# Does my setup sound ok?



## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Hi everyone! 
I have a planted tank with guppies( in my signature you can see what plants I have) so I chose easy to grow low light low maintenance plants just cause I wanted My tank to have a natural look but easy to care for. My question is do i need to put some kind of fertilizer or anything in the tank for them? The plants seem to look good n healthy and i have 20 watts of light on them ... The lfs said i probably dont need to add any fertilizer or anything... So is that correct?


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Looks good to me .

For longterm success, adding ferts and "enriching" the substrate for crypts and bulbed plants is a necessity. Albeit, they won't need as much or as frequently and stemmed plants, never the less, you have to add ferts.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Not all of your plants are low light. But that can live, they just will grow slowly.

Fertilization is not necessary, but if you want "to push" them to grow a little bit, or have more reddish leaves in you ludwigua, you can try. You can buy Leaf Zone for 12 dollars and keep your plants happier during more than a year


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Thanks for the info guys!! 
I dont mind them growing slowly, but if I do decide to add fertilizer will it harm my shrimps , or fish at all?
And which plants do I have that are not low light? Im just going by what the lfs told me would grow ok with my 20 watt lights...


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

The Ludwigia isn't _really_ a low light plant. I find that hygrophila gets leggy in lower light, but does fine.

I've never dosed Leaf Zone fertilizer, but people have used it with shrimp, and haven't had any issues, as long as they dose it at the recommended amount.

Best of luck,
Wes

PS: Post pictures! We never have too many planted tank journals.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Yes, Ludwigia is not a low light, but it can live with it. It will not be so red and will grow slowly.
Echinodorus tenellus require high light. You can make a carpet of it, but I doubt that it will spread without hight light. Note that Echinodorus tenellus is small, it is located far from your top light.

There is another thing about light. Having small amount of plants and no shadow in a tank your can grow plants better. With time, you will have bigger plants, bottom part of them and small plants will be in shadow and they will not grow well. That's why people put 5WPG and this is not crazy for heavy planted tank


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