Do I Need A Nutrient Substrate / Ferts?

[Luketendo]

Hi i'm going to make my tank heavily planted and I want it to also prevent algae growth.

It's 65 Litres and 60x30x36 and the lighting is 1 WPG.

Which substrate and ferts should I use to keep my plants in shape, i'm looking on using easy to grow plants as stated in the sticky and I also want to keep Corys so sand might be good.

 

[DevUK]

Decided against the Eco-Complete then?

Well, I use tretraplant complete substrate in my 180 litre tank. I was a bit stingy, and laid about 1cm or so and then topped it with about 4cm of pea gravel. Now, you could top it with a nice thick layer of sand and you shouldn't have any problems. One of the guys here was saying in another thread he put about 2 inches (I think) of sand ontop of his chosen substrate and it didn't mix, even with a pleco burrowing in it. Lay a thick sand barrier and you should be ok. It'll mix when you uproot plants, but that can't really be helped.

On the other hand, I know someone else on this forum who uses purely sand with no special substrate. He doses ferts and uses CO2 injection I believe, and gets great results. Don't forget, for root feeders like crypts and things like swords you can always use root tabs to help out.

Ferts wise, you can either go the cheap route (I think) and dose to the EI (Estimative Index) methodology, or you can buy off the shelf ferts and just dose that as per instructions on the bottle (I quite like Tropica Plant Nutrition + Note the + sign, as there are 2 different types).

 

[Luketendo]

Well I was originally was going to use eco complete with SeaChem Flourish Excel and Tropica Plant Nutrition+ and I do want Crypts and Swords. But i'm not sure if it's really needed and if it would be the best for me.

Also i'm going for no CO2 as I can't afford Pressurized and DIY is unstable and I heard EI is only good with CO2.

 

[DevUK]

You could get away with just sand and root tabs, as long as you dose ferts/traces you should be ok. No CO2/Carbon might be an issue.

You could maybe dose Seachem Flourish for your ferts/traces and Seachem Flourish Excel for your carbon source (so not needing CO2 injection). Might start to get a little expensive, with a 250ml bottle of each costing about £7 - £8. They should last at least a few months on your aquarium though.

 

[Luketendo]

Nah I'm probably better off with a substrate rather than root tabs.

I'm also a bit worried in how much substrate would cover 60x30.

I'm just rather confused because there's a huge range of substrates etc that all seem to do the same thing and i'm not sure which one I should get.

 

[DevUK]

I'd say if you went with Tetraplant complete, you'd need the smaller 2.8kg. I used 1x 5.8kg tub on my 180 litre tank. It wasn't enough to be honest, but it was too much for my smaller tank.

 

[Luketendo]

Well I like black substrates I set my 35L up with Black Gravel and it looks really good. Eco-Complete says that it's enough for 20 Gallons of Aquarium. It's a 9kg bag. But then there's SeaChem Onyx Sand which would be good for Corys but it buffers pH up by up to 0.5 pH and I want my pH about 7.0, I'll be using Bogwood I think that lowers pH?

 

[DevUK]

If you want black sand, check out Hagen Black River Sand. Its supposed to be all natural with no dye or anything. Not sure if it does anything to the chemistry but I don't think it does. Only place I've seen it at the mo is Aqua Essentials and it comes in 10kg bags. Will be getting some my self

 

[Luketendo]

But then I wouldn't have any fertiliser substrate, well I have to go to bed now since I have school in the morning -.-

 

[DevUK]

I meant on top of whatever planted substrate

 

[SuperColey1]

In Tom Barrs Non CO2 thread (on barrreport.com) he suggests to use Leonardite topped with Onyx Sand (which is black)

Leonardite can be bought in the UK and is made by EarthWorks and called Soild Builder Granules. 1 tub should do
http/www.ntlabs.co.uk/product_details.php?product_id=141

As for Onyx Sand AquaEssentials amongst others sell it and 1 bag should be enough for your tank with some left I would guess.

Tom also advises small dosing of NPK on top (not the EI amounts) and to have less than 2WPG.

This is the thread here:
http/www.barrreport.com/articles/433-non-co2-methods.html

As for a plec burrowing I have to tell you there are 4 of them but they are pitbulls and therefore only 3½" nose to tail not your giant commons. lol

Why do you want the ph at 7? Do you have discus in a 60L tank? Mine is naturally 7.2 but with CO2 injection it reaches as low as 6 sometimes (I also have bogwood.

Andy

 

[Luketendo]

NPK, that's where Tropica Plant Nutrition+ comes in.

I don't have plecos I am getting corys.

I thought 7 was good for Tetra, Gouramis and Corys.

Would I need 450g or 2.5kg of soil?

Oh and also does Carbon absorb Fertilizers?

 

[DevUK]

Carbon isn't really necessary unless you have been medicating your tank and want to remove any left over meds. Carbon pads generally need replacing every 2 weeks to a month anyway, otherwise they start to dump out anything they've absorbed after a while.

 

[SuperColey1]

I would get the 2.5Kg and then you will have some left over for when you replenish or get a larger tank or get multiple tanks etc. It wont go off as it is millions of years old already. lol

Always good to get more than you need so that you dont have to buy again in the future plus they rename things at which point you dont know what to buy.

Take the carbon pad out for planted tanks.
It doesnt absorb then fertilisers. It adsorbs them in that the particles in the fert become attached to the carbon.


If you read the whole thread the idea on this method is zero water changes and minimal fertiling as the fishload and fish food supplies most of the fert and the leonardite and onyx supplies the rest.

Is a very long thread but it does give most of the info you need for this kind of tank. I am going to try this method in a new tank next year.

Andy

 

[Luketendo]

Where's the topic? On Barreport?