plant to rest on and decided to try out some Betta bulbs and see if they were worth it or not. It has been just over 24 hours since I put the bulb in the tank and already I see some small sprouts.

I was wondering if there is anything I should be putting in the tank foodwise for the plant?

 

[Purrbox]

For the most part, water changes and the Betta's waste will provide the majority of the nutrients your plant needs. You may find that you need to add a tiny bit of Micronutrients (Flourish "Comprehensive or Tropica Plant Nutrition) and Potassium (Flourish Potassium or KCl aka NoSalt) after water changes or once a week, which ever is more frequent.

 

[chrisjg04]

How would I know if i need to add these nutrients?

 

[Purrbox]

Basically you keep any eye on your aquarium. If the plant starts looking poorly or you start seeing algae problems, then you need to start dosing. If not then your plant is getting what it needs. By paying attention to the symptoms you can look up what needs to be added.

Nutrient Deficiencies
Algae

 

[chrisjg04]

Sounds good, definately alot easier than I thought it would be, I cant wait for my plant to grow and fill out the tank!

 

[cmcmullen]

do you just an the plant food to the water?

 

[cmcmullen]

do you add the plant food to the water or put it in the gravel?

 

[chrisjg04]

Depends what type you get, there are liquids that you just put into the water or tablets that you bury in the gravel to fertilize the plant. The tablets seem to work better however.

 

[Lager]

Both, the macros and micro are added to the water. Fert tabs are put in the substrate near by root feeding plants.

 

[chrisjg04]

Would adding fert tabs in my tank help my betta bulb grow faster? I read somewhere that too much fertilizer could cause an algae bloom.

 

[Purrbox]

It would only help if there aren't enough nutrients present already. High levels of fertilizers don't cause algae blooms, just nutrient imbalances.

 

[chrisjg04]

Hmm... I see, well seeing as how it keeps growing by the day I will just let if be for now rather than risk an algae bloom