Is This Enough Fertilizer To Grow Plants?

I want to plant my already established aquarium. All I have is sand in the bottom. If I get hardy plants and use root tabs and liquid CO2, will I have success growing? Or will it take more than that? I’m also planning on replacing my LED with a plant light. Let me know your thoughts or if I need to purchase something else

 

I want to plant my already established aquarium. All I have is sand in the bottom. If I get hardy plants and use root tabs and liquid CO2, will I have success growing? Or will it take more than that? I’m also planning on replacing my LED with a plant light. Let me know your thoughts or if I need to purchase something else

My 10 gallon only has sand and is the only 1 out of 5 that has a carpet Haha! And without root tabs! I don't see why it would be any different then normal gravel or gravel type substrate as long as the plants root ok. Root tabs would definitely help and provide sources of nutrients the sand will no provide. I would recommend some liquid fertilizer and maybe hold off in the c02 substitute until you see how the plants adjust, some don't take kindly to things like excel. Is there anything in the tank that might disturb the new plants or mix up the sand?

 

My 10 gallon only has sand and is the only 1 out of 5 that has a carpet Haha! And without root tabs! I don't see why it would be any different then normal gravel or gravel type substrate as long as the plants root ok. Root tabs would definitely help and provide sources of nutrients the sand will no provide. I would recommend some liquid fertilizer and maybe hold off in the c02 substitute until you see how the plants adjust, some don't take kindly to things like excel. Is there anything in the tank that might disturb the new plants or mix up the sand?

No just a single male Betta. Mine is a 10 gallon too. What kind of lighting do you use? My tank came with a hood that has built in LEDs, so I’m not sure if I’ll have to buy a completely new hood as well?

 

The short answer is most likely. You should think about fertilizer along with iron and potassium. I use all these things from Seachem and have had very good results. I can post shots if you like. A RGB adjustable LED light would also help a lot. We have the Fluval Sky on two aquariums and a Current Satellite + Pro on the 150 coupled with a twin strip plant florescent.

 

The short answer is most likely. You should think about fertilizer along with iron and potassium. I use all these things from Seachem and have had very good results. I can post shots if you like. A RGB adjustable LED light would also help a lot. We have the Fluval Sky on two aquariums and a Current Satellite + Pro on the 150 coupled with a twin strip plant florescent.

Can you buy any hood to attach these lights to? I don’t really know much about the lighting. And please post some shots of your aquarium I would love to see it!

 

Your best bet is a glass canopy that you place the LED strip on. That is what is on all our aquariums. There are others but we will go with these.

1. 44 gallon.



2. 37 gallon. Been switched out to sand.



3. From a 55 gallon.



4. 150 gallon.



5. 37 galon.

 

Can you buy any hood to attach these lights to? I don’t really know much about the lighting. And please post some shots of your aquarium I would love to see it!

I have an Aqueon Optibright LED+, comes with a remote and built in timer too. This is the most recent pic of my tank.

 

I have an Aqueon Optibright LED+, comes with a remote and built in timer too. This is the most recent pic of my tank.

love the ground cover. What is it?

very nice aquarium.

 

Your best bet is a glass canopy that you place the LED strip on. That is what is on all our aquariums. There are others but we will go with these.

1. 44 gallon.
View attachment 477390

2. 37 gallon. Been switched out to sand.
View attachment 477392

3. From a 55 gallon.
View attachment 477395

4. 150 gallon.
View attachment 477397

5. 37 galon.
View attachment 477398

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These are gorgeous!!! I hope mine will look that good Do glass lids have cut-outs for filters etc?

I have an Aqueon Optibright LED+, comes with a remote and built in timer too. This is the most recent pic of my tank.

So pretty! Does yours have a glass top? If not what kind of hood is that?

 

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These are gorgeous!!! I hope mine will look that good Do glass lids have cut-outs for filters etc?

Thank you

The back is a plastic strip that can be cut to fit as needed.

 

So pretty! Does yours have a glass top? If not what kind of hood is that?

