Fertilizer

[This Old Spouse]

All 3 of my tanks are planted well, and at this time I don't use any kind of ferts or CO2, and I'd like to avoid that, but they're starting to look a little tired. What's a good all-around plant food I can use, and what's the best way to use it? I know absolutely nothing about this aspect of keeping an aquarium. So pleeeeeease help me..........

 

[snowflake311]

What kind of plants are they?

What's your substrate?

 

[This Old Spouse]

Between my 3 tanks I have Elodea, amazon sword, java fern, java moss, pennywort, anarchis, Ludwigia, red flame sword, hygrophilia kompakt, vallis, bolbitis, crypts, anubias, aponogeton and a few others. Sand substrate.

 

[RadaR]

Take a look at this guide to see what nutrients your plants might be lacking.
You may find that a simple trace element fert will do the trick. Something like Seachem Flourish.
Or it could be lack of macro nutrients in which case you could try some Tropica capsules, or dose a bit of Tropica Plant Nutrition+.

Structural failures in plants is usually down to lack of CO2 (carbon).

 

[mike455555]

a good plant food to get is this,just because you can mix your own up according to the needs of the plants, it also works out a lot cheaper than the bottled chemicals as theses are often diluted down with water (by a lot) adding the dry salts. and making your own solutions is better IMO if you need trace they do sell the dry chemicals individually. so it would still work out cheaper than the named brands

 

[This Old Spouse]

All right. I've determined that I'd prefer to get the dry ingredients and mix it all myself. But when I start looking at all the ingredients and try to figure out just what the heck I should be ordering and then how to mix it, I'm lost. At this point I think I'd be better off buying something ready to go until I can figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.

Is there a recommended all-in-one fert that's easy to dose? (Just a reminder that I'm in the States.) Or could you recommend an idiot-proof recipe from dry ingredients that I can mix up without killing anything?

Seriously, when I start looking over things like James' Planted Tank I start to go cross-eyed.

 

[mike455555]

i mix 3 chemicals for my macro and 1 for my micro

macro:
8tsp Potassium Nitrate
2tsp Potassium Phosphate
12tsp Magnesium Sulphate
500ml water
micro:
2tsp Chelated Trace Elements
500ml Water

dosing as follows (10ml per 50l):
Mon: macro
tus: micro
wed: macro
thr: micro
fri: macro
sat: micro
sun: rest and 50% water change

 

[SO19Firearms]

All right. I've determined that I'd prefer to get the dry ingredients and mix it all myself. But when I start looking at all the ingredients and try to figure out just what the heck I should be ordering and then how to mix it, I'm lost. At this point I think I'd be better off buying something ready to go until I can figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.

Is there a recommended all-in-one fert that's easy to dose? (Just a reminder that I'm in the States.) Or could you recommend an idiot-proof recipe from dry ingredients that I can mix up without killing anything?

Seriously, when I start looking over things like James' Planted Tank I start to go cross-eyed.

These guys should prolly be able to help you out