Fishless Planted Tank

[mintykip]

Hey all, I've been reading round the forums for a bit and eventually decided to sign up and get going.

Anyway my first question(s) to break the ice is I plan to set up a small 10g planted tank and make it a shrimp only tank, is this easy to do? As i know having fish is essential for providing the macro nutrients, hence without fish would the plants struggle without the natural source of macro nutirents? Would i have to dose with macro nutrients? As i've heard they can be quite pricey. I still have Flourish and Flourish Excel from an earlier tank, so i can dose with micro's and carbon, i just don't have any source of macro's for the plants.


Anyway any feedback would be appreciated,

Regards,

Sean.

 

[coldcazzie]

Hi Sean, what plants were you thinking about having?

Often, even when there are fish in the tank, they still don't provide ample food for the plants so we have to dose macros as well. You can buy all in one ferts which contain both micros and macros from online retailers such as Aqua Essentials or eBay, or you can buy dry salts and mix your own. There is a salt calculator in PARC, which is pinned at the top of this section.

Salts are cheaper than all in ones, but sometimes people are nervous about using them wrong, or find it too much hassle. However, in your case, using an all in one would make your flourish redundant - I guess it depends if you're bothered about that?

If you're dosing carbon you'll definitely need a source of macro nutrients.

 

[mintykip]

Hey Cazzie,

I was going to keep it pretty low tech, so probably just java moss, java fern and other plants on the lower end of the difficulty scale.

Yes i was thinking that, its probably best that i just commit to a decent all in one fert with macro's and micro's, as it will obviously benefit in the long run. Now just to decide which one is the best one to get! haha. Would you recommend any specific all in one fert?

 

[coldcazzie]

I've actually never used an all in one fert - I went straight on to dry salts. Several members here have used TPN+, Aqua Essentials do their own version called Nourish+ and I believe there's one on eBay called Green something (minnnt has used that one). The prices vary, but they seem to be all much of a muchness in terms of content. Make sure you get the + versions as those are the ones with the macros added in.

You say low tech, but the addition of carbon would make it high tech there are a lot of plants that you can grow apart from ferns and moss - have you looked around on the plant websites for ideas?

What will your lighting be?

 

[SO19Firearms]

Aqua Essentials do their own version called Nourish+

That isn't the case. You'll need Nourish and Nourish+

 

[mintykip]

Cazzie,

Yeah I hear TPN+ is the way to go for an all in one fert, so i might join the crowd and go with that one. Only pain is i'm in Australia so will have to get it shipped from UK.

Haha i wouldn't have thought my setup would come anywhere near high tech. The lighting is the standard 10w fluro bulb that came with the tank, and i've also added an 8w T5 light as well. Oh and yes i've had a look round, crypts and other low light plants seem like a good choice also, just hope my lfs stock them now.

 

[coldcazzie]

A tank can be high tech but low light. It's just not as common.

Firearms: my apologies, I thought they were like TPN, in that the + version could replace the other rather than being used in conjunction with it.

 

[SO19Firearms]

I thought they were like TPN, in that the + version could replace the other rather than being used in conjunction with it.

I thought that too, as did others. I'm not sure if that used to be the case or we all just presumed it from the start ?