Plant questions and help

[Justin2526]

A few mostly unrelated questions about plants. Thanks in advance to anyone who helps!

Is there a better all in one liquid fertilizer than seachem flourish?

Ive read floating plants don't like high flow. How high of flow is a hob filter considered and would this prevent floating plants from being kept in my tank?

Can any plants be planted in basic aquarium sand with liquid ferts only or is something like root tabs needed?

 

[Chewbacca773]

I think that seachem flourish is the best, but I've heard Aquaruin Co-OP easy green is good.

My floating plants can tolerate decent flow from my HOB, I have frogbit, it's growing well

Root tabs are good for some plants that use a lot of nutrients, but your plants will grow much better with them. Many plants can grow in sand well, but you should research it well.

 

[Justin2526]

I think that seachem flourish is the best, but I've heard Aquaruin Co-OP easy green is good.

My floating plants can tolerate decent flow from my HOB, I have frogbit, it's growing well

Root tabs are good for some plants that use a lot of nutrients, but your plants will grow much better with them. Many plants can grow in sand well, but you should research it well.

Okay. Thanks so much! What about liquid co2 or co2 in general? Most easy basic plants don't need that at all right?

 

[Pfrozen]

Hey yes I'm not a fan of seachems ferts I much prefer the Thrive line by Nilocg, it's a couple pumps every now and (easy to dose) and contains everything plants need. You don't need to waste time and money buying ferts for every element separately like you would with Seachem. Even flourish is incomplete so with Seachem you end up needing another one of their products again at some point. Thrive+ is for planted tanks, thrive c is for low tech tanks, and thrive s is for shrimp

A HOB should be fine for floaters I would not recommend keeping floaters with 2 or more oversized sponge filters on full blast creating tons of waves though

You can plant things in sand with no roots tabs if you stick mainly to column feeders. Anubias is a column feeder and I believe water wisteria is as well. You should be able to put together a fair variety with a bit of research

 

[Chewbacca773]

Okay. Thanks so much! What about liquid co2 or co2 in general? Most easy basic plants don't need that at all right?

I don't know anything about CO2, I grow a lot of basic plants and they grow just fine without CO2.

 

[Justin2526]

Awe

Hey yes I'm not a fan of seachems ferts I much prefer the Thrive line by Nilocg, it's a couple pumps every now and (easy to dose) and contains everything plants need. You don't need to waste time and money buying ferts for every element separately like you would with Seachem. Even flourish is incomplete so with Seachem you end up needing another one of their products again at some point. Thrive+ is for planted tanks, thrive c is for low tech tanks, and thrive s is for shrimp

A HOB should be fine for floaters I would not recommend keeping floaters with 2 or more oversized sponge filters on full blast creating tons of waves though

You can plant things in sand with no roots tabs if you stick mainly to column feeders. Anubias is a column feeder and I believe water wisteria is as well. You should be able to put together a fair variety with a bit of research

Awesome! Thanks a bunch again for your plant help (I do believe you've assisted me on another thread)! What constitutes a planted tank? Injected co2? Primarily focused on plants? And what differentiates a low tech tank? Although I'm 100% sure my tank is low tech with a few plants thrown in.

Ill probably look into getting thrive c as my tank is presumably low tech, and a community tank. However, it will have some shrimp in it as of this weekend. Does this mean use s instead of c?

 

[Justin2526]

I don't know anything about CO2, I grow a lot of basic plants and they grow just fine without CO2.

Perfect. Ill just stay away from that entirely then.

 

[Pfrozen]

Awe
Awesome! Thanks a bunch again for your plant help (I do believe you've assisted me on another thread)! What constitutes a planted tank? Injected co2? Primarily focused on plants? And what differentiates a low tech tank? Although I'm 100% sure my tank is low tech with a few plants thrown in.

Ill probably look into getting thrive c as my tank is presumably low tech, and a community tank. However, it will have some shrimp in it as of this weekend. Does this mean use s instead of c?

Hey no problem at all a planted tank is just a tank with plants haha you don't need to worry about CO2 to have a nice looking tank. Low tech basically means no CO2 though some people consider low tech to be no CO2 and low light. I personally think you can pull off a tank with only column feeders if you use proper fertilizers and have decent lighting. Most column feeders are low light but it's about the quality with column feeders, they will benefit from an upgrade from the stock LEDs. You can use thrive s for peace of mind if you want, it's like the other thrives just without copper

Edit: I mean liquid ferts as well they won't care much about root tabs so you don't need them

 

[Justin2526]

Hey no problem at all a planted tank is just a tank with plants haha you don't need to worry about CO2 to have a nice looking tank. Low tech basically means no CO2 though some people consider low tech to be no CO2 and low light. I personally think you can pull off a tank with only column feeders if you use proper fertilizers and have decent lighting. Most column feeders are low light but it's about the quality with column feeders, they will benefit from an upgrade from the stock LEDs. You can use thrive s for peace of mind if you want, it's like the other thrives just without copper

Okay. I'm honestly unsure if my lights are low light decent light or good light but ill assume low for now. As for the ferts ill go with s because I'd assume basic plants that im planning such as water wysteria, java fern, anubias, maybe amazon swords, and maybe amazon frogbit.

 

[Pfrozen]

Okay. I'm honestly unsure if my lights are low light decent light or good light but ill assume low for now. As for the ferts ill go with s because I'd assume basic plants that im planning such as water wysteria, java fern, anubias, maybe amazon swords, and maybe amazon frogbit.

Thats a good variety you could definitely make a nice aquascape with just those. I'm putting a low tech tank together tomorrow actually, I'm probably only going to use 4 types of plants. I'm good for retaining useful/accurate info but my actual experience growing plants is the same as yours we should share tips we learn as our tanks mature. Good luck!

 

[Justin2526]

Thats a good variety you could definitely make a nice aquascape with just those. I'm putting a low tech tank together tomorrow actually, I'm probably only going to use 4 types of plants. I'm good for retaining useful/accurate info but my actual experience growing plants is the same as yours we should share tips we learn as our tanks mature. Good luck!

I'm certainly the same way! Ive just not been exposed to a whole lot of info just yet
Ill most definitely share a photo of my tank once I get some more plants in and I actually think it looks sorta decent...
As for aquascape, I plan on throwing plants in there rather hapzardly in a way that looks good to me and compliments the overly large piece of driftwood that I have in there. Sadly this massive piece kinda prevents me from forming any sort of more interesting scape out of wood or rocks because of how much of the tank it takes up...
Ill end up with 4 or 5 types tops myself. Not sure if ill attempt to go for the floaters just because my java fern and anubias that I planted on the driftwood are already reaching to the top and it may look a bit odd...

 

[Pfrozen]

I'm certainly the same way! Ive just not been exposed to a whole lot of info just yet
Ill most definitely share a photo of my tank once I get some more plants in and I actually think it looks sorta decent...
As for aquascape, I plan on throwing plants in there rather hapzardly in a way that looks good to me and compliments the overly large piece of driftwood that I have in there. Sadly this massive piece kinda prevents me from forming any sort of more interesting scape out of wood or rocks because of how much of the tank it takes up...
Ill end up with 4 or 5 types tops myself. Not sure if ill attempt to go for the floaters just because my java fern and anubias that I planted on the driftwood are already reaching to the top and it may look a bit odd...

Sounds nice I'm sure that'll look great, looking forward to comparing

 

[Justin2526]

Sounds nice I'm sure that'll look great, looking forward to comparing

Me too!