Thank you! It is a folding glass top, same with the plastic that can be cut for the back opening.

love the ground cover. What is it?

very nice aquarium.

Thanks, you as well! So jealous of the room for big aquariums you must have The carpet I believe is Marsilea Minuta. Saw it at my LFS as a culture and it looked like tiny 4 leaf clovers so I snagged it and it turned out amazing. I had to google a few things to find the name just now.. lol

 

My 30 open top with a vivagrow 24/7 led light.
Thunder Is that water sprite in the 37 tank? Great looking tanks.

 

Thunder Is that water sprite in the 37 tank? Great looking tanks.[/QUOTE]

Thank you.

It does look like it but was sold as wisteria. Wisteria goes through several changes as it grows and with the brightness of the lighting.

 

All I have is in the bottom. If I get hardy plants and use root tabs and liquid CO2, will I have success growing?

Forego the root tabs. Sand is inert in the sense that it has low (if any) Cation Exchange Capacity: that is to say, it's unable to bind positively charged nutrient ions (e.g. Fe2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K2+, etc.) to itself. In effect, the root tabs will just leach out into the water column.

In these cases, it's better to dose ferts into the water column. If you're in the US, pick up something concentrated and easy to use like NilocG Thrive.

I'd avoid all-in-one ferts that are too generic. Either they're highly diluted (e.g. Florinmulti, Easy Green all-in-one, Flourish Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Potassium) or they lack one or more macronutrients (Easy Green lacks nitrogen and phosphorus, Flourish is similar and also lacks potassium).

A CO2 supplement (Seachem Excel, Metricide 14, API CO2 Booster) is fine to use: it's equivalent to approximately 5 ppm worth of CO2. Just don't expect miraculous results and certainly don't overdose.

 

I disagree. I use root tabs, Flourish, Excell, Iron, Potassium and my plants do very well. All of our aquariums are sand.

It is said that they are diluted and that you need to add often. That is exactly why I use them. They have a very fast absorption rate so I can use carbon and get minimal loss to the aditives. It also gives me closer control than products that are used once every week or too. The root tabs are every three months. I have moved plants that had massive roots that completely had inveloped the root tab. My Madagascar lace plants do not seem to go dormant with the root tabs and the feeding schedule I use. I have heard that this is because the plant is not using the energy in the bulb. The bulbs are actually very large. They flower every month or two.

Just relating my experience over the last stretch of years.

“Your resualts may vary.”

 

Just relating my experience over the last stretch of years.

It's always an excellent idea to give alternative experiences and options to people so they can explore what works for them.

To expand my position more fully:

(1) Root tabs are indeed useful. But I think they work best in specific circumstances, that is to say, a soil-based substrate with a high CEC and dense planting. In a sand (or another material that has low/no CEC) substrate, much of the nutrient content would simply leach into the water column rather than be bound to the substrate. In that case, it's simpler to forego the root tabs and dose the water column directly.

I think people put too much stock into the idea that root tabs are a necessity because they subscribe to the idea of "heavy root feeders" vs "heavy water column feeders". This sort of plant behaviour has been debunked several times by numerous planted tank experts (e.g. Tom Barr): plants show no preference in nutrient uptake from the substrate compared to the water column and they will efficiently seek out nutrients wherever they are concentrated.

(2) The issue with dilution is that consumers are, in effect, paying mostly for water. I believe strongly in steering other aquarists towards products that are cost effective and achieve comparable, if not better, results.

And indeed, the vast majority of pre-mixed fertiliser products essentially contain the same ingredients, just in varying ratios and concentrations. There is nothing "unqiue" in, say, Flourish Potassium that sets it apart from NilocG Thrive or any other potassium fert. In fact, they all use the same compound: potassium sulfate (K2SO4).

Using NilocG is several orders more cost effective than using 5 Seachem products (Flourish, Flourish Iron, Flourish Nitrogen, Flourish Phosphorus and Flourish Potassium). Likewise, if aquarists are desire the ability to adjust individual fert doses, they are better off purchasing dry fertiliser compounds (KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, Plantex CSM+B) which, again, is several orders cheaper than using the Flourish line-up.

