Fertilization question.

[Heady]

I have read through a couple of boards looking for information on fertilizing aquarium plants and have been deluged with way too much information. I was hoping some of you here might be able to help me sort it out.

Tanks:
1) 29 gallon, 2.1 wpg, fluorite,
2) 100 gallon, 2.2 wpg, possibly onyx sand but substrate is not purchased yet.

Both tanks will be fairly well planted but neither will have CO2 injection. These are tanks strictly for something nice to look at in my living room and will not be used as professional show tanks or anything, so I will not be testing for plant nutrients or anything before dosing fertilizer.

My questions are:
1) Do I need to dose fertilizer? If so,
2) Substrate vs. water column fertilizer? And,
3) What kind of fertilizer?
4) What do you think about Poor Man's Dosing Drops?

Please keep it simple, I just want my tank to look nice and am not looking for anything spectacular.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[djlen]

Go to our search engine. See "search" button in upper right of the screen. Type in fertilization, or Tom Barr, or Plantbrain. You will find more info on what elements and how much of each to dose than you'll know what to do with. Then if you still have any questions these good people will be glad to help you.
Len

[anonapersona]

I think what the poster wants is a suggestion of a simple way to fertilize the moderately lighted tank.

Basically, rooted plants may do fine with substrate fertilizers, but the sticks that many use are bad about creating algae if they are disturbed. If you have stem plants or plants that are on rocks or wood, like java fern and the like, you'll probably need fertilizers in the water column.

You can't go wrong with the Seachem line, or so I hear from those that use it. I was pleased with the Dupla24 drops that I used daily, though they ran out pretty quickly.

The reason that everyone keeps directing you to the home-made fertilizers is that you will go broke trying to fertilize the big tank. For example, Nutrafin Plant Gro iron enriched was about $8 at the Local Fish Store. 5 ml/10 gallons or 50 ml/100 gallon tank.... replace the bottle after 4 3/4 doses. They do not mention how often that might be but let's assume weekly. So, $8/month.

On the other hand, for $11 including shipping, I got a few years worth of traces, and for a year or more's worth of KNO3 was $2 at the feed store. For $7 I got 40 lbs of KCl which I am using up at about 1.5 grams per month so this will last me about 1000 years. I don't do phosphate yet, but I know I can get the Fleet stuff for $1 on sale at Walgreens from time to time.

My tanks are low-moderately lit, 1.5 wpg in the small tank to 2.0 in the others.

[Heady]

anonapersona, thanks that is right up my alley. Before I posted this I looked through these forums and others but there was literally too much information. I'm not gonna be entering these things in any kind of competition, and I'm not a balls-out aquarist, so I just need a little nudge in the direction of something simple and easy.

[carpguy]

A planted tank doesn't need to be a competition piece to be work. I've taken the trial and error approach and have battled algae and am still struggling with maintenance, pruning chores, and ferts. Not to win a competition, just to get it where I want it to be. It isn't there yet.

Agree with anonapersona -- try a search for "low light" crossed with Plantbrain as poster.

I just accidentally trashed my bookmarks, but Tom Barr (the Plantbrain) also had an article out there on dosing without testing. Try poking around the Dallas Aquarium Club's site. (It involves weekly 50% waterchanges).

I use Flourish Trace and Flourish Iron plus Spectracide Stump Remover (for Nitrates, NuSalt (for Potassium) and Fleet Enema (for Phosphates). Those three make up the N-P-K trio of macronutrients, a long term supply for less than $10. If you absolutely don't want to deal with CO2 you might want to look into Flourish Excel.

I don't think you can have a successful planted tank without a fair bit of effort. Personally I enjoy it and think its worth the effort.

[djlen]

Heady, you can't beat Carpguy's formula for simplicity and thoroughness. With out the high lighting you'll be fine with small amounts of what he suggests.
Len

[wetmanNY]

For a steady source of nitrogen, don't forget some...

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...tropical fish, the amusing fertilizer!