Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
OK, make sense of this:
For plants to grow
1) You don't need CO2.
2) You don't need to dose ferts.
High lighting, demands 'high' CO2 and in turn this demands ferts. Inhibit any of those and you get algae aka an 'imbalance'. Give your plants that lot and yes they will grow, but boy do they grow. This as we all know is the famous EI.
Now one could say that all nutrients (bar CO2) are available in fish food. Fish eat & therefore crap, and the crap is GOOD for plants....
provide a good nutrient backup via a good substrate and you've thus provided all that is necessary for plants to grow. This is called an 'El Natural' tank set up: Loads of plants, loads of fish and strangely enough, no substrate vac'ing (and some would say, no filter) and no water changes (just top up).
If you want better growth, then by all means, dose with excel for CO2 and add a minimal amount of ferts. This would be an EI / 'el natural' hybrid tank.
(see: http
/www.barrreport.com/articles/433-non-co2-methods.html ).
For these setups you don't want any more lighting that you already have.
Andy
For plants to grow
1) You don't need CO2.
2) You don't need to dose ferts.
High lighting, demands 'high' CO2 and in turn this demands ferts. Inhibit any of those and you get algae aka an 'imbalance'. Give your plants that lot and yes they will grow, but boy do they grow. This as we all know is the famous EI.
Now one could say that all nutrients (bar CO2) are available in fish food. Fish eat & therefore crap, and the crap is GOOD for plants....
provide a good nutrient backup via a good substrate and you've thus provided all that is necessary for plants to grow. This is called an 'El Natural' tank set up: Loads of plants, loads of fish and strangely enough, no substrate vac'ing (and some would say, no filter) and no water changes (just top up).
If you want better growth, then by all means, dose with excel for CO2 and add a minimal amount of ferts. This would be an EI / 'el natural' hybrid tank.
(see: http

For these setups you don't want any more lighting that you already have.
Andy