Plant fertilizer?

[Phil Fish]

I use Nilocg Thrive for my all in one, and Seachem Flourish root tabs. They are working very well for me

I have plants that are the type that get nutrients from the water column so that's why I am thinking of liquid fertilizer instead of root tabs. I am planning on changing the substrate in my 5.5 from river rock to a more plant friendly one.

 

[Byron]

Ok that makes sense. Since both aquariums have one Betta fish each and they get fed minimally it was suggested to me to use a plant fertilizer since the bio-load won't be enough to provide nutrients to the plants. The GH of my water is about 30 ppm according to my test strips which for fresh water fish is in the acceptable range. Does this info help?

Yes. I have even softer water, at 7 ppm so the tanks are basically zero GH/KH. I have found the lack of calcium in particular something of an issue, but solved it by using Flourish Comp (only) in my tanks, plus Flourish Tabs for the three tanks that have swords planted in the substrate because these are heavy feeding plants and the Tabs are better choices for them. But my floating plants, and I have a thick cover of Water Sprite in most of the tanks, are thriving with just one dose of Flourish Comprehensive weekly.

One can encourage nutrients such as carbon (CO2) and nitrogen (ammonia/ammonium is preferred by aquatic plants) by not being too overzealous in cleaning the substrate. In most of my 8 tanks I never touch it.

 

[CycleDave]

What liquid plant fertilizer do you all use? Is Seachem Flourish a good one? My Java fern and water sprite plants are not planted in substrate and right now they're not looking so good. Thanks!

The liquid fertilizer from Aquarium Coop seems good (look for them on Youtube) from watching their videos