How do you fertalize??

Dwarf Puffers

Dwarf Puffers

Registered user
Dec 11, 2006
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NS, Canada
How do you put Co2 into plants and such, i'd like my Java Moss to spread faster (have a deadline of 2-3 months, when the cherry shrimps will need it) and also want my Java Fern to drop its baby plants faster (I have well over a dozen hanging from their leaves).
 
You can trim the Java fern plantlets from the leaves and plant them once they get any appreciable size to them.

If you have a large tank (>30g, generally), you should consider pressurized CO2. See http://www.rexgrigg.com/index.html for details, and for nicely priced dry ferts.

For smaller tanks, DIY CO2 via a yeast/sugar fermenter works nicely as long as you have some method of encouraging the CO2 bubbles to dissolve in the water. There's plenty of info on these setups here, at APC, at AC and other places ("yeast method" and "DIY CO2" make good search terms).

For really small tanks, or if you have perpetual $ to burn and a phobia of yeast, there's Seachem Excel. It is not CO2, but it's useful to most aquarium plants (not so much for some mosses, however).

Seachem and others also make aquarium fertilizers (Flourish etc.). They generally come as 2 or 3 bottle systems - to keep iron from reacting w/ other trace elements and/or to keep Ca or Mg suspensions from clouding up otherwise clear solutions. They're pricey, but there are 2 popular DIY schools of thought that are cheap, effective and highly popular:
PPS and EI
For details, check aquaticplantcentral

^Also has a nice "Fertilator" applet that you can use to figure out how to make your own liquid mixtures or setup dry dosing regimens for tanks of any size.

PS - Got Lighting?
 
I used two of the Nutrafin systems (I know another thread where people don't like the packets given, but I had good luck with them, lasting 3-4 weeks at a time.) I used 2 systems on my 29g and altered replacing the CO2 mixture every two weeks (changing each one every 4 weeks). That way it prevents any major changes of CO2 level (which effects the ph level). If you have the dime to throw down on a pressurized system do that, it is cheaper, more efficient and reliable in the long run. But Nutrafin mixture or a DYI is cheaper to start up.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/11116/product.web
 
I have good lighting, I think the back of the moss is growing, and theres 1 or 2 thin strands that go halfway across the tank.

I also have a beautiful spirally one whos top is curved because of 19" tall tank, lmao.

And my watersprite (or whatever, 1 inch circle things) has gone from half inch roots to 2"+ roots in less than 2 weeks.
 
30g, upping to 75g, and good lighting is lighting that makes my lilys multiply daily.
 
Do you know the wattage? Java moss will spread faster with more light. Java fern is a slow growing plant and having high light and CO2 doesn't really make its growth a ton faster IME....its just slow. ;) Higher lighting will help, but its not going to make a huge difference.
 
I didn't read what other people wrote.
Java moss grows faster at temps in the mid to high 70's
But co2, light and fertilizers don't really do much for java moss.
I have a 45gallon tank that gets trace elements everyday, 6 bubbles per second co2 and almost 10 watts per gallon on 8 hours a day. and my java moss grows just as fast in my 10g shrimp tank with no co2 or fertilizers and 1.5 watts per gallon.
Its just a slow plant
Sorry
 
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