Plants fertilizer

[Tyler777]

Can plant fertilizer mess up the water parameters in a tank ?

 

[Essjay]

If you use a good quality fertiliser - ie not an unbranded import from the far east, or a fertiliser intended for terrestrial plants - and you dose at or below the recommended dose, there should be no problems.

We've had members who have bought unbranded fertiliser from eBay and had ammonia and nitrite spikes. These fertilisers have been root tabs consisting of small balls inside transparent capsules.

If the tank is heavily planted with fast growing plants, use the dosage on the bottle. If the tank is lightly plants, use a lot less than that as the plants won't need much.

 

[Tyler777]

If you use a good quality fertiliser - ie not an unbranded import from the far east, or a fertiliser intended for terrestrial plants - and you dose at or below the recommended dose, there should be no problems.

We've had members who have bought unbranded fertiliser from eBay and had ammonia and nitrite spikes. These fertilisers have been root tabs consisting of small balls inside transparent capsules.

If the tank is heavily planted with fast growing plants, use the dosage on the bottle. If the tank is lightly plants, use a lot less than that as the plants won't need much.

That is 4xactly my problem. Ammonia n nitrates spike

 

[Tyler777]

That is 4xactly my problem. Ammonia n nitrates spike

This is the fertilizer I'd been using

 

[Essjay]

Many American members have said they use that fertiliser with no problems. As long as you tailor the amount to suit your plants I can't see it causing problems. By tailor the amount I mean use less than it says unless you have a jungle with hardly any swimming room left. If there are only a few plants, use a lot less than the dose on the packaging.

 

[Lcc86]

Speaking from very recent experience, yes! I just killed off my whole tank with the aforementioned dodgy tabs. But liquid ones should be fine if dosed appropriately. If yore having Spikes keep up with water changes and don't dose any ferts for a bit.

 

[Tyler777]

Speaking from very recent experience, yes! I just killed off my whole tank with the aforementioned dodgy tabs. But liquid ones should be fine if dosed appropriately. If yore having Spikes keep up with water changes and don't dose any ferts for a bit.

Ok, thanks

 

[AJ356]

Use TNC lite

 

[Tyler777]

Use TNC lite

Thank you

 

[Tyler777]

Thank you

Where can I find that TNC lite ? I looked in Amazon but couldn't find it

 

[AJ356]

I am UK. Maybe not so easy for you to get it. I found this on Google but not sure if its a United States company https://www.aquacacddabra.shop/product/tnc-lite-plant-fertiliser-no-nitrate-phosphate-on-sale/

 

[MaloK]

NilocG ThriveC should be used in lower tech setups and aquarium building nitrate. ThriveS is formulated for shrimps aquarium and is also lower in nitrate.

Thrive, ThriveOG and Thrive+, are formulated for higher end setups, Thrive OG is for the most demanding plants. But the 3 are for massively planted tanks.

I don't know all the specs, but for your kind of setup I assume ThriveC or ThriveS should be used.

I use ThriveC in my tanks at 1/4 dose and the plants are doing really well.

 

[Uberhoust]

I tried that fertilizer a few times about 2 or 3 years ago, ie Thrive. I found it elevated my nitrates about 10 ppm but also seemed to elevate ammonia to 0.25 immediately after dosing. I no longer use it, though it did seem to help the plants. Did not seem to affect anyone in the aquarium.

 

[Uberhoust]

When I was using it I used full dosage.

 

[MuddyWaters]

This is the fertilizer I'd been using

I use that one for my 29 gallon tank. I never get ammonia or nitrite from it. You can get too much nitrate if, like me, you have it overpopulated and you tend to overfeed I also use their powdered fertilizer for Estimative Index fertilization in the 75 gallon tank- I will sometimes leave out the NK because the fish produce a lot of nitrate, and I use tabs which will do the same.

Have never gotten nitrite or ammonia from it though- Ammonia is nitrogen and hydrogen, so I know there are some fancy-pants aquascapers that will make their own "tabs" with ammonia, but they do a lot more testing and have a lot less fish, so it's not as dangerous.