Fertiliser

[Ninja Dave]

Hi,

Is there a single product available which would provide all required nutrients for a planted tank?

I'm looking to buy some plants today and was hoping to pick up a single product which would provide everything I need.

I have a 60l tank and will be looking to plant up to 50% of the substrate (sand) for the time being.

Thanks,

Dave.

 

[ian]

again it depends on how the lighting is in your tank. The best all in one plant food on the market is TPN+, if the light is on the mid to high end you may need some carbon addition as well.

 

[Ninja Dave]

Hi,

The bulb which I have is 15W, 438mm Juwel daylight bulb (I think it's the one which came with the Rekord 600 tank which I think is a T5 - actually looking online could be a T8 (don't know whether there is a major difference)).

Cheers,

Dave

 

[ian]

i think it'll be a T8 at that size. What size tank have you got? It may turn out that you may not need to dose nitrate and phosphate.

 

[Ninja Dave]

It's about 60-63L. 60cmx30cmx36cm(although not quite this high due to substrate etc.

 

[waterdrop]

Assuming ianho is right and your tube is just a normal (T8 etc.) fluorescent and not some sort of high-output device, you should be fine. The 15 watts over the 16G tank will put you just below 1 watt/gallon, which should not be close to triggering the need for CO2.

Whether carbon supplementation in the form of Easycarbo or Excel and nutrition in the form of TPN+ would help or be mostly a waste is a trickier question. I personally think these two procedures have helped my low-light efforts, but ianho, LL and some of the other people who practice and watch planted tank threads more than me may have a better feel for how to decide whether these things are needed.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Joshwainwright]

How about making your own fertilizer?