I do not use ferts of any kind once the tank is set.... I only dose the substrate at the time of setup....
My substrates are a wide variety of stuff...
29 Gallon is Kitty litter, Sand blasting sand, Gravel and fert pellets. 2 years old
15 Gallon if Flourite Black Sand 1 month old
10 Gallon and 5.5 Shultz Aquasoil, Mulm, and Play Sand with fert pellets 5.5 6 months - 10 3 months
55 Gallon potting Soil, Peat, Fert Pellets, and capped with sand 4 months
Most of my plants have been started in the 29 and spread out to the other tanks. I started with 2 Amazon swords and I have divided them at least 3 times. The Vals I collected Wild and the rest are all ROAKed in. I have 4 more tanks to scape all 55 or bigger except the remaining 10. So I have been using one of my 55 as a holding tank for plants it is now about half full of Vals.... So the Amazons are the only 2 plants I paid for, as a matter of fact all my moss pretty much came from shipments of shrimp or snails I recieved.:thm:
As far as Aquascaping all I can say is take your time and study what you have and the tank you want to do over time... The 55 El Natural is the only tank going to get a light upgrade as of right now I'm going for 3.2 WPG to really get the Vals and the swords to fill in. I only want you to be able to see a hint of the cheap ruins I have in it. Going for a real lost city in the jungle kind of look. I hope to split that big sword soon and I want to split it at least 3 more times for this tank. Biggest flaw in my plan is the substrate, pulling the sword out is gonna be a mess so I may split one in my other tanks instead. But anyway the point is think about what it is gonna look like in 6 months a year and so on....
