Planted tank questions

[Salts155R]

The start of December i started to cycle my second hand tank I had given to me.
I’ve added a few plants into the tank planting them into the gravel.
for the first few weeks I was using NT labs plant boost which I must say helped them massively.
The two photos are 25 days apart

I’m not keen on using plant boost now I have fish in the tank, I’m not using C02 or anything else at the moment but is there anything I can add that more natural to help with plant growth?

Also I took some trimmings of my plant in my smaller tank, could someone identify it for me please.

 

[mbsqw1d]

I'm not a fan of 'liquid carbon' either tbh, especially with a tank that has fish. Your plants should manage ok with the co2 that is in the water, and they'll be provided with slightly more after you add respiring fish. I would use a comprehensive fertilizer though, seachem flourish is a popular one, this provides the nutrients that are lacking in tap water. Doesnt contain Nitrogen or Phosphate as these will come from tap water, fish waste, fish food waste.

 

[Salts155R]

I'm not a fan of 'liquid carbon' either tbh, especially with a tank that has fish. Your plants should manage ok with the co2 that is in the water, and they'll be provided with slightly more after you add respiring fish. I would use a comprehensive fertilizer though, seachem flourish is a popular one, this provides the nutrients that are lacking in tap water. Doesnt contain Nitrogen or Phosphate as these will come from tap water, fish waste, fish food waste.

perfect thanks for the response, wasn’t sure if I was being to fussy by not adding the plant boost with fish in the tank but that helps me think I’m doing the right thing.

I’ve read about seachem flourish and seen good reviews on it, I may have to get myself a bottle and see how it goes.

I really don’t want to go down the road of c02 injection and in my mind with the correct stock of fish and surface agitation there should be a good balance of that anyway but that’s just my view

 

[AquaBarb]

Root tabs will be ideal for your stem plants

 

[mbsqw1d]

I didn't check whether you're from the UK, if so, a popular choice and the one I use is by a company called TNC. Have a look for TNC Lite ??