New to Planted Aquariums

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Nomo

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Jan 31, 2011
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Hello all.

I have a 7.7 gallon tank with some fish and some shrimp. Substrate is eco complete (3" depth), water parameters are all good.

I have some plants... baby tears, anubias, clover and some ludwigia on the way.

I've been dosing flourish excel and my lighting is on from 8am until 10pm. Its an 18" flrorescent bulb for plants (forgot wattage). The tank is shallow 20x9x9 inches or so.

I've followed the excel directions and adjusted accordingly. Question being:

Is there a "complete" fertilizer or two that I can use without this becoming a full time job? What would you all recommend?
 
If you don't want to dose, you could consider doing a low-tech tank. The eco-complete will help keep fertilization flowing through any root feeders like your tears and clover.

If you do want to fertilize, haha, I don't know much about it. That being said, some great planted tanks don't use any asides from what comes out of the fish, hehe.
 
MoonstruckMuse said:
If you don't want to dose, you could consider doing a low-tech tank. The eco-complete will help keep fertilization flowing through any root feeders like your tears and clover.

If you do want to fertilize, haha, I don't know much about it. That being said, some great planted tanks don't use any asides from what comes out of the fish, hehe.
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OK. That's good news... however, some leaves on some of the plants aren't that green... almost yellowish... not dying yellow, but a hint of it.
 
if your lighting isn't very intense then there won't be much need for regular ferts anyhow. Excel and flourish comp should do the trick though, along with a few root tabs for any heavy root feeders.

On really low light tanks I just dose the liquid ferts once weekly after a water change and all is well.
 
Nomo said:
OK. That's good news... however, some leaves on some of the plants aren't that green... almost yellowish... not dying yellow, but a hint of it.
Click to expand...

Yellowing in the leaves is often a sign of nitrate deficiency... if the new leaves start getting smaller (stunting) then you've definitely got a nitrate problem.

That said, Flourish makes a "Comprehensive" fertilizer that includes most of the nutrients plants need - it works well when used along with Excel (Flourish Comprehensive doesn't include glutarendehyde - the active ingredient in Excel). With a single small tank, it's fairly budget-friendly... not as cost effective when you have a dozen various plant tanks all over the place. ^.^'
 
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