Substrate/fertiliser Question

[Elly]

I'm attempting to transform my Vision 180 aquarium into a planted masterpiece (well, something along those lines). So far I have added reflectors to the existing lighting and am going to fix another 25W tube on in the next few days, making 75W of light for 180 litres which I think should be enough. I also have CO2 running. I am going to take all my existing dying plants out and replace them with new plants.

So I have a couple of questions regarding fertiliser. I'm going to use Seachem Flourish liquid fertiliser, so I'm mainly wondering about substrate:

1. Is there anything I can use that will benefit the plants that I can put in without having to drain the tank and take out the existing gravel? I was thinking of root tabs, but is it better to go for a nutritious substrate instead? For root tabs, I found these. Any ideas?

2. If a substrate would be better, would this work for my tank? It says aquariums up to 100cm, and mine is 90cm... I don't want anything too expensive (impoverished student and all that). I also looked at TetraPlant complete substrate and JBL Aquabasis. Any ideas?

Finally, a quick CO2 question - I'm using the Nutrafin system but with the home-made mixture which I found on here. However, I think I need 2 units for a tank my size. Rather than buying another Nutrafin system, can I use the DIY drinks bottle system and attach it to the Nutrafin bubble ladder thing using an airline 2-way gang valve thing?

Sorry about all the questions but this whole planted tank thing is a rather steep learning curve!

 

[Themuleous]

Righty ho

Will tackle these one at a time, but thanks for doing some research and asking specific questions, much easier to answer questions like those

1) I have recently adding laterite to an existing tank, just washed it and mixed into the substrate, simple. I guess you could do that with any plant substrate. However, the advantage of having a 100% plant substrate means the plant roots don’t have to search for the fertiliser its instantly next to their roots when you plant them. This also goes for root tabs, which work well if you add enough of them, but you have the hassle of having to replace them every few months, and they also work out expensive. And TBH changing over a substrate isn’t as difficult as it might seem, yes time consuming and you get water everywhere, but so long as you plan well its relatively straight forward.

2) I’ve not heard of anyone using the JBL Proflora substrate but it seems good, I see that it’s meant to be mixed with the existing substrate, but you could probably use in on its own. If you want to try complete substrates, I’ve heard good things about JBL aquabasis and TetraPlant Complete Substrate, then there is eco-complete but this probably works out a bit more expensive. What’s your budget for this?

Other general stuff, I make your tank 48 USg which gives you around 1.5WPG which is an excellent amount of light to get you started, you can always add more latter if you find you want to get a bit more adventurous. Is also means the demands on CO2 supply are less and there is more wiggle room meaning you don’t have to be quite as accurate with everything. That said, I’d def get a second yeast kit running, even a third if you can be bothered to change the mix regularly. And yes DIY yeast kits are easy to make using a 2lt coke type bottle, think the hardware/DIY section has articles on it. Or you can look here

http/www.plantedtank.net/articles/DIY-Yeast-CO2/7/

It’s really a simple case of drilling a hole in the bottle lid, pushing in some CO2 tubing and sealing it with silicone. Then, as you say, you can run it into the same diffuser/reactor using one of the T-connectors you get for air pumps. Easy

Hope that helps

Sam