I was wondering if it is neccesary to fertilize rather lightly planted tanks? In my 20 gal, I only have 4 small-medium size plants and same in my 29gal.
do I HAVE to???
- Thread starter jenny cookie
- Start date
No, best not to in a tank with so few plants. It would all completely depend on your tap water and fish/bio-load, but other than the 1 in a million chance, I'd let the fish supply the nutrients from the food you add.
Your fish should supply enough NO3 and PO4, tap water will provide Ca, Mg and a few other things, but I'd still dose with small amouts of traces and some K ('NoSalt' is KCl, available at the grocery store). Just like fish need a healthy, complete diet so do plants. They may survive without, but in order to keep them really healthy I'd say get a small bottle of traces and maybe some NoSalt, give 'em a shot every week or so.
I would also guess it depends on the plants. I put 2 java ferns in a 20 gallon with a moderate stocking and the only thing I do is weekly water changes and feed the fish. While it was slow at first the I have huge java ferns now that i must cut leaves off of.