Are these product good ?
- Thread starter Tyler777
- Start date
I personally would say yes to API and no to the other, if your intention is aquatic plants. A highly nutrient rich soil from which I’m guessing that one is could be a ticking time bomb in a tank especially if it isn’t capped with a decent thickness of sand/gravel and heavily planted.
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OP
OP
Tyler777
Fishaholic
Thank you for your advice brother
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I am one who believes that most of the specialty supplies for plants in tanks are a waste of time and money for us but not for the manufacturers. I managed to grow everything without anything beyond fine gravel and the mulm built uop in it plus an occasional addition of Jobe's Plant spikes.
I never used a single substrate product except that I mixed some First Layer Laterite in the bottom 1/3 of the gravel. You can Google laterite as well as mulm. I consider both of these things more important than most of the expensive fancy plant products being sold.
I did this in all my planted tanks from low light to the high tech pressurized CO2 added tank. There was nothing I could not grow and which did not thrive in that tank.
I have also used only the Tropica Liquid ferts for about 22 years now. My first bottle of plant ferts was Flourish Excel. I did not use it very long because I discovered the Tropica product. Over the years it has been redesigned and improved and renamed. But Tropica is the worlds leading producer of Aquatic plants for the hobby etc. and if the fert. is good enough for them, it is sure good enough for me. https://tropica.com/en/
I feel that there is more stuff sold for planted tanks that is absolutely not needed and is always over priced. I refused to be sucked into the world of these products. Of course there are plenty of people out there who believe the exact opposite. All I know was there were very few plants that would not thrive in my tanks. Below is my CO2 added tank (50 gal.)as it changed over a several years. The substrate is Estes Bits of Walnut an aquarium gravel.
2002=06-20
2004-02-26
2006-11-06 after a majot replnting.
Btw- I do not vacuum my planted tanks. The above tank did get vacuumed, but it wasn't the substrate I vacuumed, it was the plants. They would catch a lot of the stuff we vacuum out of other tanks. But in the above tanks what made it into the gravel became mulm which in turn became food for the plants with roots in the substrate.
I never used a single substrate product except that I mixed some First Layer Laterite in the bottom 1/3 of the gravel. You can Google laterite as well as mulm. I consider both of these things more important than most of the expensive fancy plant products being sold.
I did this in all my planted tanks from low light to the high tech pressurized CO2 added tank. There was nothing I could not grow and which did not thrive in that tank.
I have also used only the Tropica Liquid ferts for about 22 years now. My first bottle of plant ferts was Flourish Excel. I did not use it very long because I discovered the Tropica product. Over the years it has been redesigned and improved and renamed. But Tropica is the worlds leading producer of Aquatic plants for the hobby etc. and if the fert. is good enough for them, it is sure good enough for me. https://tropica.com/en/
I feel that there is more stuff sold for planted tanks that is absolutely not needed and is always over priced. I refused to be sucked into the world of these products. Of course there are plenty of people out there who believe the exact opposite. All I know was there were very few plants that would not thrive in my tanks. Below is my CO2 added tank (50 gal.)as it changed over a several years. The substrate is Estes Bits of Walnut an aquarium gravel.
2002=06-20
2004-02-26
2006-11-06 after a majot replnting.
Btw- I do not vacuum my planted tanks. The above tank did get vacuumed, but it wasn't the substrate I vacuumed, it was the plants. They would catch a lot of the stuff we vacuum out of other tanks. But in the above tanks what made it into the gravel became mulm which in turn became food for the plants with roots in the substrate.
OP
OP
Tyler777
Fishaholic
Thank you my friendI am one who believes that most of the specialty supplies for plants in tanks are a waste of time and money for us but not for the manufacturers. I managed to grow everything without anything beyond fine gravel and the mulm built uop in it plus an occasional addition of Jobe's Plant spikes.
I never used a single substrate product except that I mixed some First Layer Laterite in the bottom 1/3 of the gravel. You can Google laterite as well as mulm. I consider both of these things more important than most of the expensive fancy plant products being sold.
I did this in all my planted tanks from low light to the high tech pressurized CO2 added tank. There was nothing I could not grow and which did not thrive in that tank.
I have also used only the Tropica Liquid ferts for about 22 years now. My first bottle of plant ferts was Flourish Excel. I did not use it very long because I discovered the Tropica product. Over the years it has been redesigned and improved and renamed. But Tropica is the worlds leading producer of Aquatic plants for the hobby etc. and if the fert. is good enough for them, it is sure good enough for me. https://tropica.com/en/
I feel that there is more stuff sold for planted tanks that is absolutely not needed and is always over priced. I refused to be sucked into the world of these products. Of course there are plenty of people out there who believe the exact opposite. All I know was there were very few plants that would not thrive in my tanks. Below is my CO2 added tank (50 gal.)as it changed over a several years. The substrate is Estes Bits of Walnut an aquarium gravel.
2002=06-20
2004-02-26
2006-11-06 after a majot replnting.
Btw- I do not vacuum my planted tanks. The above tank did get vacuumed, but it wasn't the substrate I vacuumed, it was the plants. They would catch a lot of the stuff we vacuum out of other tanks. But in the above tanks what made it into the gravel became mulm which in turn became food for the plants with roots in the substrate.
When I used CO2 injection, that made a big difference in the growth of all my plants. My amazon swords would grow so fast and thick that my Angels couldnt swim between them. I would have to go in and thin it out. I did use Laterite as a first layer and didnt have to use any fertilizer after the fish waste collected on the bottom. I didnt vacuum my bottom layer either, I just did water changes with RO water and tap.
OP
OP
Tyler777
Fishaholic
To start the aquarium, I always used Flourish liquid and for the Amazon swords and other root plants, I used Flourish Tabs. Once the plants where growing healthy, I cut back on the weekly use of the liquid, but I would still use the root tabs every month or so.
OP
OP
Tyler777
Fishaholic
Thank you brother, I just showed em to my wife. She's the one taking care of plants. We appreciate your help
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