# Gardening water soluable ferts in planted tank



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Just curious if outdoor gardening fertilizers are ok in a planted tank only? Like with no living creatures in the tank just aquarium plants only. Say something like 1/2 a teaspoon of htat weekly or something like that?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Outdoor gardening fertilizers usually contain urea, which will cause algae in a planted aquarium.

Best not to use it, unless you know the composition of the fertilizer.


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## shrtmann (Feb 15, 2009)

with no live animals in the tank i dont see how it could cause any hasrm at all...but then again im no chemist or anything


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## KevD (Mar 2, 2008)

Go organic, maaaaan  BioBizz is one of, if not the best fertilizer line available but hard to find in Canada.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

shrtmann said:


> with no live animals in the tank i dont see how it could cause any hasrm at all...but then again im no chemist or anything


It's not the fact that it will cause harm to animals; but the fact that excess ammonia in the water can cause algal spikes very easily.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

It's worth a try, but I won't waste this experiment on any tank bigger than a 20G unless it's a old used throwaway one. I couldn't see why it won't work. I've been wondering that myself. Was it the free fertilizer refills that got you thinking about using it for plant? That's what I was wondering at the plant garden. "Buy our jug and you can come back to refill as many times as you'd like!"
We pretty much use the same chemical compound anyway. The only difference is in the amounts of this and amounts of that. There is one that as a beginner, I've been told not to use phosphate as it feeds algae. For ground plants though, phosphate is one of the key ingredients so for sure you'll be getting this one.
Aside, from all that, I think you'll grow a very good algae tank. LOL. But hey, you never. Maybe it'll teach you some thing useful.

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## Epiphile (Nov 11, 2009)

I've got a paludarium that I'm dosing with this fertilizer:

http://www.firstrays.com/MSUFert_RO.htm

No real algae issues to speak of, and the sherry shrimp don't seem to mind much either. I'm shooting for about 10ppm nitrogen, 40-50% water changes every week or two, and no filtration. I've got a couple Rotala species in there, and they grow like weeds.

Aaron


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

I use Jobe's spikes into the root area of plants. I insert them below the gravel and it is a slow release fertilizer. You can also cut the spikes and tailor it to your needs. A few spikes here and there go a long way. It works great with Echinodorus, Cryptocoryne and other heavy root feeders. Stem plants enjoy the spikes as well from what I have seen.
http://www.easygardener.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=129


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Zebrapl3co said:


> It's worth a try, but I won't waste this experiment on any tank bigger than a 20G unless it's a old used throwaway one. I couldn't see why it won't work. I've been wondering that myself. Was it the free fertilizer refills that got you thinking about using it for plant? That's what I was wondering at the plant garden. "Buy our jug and you can come back to refill as many times as you'd like!"
> We pretty much use the same chemical compound anyway. The only difference is in the amounts of this and amounts of that. There is one that as a beginner, I've been told not to use phosphate as it feeds algae. For ground plants though, phosphate is one of the key ingredients so for sure you'll be getting this one.
> Aside, from all that, I think you'll grow a very good algae tank. LOL. But hey, you never. Maybe it'll teach you some thing useful.


What's this free fertilizer refill thing you're talking about? Got a store/company I can check back on? No no.. I've got a couple tugs of the water soluable (sp?) fert that I've not used up and was thinking about testing some of this. I don't have a old tank tank to test this in and may do this in a bucket or use my 4gal to mess around with it but then again I was thinking of using the 4gal for a dwarf puffer tank so not sure if the chems would harm the wildlife with residual after a clean and bleach.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Calmer said:


> I use Jobe's spikes into the root area of plants. I insert them below the gravel and it is a slow release fertilizer. You can also cut the spikes and tailor it to your needs. A few spikes here and there go a long way. It works great with Echinodorus, Cryptocoryne and other heavy root feeders. Stem plants enjoy the spikes as well from what I have seen.
> http://www.easygardener.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=129


Jst curious which one did you use the regular or the organic ones? I've seen those small mini spikes before. Also if I wanted to use those spikes with live stock would it be ok as well? I'm trying to find the % of what's in those on the site right now.


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## Epiphile (Nov 11, 2009)

AquaNeko said:


> I've got a couple tugs of the water soluable (sp?) fert that I've not used up and was thinking about testing some of this.