You mentioned the "fast absorption rate" with a diluted fert: this can be achieved simply by dosing less of either a concentrated fert solution or a dry fertiliser compound. In the end, it would still save the consumer money than having to purchase a dilute fertiliser only to use more of it to reach a comparable concentration.

I typically recommend NilocG because:

1. It's nutrient composition is structured based on the requirements of the EI method of dosing, for which there is extensive information about its efficacy and adjustments for wide variety of tank set-ups;
2. EI dosing does not require the use of root tabs for robust growth; and
3. It's more cost effective than its competitor products (except using dry fert compounds); and
4. It's more convenient than all other alternatives (dry ferts require 3-4 compounds, Seachem would require 5 bottles of their various products, etc.).

 

Thank you Minnowette and Thunder for sharing your experiences. So is everyone in agreement that I could be successful with a good light, some type of concentrated liquid fertilizer, and possibly some liquid CO2? I don’t want to change the substrate as I really like the look of white sand.

 

Thank you Minnowette and Thunder for sharing your experiences. So is everyone in agreement that I could be successful with a good light, some type of concentrated liquid , and possibly some liquid ? I don’t want to change the as I really like the look of white .

Oh your substrate's perfectly fine. Many elevate soil substrates (particularly ADA Aquasoil) as the best planted tank substrate, but it has all sorts of disadvantages that one has to keep in mind when evaluating whether to use it:

• ADA Aquasoil can be expensive and it also decays into a muddy slurry over the course of 2 years or so (very cloudy when disturbed);
• Potting mix and other dirt substrates have to be capped with sand or gravel to prevent water cloudiness;
• While soil substrates are rich in nutrients, most of it tends to be depleted within the course of a year (nitrogen the fastest) at which stage the use of water column ferts (or root tabs) becomes a necessity;
• ADA Aquasoil can't readily be used in an established tank as it leaches an enormous amount of ammonia (it uses ammoniacal nitrogen, NH3, as its nitrogen fert) in the initial several weeks of use.

Also, I performed a cost analysis for liquid ferts (assuming it's your betta's 10 gallon from your other thread):

For a low tech tank, these nutrient targets are dosed once a week:
NO3: 7 ppm
PO4: 1
K: 5
Fe: 0.25

NilocG Thrive: USD18 per 500 ml bottle
2 ml per dose, 250 doses per bottle, USD0.072 per dose, one bottle will last 4.8 years (at 1 dose per week)
Cost per year: $3.74 with initial outlay of $18

Seachem's Flourish Line-Up: ~USD37 for a 2 litre jug of any fertiliser (based on Amazon's current prices)
Flourish Iron:0.8 ml per dose, 2,500 doses per jug, USD0.0185 per dose, one jug will last 8 years (at 6 doses per week)
Flourish Nitrogen: 3.5 ml per dose, 571.4 doses per jug, USD0.0648 per dose, one jug will last 10.9 years (at 1 dose per week)
Flourish Phosphorus: 8.3 ml per dose, 241 doses per jug, USD0.154 per dose, one jug will last 4.6 (at 1 dose per week)
Flourish Potassium: 4.2 ml per dose, 476.2 doses per jug, USD0.0777 per dose, one jug will last 9.2 years (at 1 dose per week)
Flourish: 3 ml per per dose, 666.7 doses per jug, USD0.0555 per dose, one jug will last 12.8 years (at 1 dose per week)
Cost per year: $24.08 with initial outlay of $185

In short: using the Flourish line-up is 644% more expensive than using Thrive, in addition to having to initially spend $185 (1030% more expensive than Thrive's cost per bottle) to take advantage of their bulk purchase discount.

 

Thank you Minnowette and Thunder for sharing your experiences. So is everyone in agreement that I could be successful with a good light, some type of concentrated liquid fertilizer, and possibly some liquid CO2? I don’t want to change the substrate as I really like the look of white sand.

Absolutely

Minnowette thank you for your in-depth posts. They are always informative and well written.