# what's the best fertilization in aqua plants?



## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

execept co2 and flourish excel. whats other fertilization in order to grow beautiful and healtyplants??


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

camboy012406 said:


> execept co2 and flourish excel. whats other fertilization in order to grow beautiful and healtyplants??


The most important limiting factor is light. Fertilization only helps if the plants have adequate light to grow. Ditto for CO2.

Just about all my tanks are relatively low light (<2 watts per gallon) and they get adequate fertilizing from the fish. Once or twice a year I add a little iron to some of them if I see iron deficiency developing.

If you describe the size of your tank, and what you have in the way of lights and fish load, and which plants you want to grow, it will be easier to advise you. Light, fertilizer and CO2 have to be in rough balance, or you'll end up with algae problems. If you look at the planted tank photo forum, you'll see a lot of great looking tanks using methods from the lowest to the highest tech. Higher tech means more input (electricity, money, work) and more rapid growth (which means a lot of thinning and pruning), although once you have the experience you can create some truly spectacular effects. If you don't want to spend a lot and be constantly tinkering, you can still have a beautiful tank. The important thing is to have the three most important factors in balance.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

thanks man... but execpt for co2 , lights and flourish excel do i still to buy like potassium or some iron?? in order to grow healthy plants??


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

camboy012406 said:


> thanks man... but execpt for co2 , lights and flourish excel do i still to buy like potassium or some iron?? in order to grow healthy plants??


It depends. If you aren't driving the system with lots of light, the plants may get all the nutrients they need from fish waste. Some plants do best with pellets of fertilizer in the substrate under their roots, e.g. Cryptocoryne spp and Echinodorus spp (Amazon sword plants), while others prefer nutrients added to the water. There are a lot of different systems of fertilizing plants, but I don't have a lot of experience with them because my tanks are pretty much low tech -- low to medium light with the fish fertilizing the plants.

Here's a diagram showing symptoms of nutrient deficiencies in plants: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/62876-plant-deficiency-picture-diagram.html

If you add CO2, you don't need flourish excel. If you don't have fairly strong light, you won't get a lot of benefit from either.

In the Plants and Cultivation forum, there's a sticky posting by Darkblade48 that explains the basics of medium to high tech planted tanks.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

Nitrate and potassium were the two best ones for me. It depends on what your tank is lacking. 

Nitrogen
Potassium 
Phosphorus 

are the three Macros,

and then there are many, many Micronutrients - its best to get a blend like flourish or something similar.

I noticed explosive growth once I started to dose nitrogen and potassium


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

where can i buy those??


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

i have only 5.5 galon tank .do ineed all tkose ferts? my plants are taiwanmoss, ricia, microswords and some hc on the rock. my tank is 3weeks old i think


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

I bought mine on MOPS.ca, they are the apart of the flourish line. I have the 500ML bottles, but you can get the smaller bottles. I would get the nitrogen to start as it has a good ratio of nitrogen and potassium. It's also water'd down so its harder to OD the tank (though not impossible) for beginners. get that and then a bottle of Flourish which is a good micronutrient mix, thing is that you will only need to dose .2ML twice a week, might not be worth it.


Potassium deficiency is shown as yellowing/pale leaves.

People might say dry ferts but for 5.5gal there isn't much of a need and that seems like it would be more of a hassle than the pre-mixed solutions.

Do you have carbon in your filter?


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

yes i think. biowheel has it. why?


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

i want to grow healthy plants but otherwise i want to put shrimps on it..do i need to make a diy co2? or just flourish excel itself and other liquid ferts that you have said


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

it will suck up the remaining micronutrients that are in your water.

just buy nutrients, and get a syringe without the needle. shoppers drug mart pharmacists can help you with the syringe. it will help measure the amount of nutrients you are adding.

flourish is good too. 
mops.ca has good prices
http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/plant-fertilizers-c-1_172.html


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

so what should i do with my filter?? i will remove it?


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

any advice what filter im gonna be using?instead of that biowheel


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

DIY helps get lush, fast growth. Plus it is very easy to make and relatively cheap. 