Do you know which brand it is? They'll often provide chemical makeups on their website or whatever that can give you a better idea of what you're dealing with.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Epiphile said:


> Do you know which brand it is? They'll often provide chemical makeups on their website or whatever that can give you a better idea of what you're dealing with.


http://images.google.ca/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enCA357CA357&q=plantprod&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

In ~1L tubs.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

AquaNeko said:


> What's this free fertilizer refill thing you're talking about? Got a store/company I can check back on? No no.. I've got a couple tugs of the water soluable (sp?) fert that I've not used up and was thinking about testing some of this. I don't have a old tank tank to test this in and may do this in a bucket or use my 4gal to mess around with it but then again I was thinking of using the 4gal for a dwarf puffer tank so not sure if the chems would harm the wildlife with residual after a clean and bleach.


I think it's Sheridan Nursuries (Warden and HWY 7), they have this funny deal that if you buy a jug from them, you can have unlimited fert liquid refill. So when you're done, you just go back to them for free refills. These are ofcourse for plants, not for underwater plans. I have no idea what's in it. But if it contains about the same chemicals, I don't mind just keep refilling.



AquaNeko said:


> Jst curious which one did you use the regular or the organic ones? I've seen those small mini spikes before. Also if I wanted to use those spikes with live stock would it be ok as well? I'm trying to find the % of what's in those on the site right now.


The Job spikes are OK, but I would stay away from the organic ones, but seeing that you don't have any fish, it just might work out for you. My only grieve is that when I unroot the plants for clippings, it would throw the stuff all over the tank. Also, if you have fish that digs, it won't work either.

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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Zebrapl3co said:


> I think it's Sheridan Nursuries (Warden and HWY 7), they have this funny deal that if you buy a jug from them, you can have unlimited fert liquid refill. So when you're done, you just go back to them for free refills. These are ofcourse for plants, not for underwater plans. I have no idea what's in it. But if it contains about the same chemicals, I don't mind just keep refilling.
> 
> The Job spikes are OK, but I would stay away from the organic ones, but seeing that you don't have any fish, it just might work out for you. My only grieve is that when I unroot the plants for clippings, it would throw the stuff all over the tank. Also, if you have fish that digs, it won't work either.


Ahh ok. I've been to that Sheridan before. Nice pond stuff around and I think they sell the Koi as well as I've seen fish there before but could be wrong. Well I asked about with fish should I wanted to put fish in later and use a alt. fert method then using the Seachem or other items which need a trip to a LFS then local stores.

BTW if you do something like a mini aquaponics setup or not even growing anything in the gravel bed and put some red wiggler (AKA compost worms) earthworms in there any of the fish solids that enter the gravel bed the worms will eat it up then the worms natural waste are nutrients going back to your plants. As long as you don't keep the worms submerged for long that system works well as I've read up on some aquaponics sites. Just add a spare timer that goes off 3-4 times a day to pump the waste up and that gravel bed also acts as an extra biofilter. Works better with bare bottom tanks when all the solids gets sucked up.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

AquaNeko said:


> Jst curious which one did you use the regular or the organic ones? I've seen those small mini spikes before. Also if I wanted to use those spikes with live stock would it be ok as well? I'm trying to find the % of what's in those on the site right now.


I have read that we are suppose to use the ones that are for ferns but I used the ones that are for flowering plants 10-10-4. I insert the Jobe's sticks into the tubes that have holes in them that were left over from these: http://www.petsolutions.com/Images.aspx?ItemID=15517688
I insert the tubes into the gravel on an angle under the plants. I fertilised the 90 gal. aquarium two weeks ago and since then the Angelfish have laid eggs and the other fish and snails don't seem to mind the fertiliser. So that is 4 Jobe's sticks in a 90 gal. aquarium; I wouldn't want to add too many in a small aquarium as it could overdose the tank very easily. Luckily you can cut the spike to suit your plants needs. It all depends on the amount of plants you are feeding and how heavy do they root feed. The Jobe's package says that it is good for 60 days and that is for terrestrial plants. I use it for 90 days or longer just as a precaution. If you visually guage the plant growth then you should be able to see when to replace the sticks.
Again, these Jobe's spikes are for use _*under the gravel only*_. I have never used the spikes above the substrate, in a sand substrate or with gravel such as Eco-complete or Flourite that have a high _cation_ exchange capacity.


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