Best Nutrients For Plants?

[arobinson1984]

Hi,


I'm thinking of adding some live plants to my tank. I used to have live plants but they only ever seemed to last 1-2 months before dying off so i never replaced them.

The substrate will be 2" of gravel, the tank is 33 gal, 2 x 28W T5 bulbs.

I used to dose the tank with flourish excel liquid co2, but it still didnt make much difference.

Is there anything else that can be dosed to the tank, nutrients wise to help aid healthy growth of plants?


Any help will be much appreciated

Thanks


Andy

 

[RadaR]

With that much lighting on your sized tank you will need to supply 3 important things.

1. CO2 in the form of gas injection. This tank is too large and has too much light to rely on liquid carbon alone. It's also too large to do DIY yest based CO2.

2. Nutrients. These come in two categories. Micro nutrients which are trace elements such as magnesium, copper, born and iron. There are also Macro nutrients which are needed much more than micro nutrients. These Macro nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Despite what you may have heard or read, nitrates and phosphates do not cause algae. Infact, a lack of these nutrients will indeed promote algae.

3. Flow/circulation. Planted tanks need good flow so that the CO2 and nutrients can be delivered to the plants at a good rate. If there isn't enough flow then plants will start to starve and suffer. This in turn causes them to leach ammonia which combined with light will promote algae spores. Deadspots (areas with very, very little flow) will be targeted by algae too.

I suggest you read up on the pinned topics here.