Plants - Can I Use Garden Fertiliser?

[lister]

Hi this is my first post

I have three tanks, two large goldfish tanks, (shubunkins and bristols) and one tank with only guppies.....

OK. I find that my plants look unsightly when placed with their plastic pots....what I would like to do is to properly plant them. With that being said, would it be ok to use high quality houseplant fertiliser? I reckon it would be ok but need to confirm these with you guys. The only issue is that the fertiliser might contaminate the water (?)

Id like to place a layer of soil then place the plants with a layer of gravel.

THANKS for all answeries!

Lister

 

[Themuleous]

No you cant use household ferts as they almost always contain ammonia and urea both of which will harm the aquarium.

Soil under gravel can work, but I would bake the soil first to kill any nasty things in it. That said, I get the feeling money is tight? But aquarium plant substrates really dont have to cost much, tetraplant complete is a cheap but a quality plant substrate that you top with gravel

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

Urea (from reading) will not hurt the aquaria but the work it does on dead matter will produce ammonia which will.

Working for a major garden ferts and compost manufacturer I dont use any ferts or composts because garden ferts and composts use ammonia as their source of N whereas an aquarium orientated fert will use Nitrate rather than ammonia because as Them says Ammonia is noooo good ion the aquarium.

You can however go to the garden centre and use the Pot Sulphate (K2SO4) or Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulphate) as these are pure products just packed by the companys.

Andy

 

[lister]

Thanks guys for the answers. Big help!!