I would not use Flourish with shrimp because of copper content. Some people may disagree with that. you could also try root tabs which you place at the bottom of the roots to help growth. they are cheap too.

What type of lighting do you have?


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

just an ordinary 
bulb flourescent forgot the name 13watts1x light 6500k. i just want to add shrimp in my tank but also i want to grow plants..so how can it be possible if i will not use excel?


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Your setup sounds like mine
i have a 5.5 gallon shrimp tank, 13 watt bulb 6400k, 
my filter is an aquaclear with just sponge and biomedia in it (no carbon- if you have a carbon insert it will suck up all the Flourish) you dont want to remove your filter- but if you do decide to use fertilizer then youll want any "carbon" removed from your filter insert/cartridge. 
and I have NO co2  
i use Flourish (NOT Flourish Excel) only once a week and only one drop. I havent had the Flourish harm my shrimp but I also use a very low dose. 
I would say youd be fine with just your light and low light plant types with no Flourish because My plants grew fine without the Flourish too. Your setup is low light so really you dont have to use co2


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

wow u hve a very nice setup..i will follow that.. what kind of flourish u use? what kind of filter do u have?


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Replying to some of your questions.
If your filter have a bio-wheel, then you might want to take that out too. If you can't, then get a filter with out a bio-wheel. The reason is because the bio-wheel will undo your CO2 making it a inefficient system. One put the CO2 in and the other takes it out. My opinion is: Usually, the filter wins (especially for those fast gph flow rate).

I am not sure how you did the cuba on rock thing ... I interested is seeing how it goes. Usually, it's the ricca on rock.

And I agree, Seachem excel is bad for shrimps. It contains small traces of copper that strikes at your shrimp randomly every time they molt and kills the young (who molt more frequently).

There is another way to work this out, if you have enough shrimps, they will eat most of the algae, although algeas like the black beard algae are un-eaten and will grow un-contested. The shrimp will produce enough nitrate to keep the plants going so you don't even have to dose anything. Just keep to your weekly water change and it will provide the nessesary nutrients. The down side to this is, you won't get that unearthly healthy planted tank like those you see in the contest.

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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

i bought some glues at dollarama and stick the hc and some plants on the rock and driftwood but they grow well.
im a newbie ..


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

I use "Flourish" original formula... Its just called Flourish .This is it: http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Flourish.html

My filter is an Aquaclear 30 . This is it: http://www.bigalsonline.ca/StoreCat...7304##1##1&query=Aquaclear+30&hits=12&offset=

Inside the filter I have an Aquaclear 30 sponge media Here: http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/ctl3664/cp17973/si1315107/cl1/aquaclear30150foaminsertsingle 
and Aquaclear bio media, like this : http://www.bigalsonline.ca/StoreCat...17973##0##x&query=Aquaclear&hits=12&offset=12 no carbon media.
And I have an Aquaclear 20 sponge on the intake tube to keep the shrimp out of the filter
try and tie your moss with clear thin fishing line, that will be easier on your plants than glue- plus the glue could be toxic too!


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

try and tie your moss with clear thin fishing line, that will be easier on your plants than glue- plus the glue could be toxic too![/QUOTE]

this is my moss that I attached on the rock and driftwood using glue.lol but dont worry it works fine.. my only problem is how do i keep shrimp with diy co2. and some says that plants without co2 will not grow well.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

my first newbie tank..my substrate are so colorful ei??lol.first i dont have any idea what kind of substrate i will use..now i realize that i was wrong..i thought any substratres will do


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

those rocks and the plants and drift look great. then the environment got high on LSD and puked a rainbow.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

GuppyLove said:


> Your setup sounds like mine
> i have a 5.5 gallon shrimp tank, 13 watt bulb 6400k,
> my filter is an aquaclear with just sponge and biomedia in it (no carbon- if you have a carbon insert it will suck up all the Flourish) you dont want to remove your filter- but if you do decide to use fertilizer then youll want any "carbon" removed from your filter insert/cartridge.
> and I have NO co2
> ...


Would the carbon (I pour my own carbon into media bags) remove EXCEL from my tank? I'm dosing with EXCEL and recently put new carbon because I was getting tired of that very light fish water smell.


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