Dechlor, & Plant Ferts

[Schmill]

Ok, soon I am going to need to buy some more dechlor & plant ferts, and I wondered what most people use?

I am running a 300L tank so get through the standard API dechlor at an alarming rate, I've read I should go for pond dechlor this time as it's more concentrated, but wondered if there was a particular brand people use, or just 'any' ?
Also I have / will have live plants, a 'virgin' gravel substrate, and no CO2 injection or anything like that. In my 60L tank I had been using JBL clayballs in the substrate, and the JBL liquid in the water, but again it looks like I will get through bucket loads of the stuff with the 300L tank, so wondered if there was anything in particular people recommended for large-ish aquariums, both for the roots in the substrate, and also to add to the water, (and anything else I might not have thought of!)

Many thanks!

 

[backtotropical]

I won't ever use aquarium dechlor again. It's such a rip-off.

I use Kockney Koi Pond Dechlorinator which i bought on Ebay. It works fine. My tank is 260 litres and an £8 bottle will last me somewhere in the region of 9 years.

I don't think it's so important which pond dechlor you use, but try to get one which deals with chloramine, ammonia and heavy metals if possible. Some don't.

With regards to ferts, I use Tropica Plant Nutrition, but it's not cheap and I wouldn't say it goes a long way either, but you'd probably get better advice on that if you post in the Planted Tank section.

 

[hellohefalump]

I'm running a 400litre planted tank and i'm mixing my own fert mix with dry powders. You can get them at:
www.aquaessentials.co.uk

Go over to the plant forum and read the sticky on ferts, for more info. If you use liquid ferts on a tank this size, it'll cost you a huge amount. You are buying the same thing as the stuff you'd mix yourself, you're just paying for extra water.

I have sand as my substrate and I'm adding root tabs. I have some that Denerlle do, which last quite long. I'm only putting them under root feeding plants though, not the whole tank. It's better to splash out on proper substrate though. The only reason I haven't yet is I'm moving house sometime within the year. When I move I'm going to get aproper substrate, like aquasoil or eco complete or tropica.

 

[aaronnorth]

I use 'pond docor' dechlorinator, 250ml for £6 (10ml per 225l). Obviously cheaper in larger bottles.

Mix up your own fertiliser with dry powders like above, you can dose your own and be very accurate on the amount you are adding, or you can do a DIY tropica plant nutrition (or the '+' version which also contains N&P)

[URL="http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/allinone.htm"]http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/allinone.htm[/URL]

There are other dosing methods, they are on the website linked above.

EDIT: for info on mixing the dry powder solutions up, see the estimative index article in the planted section

 

[minxfishy]

I use Kusuri pond dechlor and pond doctor dechlor, much cheaper, last much longer etc. Cant help on the ferts but am keeping and eye on this as Im about to venture into plants with my new tank and hadnt particularly thought much about ferts.

 

[pippoodle]

i use tetra pond plantamin plant food 250ml bottle treats 5000 litres of water
the recommended dosing is 50ml for 1000 litres
so i just do the 5ml per 100 litres works out a lot cheaper than other feeds when you have 4 planted tanks i only dose fortnightly and all my plants do very very well on it
that cost me just under £9 for the bottle including postage from ebay

dechlorinator i use tetra aquasafe from ebay £8.59 posted for 500ml use 5ml per 10 litres

am changing over to a pond dechlorinator when i run out of this one just looking for a good cheap one

thanks Sarahx

 

[hellohefalump]

I don't think it matters what brand of pond dechlorinator you use - dechlorinator is dechlorinator. I'm using the interpet one.

Dry ferts are suprisingly simple to use. Lots of people are put off by the scientific names (potassium nitrate, magnesium sulphate etc) but when you think about it, they're all just salts. You can mix up solutions with distilled or RO water, or you can just bung them in dry, measuring in teaspoons (EI method).

 

[pippoodle]

I don't think it matters what brand of pond dechlorinator you use - dechlorinator is dechlorinator. I'm using the interpet one.

Dry ferts are suprisingly simple to use. Lots of people are put off by the scientific names (potassium nitrate, magnesium sulphate etc) but when you think about it, they're all just salts. You can mix up solutions with distilled or RO water, or you can just bung them in dry, measuring in teaspoons (EI method).

i found dry fert more expensive than my tetrapond plantamin and my plants love that so i'll be sticking with it
i feel that under £9 to treat 5000 litres of water is good

 

[hellohefalump]

you're only dosing fortnightly though - I have a high light/CO2 etc setup and I'm dosing daily.

When i first started my tank I bought a bottle of Plant food (can't remember what brand) but I think similarly priced to the Tetramin stuff. It cost nearly £9.99 and lasted me under 2 weeks.