Ugh nutrient deficiencies...

[corrado33]

Hey guys. I should have known I'd be getting myself in to this when I bought plants. They grew so well, until they used up all of the nutrients in my tank... My nitrates are constantly 0 (why am I complaining about this again?), and my plants have stopped growing or even pearling. I use Seachem's equilibrium and buffer products for my RO/DI water.

So, I'm going to do some DIY CO2, along with some ferts, I just don't know which ones... CO2 alone is not a good thing right? Especially in nutrient deficient waters? I thought for now I'd stick with seachem products, until I want to venture out to cheaper products that may work better. Anyway, so I think I'm going to buy some Fluorish. I've heard good things, and I've yet to hear someone complain. (Besides that solid ferts are cheaper.) For now, would that be enough, or should I get the fluorish Nitrogen as well? Should I just buy the whole freaking seachem line? They may be expensive, but they sure as heck do work.

Any opinions, comments, critiques, all that fun stuff is welcome. Let me know what you think. I'm not sure if the tank is deficient of potassium or... crap what's the other individual element one they have... is it calcium? Who knows, but if it's deficient of nitrogen, and that's the most readily available element, then it must be deficient of everything else.

EDIT: I am in no way complaining, I love planted tanks, and aquariums in general are $$$, so I'm willing the pay the price.

EDIT2: Obligatory tank pic.

 

[krap101]

A good place to start is pmdd. I bought mine from rex griggs, and it was like 30$ for the pmdd mix, monopotassium phosphate, and a buffer mix. I'm guessing it'll last me forever, because I only have one tank running (29). You need your macro/micro nutrients, nitrogen is usually supplied by the fish, co2 by injection (either way), then you need potassium phosphorous and magnesium (I think these are the main macros) and micros like iron boron manganese (I think these were the micros)

 

[corrado33]

pmdd?? Also, I was wondering, everyone knows what's in the Seachem products, why hasn't anybody tried to duplicate them? I mean, for example, the Fluorish Iron is Iron Gluconate, which is easily found as an iron supplement for people (google it). Why hasn't anyone done this? I mean the complex ones like fluorish probably wouldn't work so much, but the single element ones, like the magnesium or potassium or Iron are really easy. I honestly think it'd be easier to buy some from a chemical supplier. Right? Making specific concentrations is easy. I'll have to do some research on how cheap the chemicals are.

EDIT: I see you got your animated GIF workin krap. lol What does it say?

 

[timwag2001]

you can make your own ferts. you have to buy the dry ferts which you just said that you didnt want to do. flourish is basicly csm+b, which has iron in it so you dont really have to dose additional.

everything you need is right here Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Main, Main, Dry Fertilizers, Dry Fertilizers,
you can find pmdd there too

 

[corrado33]

That's awesome tim! Thanks so much.