for planted tanks would it be better to let the fish poop mix in with the substrate and use as a fertilizer? how do u guys maintain ur planted tanks? can a regular substrate grow plants just as well as those fancy flourites and stuff? sorry for all the questions! :bowing:
fish poop as fertilizer?
- Thread starter Fcookie
- Start date
I think the general answer is that if you have a properly set up tank (plants, CO2, lighting, etc), then you should not clean out the poo.
From what I've been able to pick up so far, having the "plant substrate" is more important for some plants than others. It seems like the preferred method, though, is to use unfertilized top soil on the bottom of the tank covered by normal gravel.
From what I've been able to pick up so far, having the "plant substrate" is more important for some plants than others. It seems like the preferred method, though, is to use unfertilized top soil on the bottom of the tank covered by normal gravel.
i asked the exact same question on the planted forum, here's probably more detial than you need:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...1449-fish-wastes-provide-all-macro-micro.html
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...1449-fish-wastes-provide-all-macro-micro.html
Some root-feeding plants benefit from the more expensive soil-type substrates like Eco Complete, while many others do well in plain gravel. Plants such as java moss, java fern, and anubias don't even get planted at all (they get tied to driftwood or decorations) so substrate is not an issue for them at all.
Which plants do you plan on growing? This will determine whether you need special substrate or not.
When cleaning my own planted tank, I just do a light vacuum over the surface of the gravel only, and leave the rest as fertilizer.
Which plants do you plan on growing? This will determine whether you need special substrate or not.
When cleaning my own planted tank, I just do a light vacuum over the surface of the gravel only, and leave the rest as fertilizer.
not sure but the tank I have going is fairly heavily planted with flourite as a substrate with gravel on top. I do not add any ferts( I tried once and found the wild angels don't like the ferts)
so I let the fish poop do it's thing. I do lighly vac the tank..it has a 20 watt bulb(30 gallon tank) with some assistance from natural sunlight.
the tank gets no CO2 supplemented and uses a penguin 300 for filtration.
I have swords, anubias, crypts(green and red), cabomba, watersprite, annacharis, spiral val and a couple others I can't even remember.
all of the plants are growing..the sword has nearly doubled in size.the water sprite I just cut back and replanted the cuttings, cabomba finally settled in and is starting to grow back, the crypts have taken over one corner of the tank.
the vals are taking off now.
in essence the tank is doing well. if fish poop doesn't supply all of the nutrients..I think it does supply a lot of them.
btw, I found that thread a good read
so I let the fish poop do it's thing. I do lighly vac the tank..it has a 20 watt bulb(30 gallon tank) with some assistance from natural sunlight.
the tank gets no CO2 supplemented and uses a penguin 300 for filtration.
I have swords, anubias, crypts(green and red), cabomba, watersprite, annacharis, spiral val and a couple others I can't even remember.
all of the plants are growing..the sword has nearly doubled in size.the water sprite I just cut back and replanted the cuttings, cabomba finally settled in and is starting to grow back, the crypts have taken over one corner of the tank.
the vals are taking off now.
in essence the tank is doing well. if fish poop doesn't supply all of the nutrients..I think it does supply a lot of them.
btw, I found that thread a good read
I have a lower light low tech planted 50g and I essentially vacuum where I can. I also try to vacuum lightly between my swords and my crypts, but that really isn't the easiest thing to do. I will vacuum under my driftwood every 6 months or so, but I probably should do that once a month at least to be honest. Water changes are done weekly and I do two roughly 30% water changes each time. As I am adding water back in I dose with 5ml of Prime and on the second fill I also add 5ml of Flourish and 5ml of Flourish Iron. The plants I have in my aquarium are some crypts wendtii, compacta swords, java fern, java moss, a val (jungle I think), some rotala, and a few strands of anacharis. This is all done with regular gravel, but if I were starting new I would probably add in some flourite. The crypts seemed to take fairly well, but the swords took some time to get used to the aquarium and I think flourite would have helped. Also my crypts don't seem to mind being moved on occasion, but again the swords do.
I think the important thing for you if you are starting out is to remember it takes balance to keep the aquarium happy. More light and nutrients than your plants can handle and you will have instant algae. Too many plants and not enough nutrients and your plants may not look the best. At one time I just had crypts and java fern in my aquarium and without any fertilizer I had no algae to speak of while the plants did grow decently. That was with 8 hours of lighting a day. Currently I am at 10 hours of light per day with a lightish plant load and I still don't have to spend time cleaning up algae.
I think the important thing for you if you are starting out is to remember it takes balance to keep the aquarium happy. More light and nutrients than your plants can handle and you will have instant algae. Too many plants and not enough nutrients and your plants may not look the best. At one time I just had crypts and java fern in my aquarium and without any fertilizer I had no algae to speak of while the plants did grow decently. That was with 8 hours of lighting a day. Currently I am at 10 hours of light per day with a lightish plant load and I still don't have to spend time cleaning up algae.