Do I need fertilizer? If so which one?

So I have a 29 gallon aquarium with Amazon swords, Java fern, elodea, Taiwan lily, Amazon frogbi, and this pine looking one that starts with L. I have 1 male thick lipped gourami, 1 oto, 2 cories,2 guppies, 6 harlequin rasboras. Do I need fertilizer? If so which one? I have the light that came with my tank kit, and don’t have co2 injection. I have normal gravel. I got easy root tabs from AC for the Amazon swords. Here is a picture of the tank

 

I don’t use aqua soils and I add liquid fertiliser to all of my planted tanks whether they are high tech Co2 injected or low tech. For low light/tech if your nitrates are consistently above 10ppm all that might be necessary is the occasional addition of a micro nutrient fertiliser. Something like Flourish Comprehensive or Easy Life Profito. But every tank is different. You could try it and see if your plants respond well. I see a little bit of yellowing but they look to be in reasonable health.

 

I have Nutrafin plant gro, which is a micro nutrient fertilizer. How often should I dose it?

 

I have Nutrafin plant gro, which is a micro nutrient fertilizer. How often should I dose it?

According to the directions. Usually it's weekly, after a water change.

 

I see some browning on the Java fern leaves and about 4’’ of my elodea floated off, and there is a decent amount of BBA on one of the elodea stems.
What does this mean?

 

All plants need a variety of nutrients, both macronutrients and micronutrients. If your aquarium water gets sufficient nutrients from other sources (for example, your fish food, substrate, tap water, etc. ) then you might not need to add supplemental fertilizers. However, it is common for aquarium water to be deficient in various micronutrients and the macronutrient potassium. You might need to add nitrogen and phosphorus, but most low tech tanks can get by without them as fish food normally provides a source of these two nutrients.

When plants are deficient in one or more nutrients, the leaves will show symptoms of the deficiency. In many cases, older leaves will look different than newer leaves. There are many guides online that depict these symptoms. I am not endorsing the product as I have never used it. I am not a fan of all-in-one fertilizers; I would rather dose the nutrients my specific plants require. Some people have used it successfully.

 

Thanks for that article, I’ll try to order some easy green and maybe some easy iron. Would the tropica specialized fret work as well?

I would get thrive, but in Canada I don’t think I can get it. Does Easy green work as well as thrive? My Java ferns are wasting away quickly now. I can get tropica specialized nutrition this weekend, would that be a better option? I’m on a budget so can’t get super expensive things. Off topic, there are some bubbles at the top of the tank, could my thick lipped gourami be making a bubble nes, even with no females around? Or is it ammonia?

 

I would get thrive, but in Canada I don’t think I can get it. Does Easy green by aquarium coop work as well as thrive? My Java ferns are wasting away quickly now. I can get tropica specialized nutrition this weekend, would that be a better option? I’m on a budget so can’t get super expensive things. Off topic, there are some bubbles at the top of the tank, could my thick lipped gourami be making a bubble nes, even with no females around? Or is it ammonia?

You have to be careful when purchasing fertilizers to determine the concentration of ingredients. Sometimes a fertilizer that seems inexpensive is actually expensive because the ingredients are diluted so you have to add more each week. Be sure to determine how many gallons a bottle will treat and purchase accordingly rather than purchasing the cheapest bottle.

Also make sure the fertilizer contains what your tank needs. For example, API makes a product called Leaf Zone that contains only Iron and Potassium, nothing else. If your tank needs only iron and potassium, then it is great. However, it does not contain other macronutrients or micronutrients that plants need. The Leaf Zone is inexpensive (around $7 for 16 oz (500 ml), but it is rather diluted and treats less than 1000 gallons. Thus, it is not the bargain that it seems to be.

 

You have to be careful when purchasing fertilizers to determine the concentration of ingredients. Sometimes a fertilizer that seems inexpensive is actually expensive because the ingredients are diluted so you have to add more each week. Be sure to determine how many gallons a bottle will treat and purchase accordingly rather than purchasing the cheapest bottle.

Also make sure the fertilizer contains what your tank needs. For example, API makes a product called Leaf Zone that contains only Iron and Potassium, nothing else. If your tank needs only iron and potassium, then it is great. However, it does not contain other macronutrients or micronutrients that plants need. The Leaf Zone is inexpensive (around $7 for 16 oz (500 ml), but it is rather diluted and treats less than 1000 gallons. Thus, it is not the bargain that it seems to be.

I have and dose nutrafin plant gro which has

total nitrogen: 0.15%
boron: 0.0005%
copper: 0.0005%
iron:0.26%
manganese:0.05%
molybdenum:0.0007%
zinc:0.003%

I am dosing it and it’s not seeming to help with the plant deficiency, so I will try to save up for easy green (correct me if I’m wrong), because it seems compact and would last a while.